As to the business of continuing rehab while conducting sleep
studies at night... with all due respect to the well-meaning volunteers who
try to find activities to keep kids happily occupied while they're in
hospital, that wasn't what Nora needed after her stroke.  She needed to get
on with her rehab ASAP... she knew it as well as Dallas & I did.  And
the specialists recognized it, when it was pointed out to them.  But we had
to think of it first.

          I noticed too that the nurses in the sleep clinic seemed to be
giving Nora whatever they could lay hands on for breakfast, although the
dietician was trying to reduce her cholesterol & triglycerides, because
the computer couldn't comprehend the idea that a patient might have
breakfast in ward x & other meals in ward y (served by the same
kitchen).  Finally somebody in rehab... where the staff is well accustomed
to having day patients who need to be fed... persuaded the computer to do
what we wanted.  But again we had to take the initative.

          Then there was our first long weekend in rehab.  On weekdays the
kids have therapy... on evenings & weekends they have recreation, if
they're not too pooped out from the former.  On Monday of a long weekend,
however, the place is as dead as a doornail because all those who have
somewhere else to go have done so & no therapists or volunteers are
available.  By this time we'd explored the entire building & most of
the grounds with a manual chair.  We asked the doctor a few days beforehand
if we could take Nora to a corner store just over a block away, because we
wanted to be able to offer some activity on Monday.  (Rehab is still
essentially a hospital... notwithstanding certain euphemisms which are in
vogue nowadays... and patients still aren't allowed to leave without a
doctor's permission.)  He looked surprised, pondered our request for a
moment, then said "I don't see why not!"  But because he
neglected to leave orders to that effect the head nurse insisted on phoning
him before she would let us go.  Meanwhile I wondered "Are we the only
parents who have ever tried such things?  What's with the other parents...
don't they have any gumption??"  Now I understand why they might
prefer not to.  To me this is all part of what being a SURVIVOR is about,
however.  We see what might be possible, and then act upon what we see.... 
:-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+