Basboy’s Weblog

As some of you know, I have been spending a lot of time in my father hospital room, as I had a week off before I enter a new project at work next week. This is a fortuitous coincidence that has allowed me to be by my father`s side and at his assistance should he need me. Still, for the most part, I feel that I stick out like a sore thumb sitting all day as I do in the room, though the nursing staff certainly do not contribute to that feeling and have been very supportive. I spend much of my fasting day awaiting any request from dad while either on my laptop or talking to Mom, and it can get a little tedious, though the day does seem to go by fast enough that I barely get hungry!

These past couple of days have brought significant improvement in Baba`s condition, ma sha`Allah la quwata ila biLah. Yesterday, we came in to see that the tracheostomy tube in his neck was replace with a smaller one and was `corked`or closed, and this allowed Baba to actually speak. Of course, his voice was understandably muffled and hard to understand at first, but the mere fact that he was able to speak made him so much happier and sociable. Now, instead of gesturing for his clipboard and pencil and taking the time to write it first in Arabic then English, he could just TELL me I am being childish…

He also is taking the time to walk a lot, after some encouragement from my Mom, and can hardly stay put. This, among other things, showed the doctors that he is breathing quite well on his own and so they removed the trach tube alltogether and stitched the wound up this morning. This has made his speech a little bit clearer. They have also removed the drains from his neck and sewed it up, which improved his appearance.

Dad says that the next step is a visit from the swallowing therapist tomorrow or the day after. We`ll see. As always, we appreciate your prayers and good thoughts.