Dad Gets a Massage

Today Dad went to the Namaste & Music session, which is held on the 1st floor of the Ethelwyn Wellness Center; they do the physical therapy on the 2nd floor of the building. Krista, who had been leading the exercise session earlier, also does massage! She got Dad set up in the reclining massage chair, since it is an hour long session I took off to do my walk. Dad loved the massage so we will keep taking him to the Namaste sessions.

Dad with Krista, getting ready for the Namaste relaxation hour.

Since I didn't stop to talk to anyone today I was able to do a more leisurely return and kept it at 2.4 mph; although because Dad was at the Namaste session I could stay away much longer since its an hour long. I was able to find the remains of the mushroom I saw a couple of days ago. It turned out not to be the edible shaggy mane (Coprinus comatus), but a very young green-spored parasol (Chlorophyllum molybdites) which is not edible. How could I tell it was a green-spore parasol? When I turned the cap over it had a hint of green. The similar looking shaggy parasol (Chlorophyllum rachodes, syn. Lepiota rachodes) has white spores and is edible by most people; I had a patch that came up regularly under my apple tree for several years.

Broken cap of green-spored parasol (Chlorophyllum molybdites).

This morning Dad got out of bed and in to the wheelchair with only a little coaxing. Once he was up he did a bunch of things, though eating wasn't one of them; he totally rejected breakfast. We checked out the activity in the Castle Living Room, where Krista was leading an exercise session. Dad didn't object so I parked him, then encouraged doing the exercises; I modified some of them to get him to do it. Overall, I think I did more of the exercises than Dad. Perhaps if I start with the exercises now I won't have to end up in a nursing home! Or at least, I will delay it.

Dad (far left) watches Krista (far right) during the exercise session.

After the Namaste & Music session I set Dad up at the 2nd floor nurses station for lunch; the video today was a Donna Summer concert. Although Dad wouldn't eat anything at the nurses station he did drink about 1/2 a Boost Breeze. (He finished his half peanut butter & jelly sandwich later.)


On his way to bed Dad wheeled himself from the doorway to the side of the bed, about 15 feet. He had to make a turn to get alongside the bed, so I taught him how to do that. Then, since the CNAs didn't show up fast enough for him, he started to use the information I taught him to turn the wheelchair and position himself so he could go from the wheelchair to the bed by himself! Fortunately CNA Frances showed up just before I was going to stop him! (At least, I think I taught him how to operate the wheelchair. But maybe he had learned how to do that when he was recuperating from when he was first injured during World War II.)


Before Frances would let Dad get in bed though, she had to get his weight. Today he was 191.2 pounds, so a little lighter than his last weigh-in a couple of days ago.


While Dad drifted off to sleep an alarm went off and the door automatically closed; there was a Code Red in a room down the hall that was announced. I'm not sure what Code Red means here at Maunalani, but whatever it was, about 10 minutes later they announced that the Code Red was cleared. Later I took a second walk since Dad was asleep and shift change was coming up around 3 so he would have a lot of people around if he needed anything. Today was dry, a little hotter, and a little sunnier than yesterday. The park was busy today! No wonder I saw Abby & Kelly going to the park early in the morning when I was driving up to Maunalani, it was cooler and wetter; and the park was vacant.

The cats are quietly snoozing while I write this.

L to R: Chibi, Shiro, & Xander.

Happy Birthday to Karyn, Cynthia, & Andrea! And Happy 40th Anniversary to Jim & Loretta!

Jim & Loretta's view from the RV on their 40th anniversary! (Photo by Jim)