Basic things

Mr. S has a bleed inside of his skull, but mostly he misses his mom. His wife is standing next to his bed in the ICU, and so are his daughters. They are all extremely worried.

He has never been like this. Ever since his mother died he had not been the same. In fact, he was quite devastated. And when he started getting dizzy a couple of days ago, he knew why. And when the world was really spinning around him, until he fell right on the concrete floor, he was still thinking about his mom.

Other than a small bleed around his brain he was actually ok. He really scared us at first, because he lost his consciousness. The older you get, the less you appreciate blows to your head, or bleeds around your brain, or just a plain loss of consciousness. Your body starts taking it rather personal, and overreacts. You bleed more, and you heal less. But Mr. S was able to save himself from the statistics. He was really doing ok, except he really missed his mom.

"The Rosary is Tuesday, can I go?", he asks me, his eyes imploring. When he first told me his mom had died, I thought I didn't hear him well. To be perfectly honest, I also thought he is being delusional. We often see ICU psychosis. The name is pretty straightforward, and it means that all the pain, physical and emotional trauma, the daily needle poking, shitting in a diaper, not getting any sleep except on meds that can put down a horse, and all that jazz - can really mess you up. And drive you a little insane. And the older you get, the more at risk you are. And I thought he is being like that.

I mean, He looked like a grandfather himself. In fact, he WAS a grandfather. And we tend to assume grandfathers were just like that all the time, unaware of the lifetime they had gone through, and the fact that they, too, were someone's little child. "I promise I will do everything I can to make it happen", "but you have to help me, too". I thought to myself that this is a great bargaining opportunity. "Try to get some rest, and even sleep. You need your strength. We can't let you go if you are not in good shape". We made a gentleman's agreement that each will do his share, and waited for the next morning when the big boss will actually decide what to do.

We put a lot of effort in Mr. S's expedited management and probably took some risks, too. We got a social worker and a case manager on it, and managed to work it so he will be able to see his mom. Hell, I still don't even know what a Rosary is. I only know it was important enough for that little child that wanted to see his mom one more time.