Dad is Doing Better!

I arrived just before lunch to encourage Dad to eat; but he didn't eat a thing. I was not feeling too positive about how the rest of the day would turn out. But when Sylvestre & Jose used the lift to move Dad from the bed to the wheelchair, I noticed he did not complain about pain; I had also noticed that yesterday when they moved him from the transport gurney to the bed. His physical therapy today was with Zhanna again; and he did not complain about pain when she moved his limbs, especially his legs. He was also doing more during therapy and not making excuses for why he couldn't do it or trying to delay the next set of exercises. I also noticed that his eyes were not as red & irritated as they were before; perhaps he had an eye infection also.

Zhanna helps Dad try to stand; he did better today than he did before.

Upper body strength helps with standing.

We can help Dad do these exercises when he is sitting in bed.

Zhanna also worked on strengthening Dad's legs.

Dad was able to lift his left leg a lot higher than he was before.

After PT Dad & I spent a few minutes out on the patio, overlooking the lower parking lot. Maunalani is so high up the ridge that the clouds sometimes hang around the buildings. Today we saw some clouds floating through the parking lot, aka fog.


When we went indoors, I took Dad to the activity room to see what was going on. Some residents were working on a bead project. A handful of residents were watching a locally produced show called Under the Sea with Key where they were showing footage from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on an undersea research project looking for life on the bottom of the North Atlantic about 400 miles east of New York; it was really cool!


I met up with Suzanne & Manu when I left Maunalani this afternoon. We went for an early dinner at Zippy's and to catch up; we had a great time. Manu had oxtail soup with a side of macaroni salad, Suzanne had saimin and Korean fried chicken, and I had the Zip Min.

Manu says this is the best oxtail soup he has had here. (Photo by Suzanne)

Macaroni salad. (Photo by Suzanne)

Saimin. (Photo by Suzanne)

Korean fried chicken. (Photo by Suzanne)

The Zip Min, Zippy's version of saimin. (Photo by Suzanne)

And after we thought we couldn't eat any more, we had dessert. The previous night they had also been to Zippy's and Manu had the Fried Banana Fantasy; he convinced us to get the same today. As the name says, it is a deep fried banana, with vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream, chopped nuts , & a maraschino cherry.

Manu, Suzanne, and the Fried Banana Fantasies.

What's the real verdict about this dessert? (Photo by Suzanne)

One of the things we talked about was knee pains. Suzanne has had a couple of knee surgeries from damage caused by walking on concrete floors at work for 33 years. I had been feeling pain in my injured knee since getting the Fitbit and trying to do the 250 steps each hour by walking through the house that has a slab-on-grade concrete floor; when I felt the pain in my knee at Kaiser I was on concrete stairs. I think my knees are still okay because for much of my job I was walking outdoors mainly on natural ground and lived about 2/3 of my life in homes with wooden floors.

Dwayne, Jackie, & their kids Kaleo, Kawaiola, & Nalani were supposed to have been here yesterday but baby Nalani started having breathing problems with asthma and got sent to the emergency room while they were on a layover in Dallas. On Sunday they were supposed to come to the Maunalani family Easter Egg Hunt. Nalani is all better now, but they will be arriving after the egg hunt is over so they will miss it.

Kaleo and Kawaiola love the cats! time We're not sure if they will have time to come to the house to visit with the cats, so I sent Suzanne photos to share with them when they arrive.

Shiro.

Xander.

Chibi.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am going to have a difficult time losing weight while the freezer is having a problem. I did my weekly weigh-in this morning and found I had gained 0.4 pounds over the last week. The Fried Banana Fantasy isn't going to help my weigh-in next week!

Happy Birthday to Glory, Peter & Steven!