Hello all again,

08.13.2014 wednesday was day11, but today is day12, morning 09:16am here in Izmir, Turkey, a very very sunny day, already 31°C, and will hit 38°C in midday. We are absolutely being boiled over here.

day 11 was great actually, my mom had made a list of everything to be done to take care of my grandmother, she kept herself a notebook, on the first page there are phone numbers, important phone numbers of the family, of our turkish 911 (112), some local doctor and nurse phone numbers with names. The page also has the house adress, my grandma's social security number (we call that our national ID no over here), it's great.

daily tasks are divided into 2 mainly. Medicine-Food and Body Movements (Gymnastics)-Daily needs. It's quite detailed, and once you start following it, you can't miss a thing. The frequency of actions is also written down, like;

action time / frequency remarks

change side every 2 hrs watch the nose feed NG tube, make sure it's loose enough

My mom was more happier than I thought, she made her sister and brother read the notes she has taken so if someone is out of the house, someone else should take responsibility. I guess that's because she was a pharmacist before she retired, and knew her way around the hospitals, etc...

My grandma was soooooooooooo funnyyyy yesterday, as I sat down in the back room to put everything my mother has written to excel, word format, to have some print outs ready at hand, I came back in the room to see her, sneaked behind the wall and showed her my head, and she smiled, she raised her left hand and waved me to come closer, I did. I sat down to her right side and said the same things I keep on saying for the last 10 days, that everyone was near her, that she shouldnt be afraid, that she is a strong woman, that she can tell us if she is tired and wants to sleep, or if she wants to listen to turkish classical music, etc...she smiled, she tried to say something but it was just 5-6 trials of hard breathing, then she blinked, closed her eyes, and smiled. I will make her talking cards, with short, brief words like;

- MUSIC please

- READ to me please

- I'd like to SLEEP

- It's too NOISY...

it's probably better for her that way, but I have to make sure she understands all these.

My grandma also nodded her head to confirm while she blinked for 1second to me when I said "I need to go now, but I'll be back tomorrow, please make sure you rest your eyes, you will get better grandma, and you are a fighter, lecturing us on that now, I love you", and kissed her. That was the first time I saw her nod and blink at the same time, her face was like, "Cagin, cut the crap, it's ok, go now, go son"....hahahaha...I know that look...whenever someone spoke too much, there was a gesture in her eyes that she made, silently, and she made sure we saw it amidst a group of people...funny grandma...she is really funny even if she can't speak now...I believe she will sometime though.

My mother, aunt and uncle had interviewed 2-3 nurses on day11, noone qualified to be my grandma's nurse who will stay for 6 days in a week with her 24/7. They either ask for more salary then we assume, or the character seems to be too harsh for us...hope the great commitee of my mother,aunt and uncle can agree on one soon, as they wear off themselves each and every day. Looks like it but my mom is so happy when she sees my grandma in a fresh, live looking face....like day11 was...that surely boosts everyone's hopes up.She's a fighter for sure! I don't believe I could've done that!

Day12 today and I will have only 1 hr with my grandma. Will work on designing and printing task and talking-flash cards for her.

Recruiting attempts will carry on today, and my grandma will be having a new fully automatic bed as one of the relatives called in and said "we still keep the one my mom used to use last year, before she passed away, why don't we unpack, send it to you, then your grandma can use it, it's in a healthy state, the bed." that was fantastic news...the bed will be arriving today, that way grandma does not have to be held still, pillowed on her back to come to a certain angle as the nose feeder is working. The bed will automatically do that! Lucky her, lucky us. Hope everything works out fine today for that bed installation. It'd be better if I had been there as a mechanical engineer myself, but...will try.

Health and happiness to all out there.

Cheers,

Cagin