Tip-top

I haven't given an update on my grandma lately, so here goes.  After being moved to a regular hospital room from ICU, I'm not sure who wanted her out of the hospital quicker...her or the hospital staff.  I think she only stayed in a regular room a few days and was back at the nursing home, her home, where all of her stuff was, and her people...who look after her.  She really does seem to be comfortable there, and we are thankful for that.

She attended some therapy and rehab there at the nursing home and went through that without a hitch.  She is back to walking with her walker every other day down the hall a ways.  I don't think she has been able to go quite as far as she once was, but she's okay with that.  I'm glad that she is able to walk, but it's really not necessary that she push too hard and risk falling again.

I can't remember how many days it had been, but I came bopping in one day during my lunch hour after she had returned and one of the employees said, "She's finally back to her old self."  Thank goodness...she was a tad grouchy there for a bit.  I can say that she's pretty much back to normal now. 

A couple weeks ago, she started getting her nails painted a bright red.  It just cracks me up.  She is 93 years old and in all of my 37 years, I had never ever seen her have painted fingernails until about six months ago...and definitely wouldn't have imagined it.  I commented on how pretty her bright red nails looked with her turquoise shirt and she said that she didn't really want the bright red, but now that she had it, she liked it.  She said, isn't it funny, I have never had my nails painted and this long in my life until I came here.  You go, grandma!

Today when I walked in over lunch, she was in the rest room so I sat on her bed and waited.  She didn't know I was there.  I could hear her telling the staff member helping her that she was convinced something was wrong over around home because I hadn't showed up yet and it was Monday.  If I wasn't there on a Monday, she knows something is wrong.  So I got her attention and she was relieved.  As she walked out of the bathroom, I thought something looked off about her.  This caused me concern for a moment, along with her already being a little worried that something was wrong, she must be having a bad day.

As she sat down in her recliner, I figured out what it was...her shirt was not buttoned up to the tip-top.  I said, Grandma, your shirt is unbuttoned at the top!  I reached over and buttoned it immediately.  That is as good as being stark naked to Grandma.  She never goes long with her neck showing.  All shirts have to be buttoned to the tip-top, and if the shirts don't have buttons to the tip-top, they are sewn on.  I'm not joking either.  This woman has some sort of phobia about an exposed neckline!

We had a good visit and as usual, I whispered a prayer of thankfulness that she's still around.  I always knew God had a plan for me when he told me to take this job, I would've never guessed that one of the reasons would be the convenience of visiting my grandma in the local nursing home on a regular basis over my lunch hour, but it's worked out beautifully...somebody has to be around to make sure she's buttoned to the tip-top!