Hello From Rockville

Today was a hard day with Harlan. I did not go in to see him yesterday. DeeAnn stayed over night with me as this was required because of the procedure I had had yesterday, I was not to stay alone. We had a good time together. Today was laundry and cleaning day after all of this was finished we went into St. Cloud and stopped at Crafts Direct then on to Bed Bath and Beyond, DeeAnn and I needed yarn and at BB & B I picked of a much needed sheet set for my bed. After all the shopping DeeAnn took me home, picked up her over night stuff and we met Sarah for lunch. After lunch I went in to see Harlan, I got there about 1:45. He had called me several times and he was upset because they had removed the security bracelet from his ankle and put it on his wrist because they wanted to prevent him from leaving the building and with it higher up on his body it would make the alarm work better then when it was closer to the floor. He demanded a scissor to cut it off or a knife or anything that would take it off. I then took him with me to gas up the van and wash it and I made a stop at Sam's Club and we made a stop for our treat at Culver's then back to the VA and he was so unhappy. He had three bracelets on his wrist, one for identification, one indicating an allergy and the security bracelet. I went to the desk to talk to them about it and to see what could be done to make him feel better and while I was there he walked up with the identification bracelet in his hand he had torn it off. He really doesn't have an allergy to the meds listed on the allergy bracelet that medication did not work for him. I talked them into removing that one and they told him they would remove the security bracelet but had to put it on his ankle instead of his wrist, he would have none of that as he really wanted it removed. We went back to his room to talk some more about the bracelet and in the mean time the meds nurse came with his meds and he told her he would not take them and she should leave. She did leave the meds on his night stand and left and again I tried to reason with him to let them put the security bracelet on his ankle and he finally agreed to do so, we went up and they did make the change and we went back to his room and I was able to get him to take his neb and meds. Because of the hard time he was having an appointment was made with the Dr. for tomorrow morning at 9:00 and it works best if I go with him, I hope tomorrow goes well or at lest better then today.

He called me several times this evening and he was in a really good mood and his sense of humor was back, he kept asking me how I could associate with a fruit cake or a nut and I told him as long as the fruit cake had bananas and pecans I loved it and he just laughed. He was aware of the the difficult time he was having and giving to others but just didn't know how to fix it.

We'll talk again tomorrow.....Fran