chipper

I took my brother out for lunch today.  I asked him how he was doing.  He said chipper. I asked him what that meant.  He said better than lovely.  Then I asked him why.  He said he had gotten his act together!

He also had gotten a haircut, and I was pleased to see he was only charged $16 instead of the $35 that the old nursing home used to charge.  I mentioned to him that next time he should get his moustache trimmed too, it's getting quite bushy.  He nodded in agreement.

He did look pretty good today.  I am trying to reconcile that with the gurgling I heard earlier this week.  I was visiting later in the day with a doctor friend, who in passing (talking about his own heart trouble scare) mentioned gurgling.  So I asked him how bad should the gurgling be before I start having a fit at the nursing home.  He told me to look for shortness of breath at the same time and weight gain.  (It is very difficult to see swelling of the ankles from water retention because my brothers legs are so thin, and a bit distorted,  in the first place.)  I was thinking today how I was once told that the life expectancy of someone who has congestive heart failure averages out to about five years after diagnoses.  My brother has already hit six and seems to be ok!