One tough old guy

As requested, an update on my Dad.

I saw him the day of the accident, and the Wednesday he got home from the hospital (6 days later), then I saw him again the following Sunday. Quite the difference between the visits. When he got home, he could walk, if barely. His feet were really swollen, and his knee was very inflated as well. His hands were casted up pretty well by that point, the right hand already in a cast that should last a while, the left hand in a more temporary one, to facilitate removal of stitches when the time comes. He again winds up being fairly lucky, in that he has some mobility in his fingers, even though the breaks are limiting his strength with them for now. For example, he can cradle a cup of coffee, and manipulate the straw into his mouth, but he can't pick up the cup on his own. I felt bad when we saw him on Wednesday: Archer carelessly crashed into his leg; the look of pain on his face injured me. I stayed for a few hours, enough to make sure he was doing alright, and see that he could make it up the stairs, which was hard, but he managed it.

Sunday I brought the whole family down to see him. McGuire had been worried about his grandpa, and I think he was a bit jealous that Archer got to go down there with me and he didn't. Allison got her weekend plans ruined due to my recent inability to schedule anything, but she was a good sport and a good daughter-in-law and came down too. We visited for a pretty short time, mostly just to take my Dad off Joanne's hands for a while and have lunch with him. His mobility was dramatically improved in just a few days. He could walk a lot easier, and it seemed like he had a much better feel for how to deal with having a few weakened fingers instead of two hands. We took him out to the 99, and he was able to feed himself really well. He needed his food cut for him, but I had to have that done for me with only one broken arm. To me, as nice as it was to have a really nice visit, the actual best part was that after Archer had one minor freakout over the seating situation, his behavior was as good as possible, for days! He had been a huge pain all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning, but after getting calmed down, he was a little angel until Tuesday night. It was pretty nice while it lasted.

One thing that has always impressed me about my father is that he is so into toys. His motorcycles, his police scanners, his PDAs, his laptops, his satellite radio; he just really likes the new, shiny technology. While so many people from his generation seemed wholly terrified of the battery-operated devils, he is always picking them up, learning how to use them and seeing if they "stick". With his hands so beat up, using the computer will be really hard for him, as would reading or most things needing manual dexterity. So what does he do to combat the boredom? Picks up the new DS package that comes with Guitar Hero On Tour bundled! While he was at the store, he got Mario Kart DS and Brain Age, too. I recommended a few turn-based games that might work better with the casts, but I think Guitar Hero might be the perfect thing for his situation: it has a strap to connect the DS to your hand, and the frets will be great exercise for his fingers, keeping them strong while he heals. I have no idea if he can play Mario Kart with the casts, the game is pretty thumb-intensive on both hands. Either way, I just think it is the coolest thing to have a 60 year old Dad who buys himself a DS! I can't wait to exchange Friend Codes with him and kick his butt at a Mario Kart race.