Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Today had it's challenges but overall went very well. John barely opened an eye for the early morning shift but was wide-eyed and awake at 11am. When the buzzer rang I thought it was our support worker, but turned out to be the man from Shaw Cable with the memory expander I got John for Christmas for his PVR.
John was very surprised and pleased. However, the support worker arrived minutes later and spent most of her time with us just standing around as John and the technition worked on getting the system operating just right. As soon as they had left, the nurse arrived. She will be coming once a week to change the dressing on his feeding tube and just generally keep an eye on his health. She was very nice and helpful.
Tonight was the Gateway Christmas dinner and party. Although we had been invited, I had told them not to count on us coming. However, John was feeling quite well in the afternoon so we decided to attempt it.
I was able to get him into his wheelchair with the lift and then take him with the wheelchair down to the front door. Margie met us there and helped get him into the car. The wheelchair just fit into her trunk - although we both have the same make of car, hers is younger and has a bigger trunk. So that means the wheel chair is not going to fit into my trunk.
Anyway, we had a wonderful dinner - John ejoyed his dish of ice cream. Then we went into the lounge where the entertainment for the evening was to be held. The staff sang a great song taken from the 12 days of Christmas .. "On the first day of Gateway the Director said to me....etc. Each staff member said something different on various days - and the 5 golden rings, was Speak English Please... (*because it is our international students who are learning English who are there at the moment)
Then we had the Christmas gift game which we play every year. Everyone bringing a $5.00 gift and then taking turns chosing a wrapped gift or one of the gifts that somebody else has already chosen and unwrapped. Gets quite competative at times - I lost my chocolates but got some nice gift wrapping paper with matching bows.
Chocolates and an alarm clock were the gifts most often traded around this time .
Amazingly, John was good throughout the whole thing and we even stayed for desser and coffee afterwards. I was surprised as I did not think we would be able to stay for the whole time.  Then Margie and Junior (a former Gateway student from Brazil who is up here visiting) brought us home and helped get John in and out of the car etc.
John was still good at bedtime. This is the best day and night he has had in a very long time.
We will certainly give it a two thumbs up today.