Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Sh*t my husband says...with short term memory loss

So today is a much better day and I will embrace all the good things I can! Chris is much more alert today and his memory is better, but not completely there yet.  His long-term memory seems intact, but his short term memory is still failing a bit.  They say this can just be an effect of the trauma and the lack of oxygen to his brain during the cardiac arrest so I'm focused on tomorrow being an improvement over today.  They are going to do a brain MRI tonight or tomorrow to check it out along with some hand tremors he has.

One thing that is completely intact is his humor!  As I mentioned in yesterday's post, it was a bit like living the same 10 minutes over and over.  He had absolutely no ability to create new memories so he'd ask how he got here or where he was and we'd tell him, and then 5 or 10 minutes later he'd be asking the same thing.  But, this is Chris we're talking about...Mr. Sense of Humor!  I think even though he didn't remember anything somewhere deep down inside his subconscious he knew he needed to make us laugh.  And laugh we did.  We laughed so much that at some point his daughter, Julia, and I decided we had to start writing some of it down.  I knew I would only post this if I felt his memory issues would be a distant memory for us in the future, and I am confident that's just what it will be.  So, here's some of the funny stuff he said yesterday...a day he does not remember at all and a day I will never forget but wish I could.

He frequently would look at me with great concern and say something like "Where am I?" or "How did I get here?"  Sometimes I would respond with "Do you know why you are here?" so that I could test where his memory was at.  Here are some of his answers:

"I'm pregnant" - to which we all had a good laugh trying to figure out who the father was.
"I'm interviewing to be the director of the hospital here."

Sometimes when he'd ask where he was or what he was doing here, I would tell him that one of the chemo drugs caused him to have a cardiac arrest and explain the whole story about Kelsey doing CPR and his heart getting shocked by the paramedics.  He frequently would look at me and say "I got paddled?" with an evil grin.  Childish kiddie humor, I know - but that's our Chris!

Another time he said "They did the paddles? Wow, I'm just checking off all my hospital bucket list items aren't I?"

One time when I told him about the CPR by Kelsey he said "I preferred the paddling!"

Some of his reactions to her saving his life are:
"OH...that was nice of her."
"Oh great, now I owe her..." (with a cheesy grin and sarcastic tone)

When he looked at the tape on his hand that covered one of his IVs he said "this looks like overdone chicken"

Some of his reactions to being told he'd had heart attack:
"so I coded?  cool!  Did they said 'CLEAR'?"  (He watches House too much!)
"Heart attacks that don't kill you are the best kind to have."


Out of the blue he looked at the TV and said "oh that's a tv!"  I said "as opposed to what?"  he said "Scrap metal"

Some other random things he said:
"Are we in St. Mary's?  I just didn't want any of those Methodists working on me!"
"I think you two are having more fun than I am" (when writing this stuff down and laughing)
"Were they able to alleviate my symptoms?"  I asked "What symptoms?" he responded "Laying in bed."

"I wonder how long this procedure will take?" (Most of the day yesterday he assumed he was in the hospital due to his cancer.)
The best one, I think, was this little red light that emanated from his finger where they had the pulsox attached.  He would look at it over and over - usually followed with the question of why am I here - and then one time he held it out as in the movie ET and said in a very ETish voice "Elllllliiiiiooooooooot!"  And anyone who's seen the movie will know exactly what I mean!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing these, Julia. Good to know that Chris retains his sense of humor in what must be such a scary situation. You are so often in my thoughts. Sending hugs.... Connie

Terri Shomenta Bailey said...

Sounds like he has some good Sh*t. Can you send me any of that? ;-)

Terri

DP said...

Those are priceless quotes. I actually blew snot reading this. What a treasure. Big love.

Janine van Ree said...

I am so sorry about all the additional difficulties. I hope the heart attach truly came from the drug, not another worry for the future. You are definitely in our thoughts. And tell Elise I am proud of her being so quick acting.

Sherie Turner said...

I am so glad to see that Chris' sense of humor was not lost!! I'm LOLing as I read these and can just hear him through it all! Yay to Elise & Kelsey for their quick actions!! My thoughts & prayers are with you always! <3