Big Daddy

Since it was snowing this morning with more predicted through the day with it only getting worse I decided to try to beat the storm and head back here to Chester county where radar indicated that it was just on the edge of the storm. I went into Good Shepherd first - the roads were okay getting there except for some snow right in the middle of Allentown! - mostly they were just wet. Once I got out of the Lehigh Valley the snow was lighter and the roads were fine, people were traveling safely and not going too fast.

When I went into her room Andie was throwing her leg over the side of the bed to get up, had a mitt on her left hand and the poor young aide assigned to watch her was being whacked by the mitt as she tried to settle her down. When she saw me she pulled on my arm and gave me a big hug and slowed down a bit. She did get to sitting on the side of the bed with us watching her various tubes to see that they weren't pulled out. After showing her the snow outside the window I explained that I couldn't stay long and she should just save her energy for later in PT and sit calmly to talk while we had some time. She was mouthing plenty of words today, probably because she wasn't over-thinking it. After a nurse's aid who was older and had worked with her last week came in and kind of took over Andie seemed to be listening to them more and she told me to get going - so after apologizing to and thanking both aides for putting up with all that (though I've seen worse on that floor) I was headed down the hallway when I met up with Big Daddy headed in Andie's direction.

His owner was Andie's one to one aide the night before last and while she was there she mentioned her dog. Big Daddy is a very calm chihuahua who was an almost - therapy dog. He took the therapy dog class and didn't pass the final exam because he didn't get along with one other dog - with people, wheelchairs and all that equipment around he's fine. I told her we're definitely dog people and she brought him in when she wasn't on duty on last night. Then Andie was visibly happy to see the dog and gave him a kiss and held him while the aide talked to us and Andie. She even signed up for next Tuesday and will bring Big Daddy along then for her whole shift. As I was leaving today I wished them luck since Andie was being combative at times but his owner seemed confident that she'd calm down once he got in there.