A Strange Turn of Events

The other morning around 5:00 a.m., Bob woke me up. I could hear him in his hospital bed, loudly crying out: "Gross! Oh gross! Oh gross! Ooooh grrrosss!"

And I thought, what the heck? Did one of the cats hack up a hair ball on his bed?

My second thought, I dragged myself out of bed, was this is weird. Because Bob sounded just like Bob, and I mean like "old Bob", pre-stroke. I can't remember the last time I heard him use that word "gross". And his voice, his articulation was perfect. There was none of the usual mumbling or fumbling of words.

When I got to his bedside, it was even stranger, as he only needed his Depends changed. Which is not an unusual occurrence. But why this sudden outburst of verbiage? Why this sudden disgust? I got him changed and cleaned up, and I tell you, there was nothing unusual about the bowel movement, nothing at all.

That night, we were about to eat supper and I asked Bob what flavor pudding he would like to have and he said, "No."

"No?"

"No pudding." When I asked him why he didn't want any pudding, he told me, "No pudding. No poop." He was entirely convinced that if he did not eat pudding, he would never have to have another bowel movement. And no matter how I tried to convince him that this simply was not true, he was not convinced. He was quite stubborn about the whole thing.

So, we are off the pudding for now. I don't know what else to do.

Part of me thinks this strange turn of events is good, I mean, the morning reaction of disgust to "crapping in his pants" (for lack of a better term) is pretty normal, if you ask me. And the whole outburst of "oh gross" is also normal. And this stuff never bothered him before, so I wonder if something new is clicking in his brain. Some of his old self is returning.

And could this be a result of the CerAxon he's been taking? I suppose it's too early to really know yet. He's just completed his first week on that. Five more weeks to go.

But then, the whole pudding thing makes me wonder just what has happened to his logic....?

Anyway, we've had a busy week with two doctor's appointments in the row. The first appointment being  the dreaded return to Pain Management, where, I am happy to report, Bob was able to pee in the cup! Yes! Unfortunately, though, once he started to pee, he could not stop. So the cup runneth over. All over his pants and wheelchair cushion. But at least we don't have to make a separate trip to the urologist for a catheterization.