Dad is getting better.
Feb. 28th, 2015 11:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dalesqlThis morning, my dad was assisted out of bed by the nursing folks, walked around the bed as far as all the tubing in his body would allow him, then sat up in the chair for a couple hours. Nurses and doctors expressed amazement to me when I visited later, that dad was able to stand up at all, let alone be able to walk and balance himself. Hurray dad!
He also was telling stories to the nurses, and being much more his usual charming self. They are tapering off the anticoagulant, putting him back on the coumadin, Which wwill reduce one of the IV tubes stuck into him. He is now allowed to be fed by mouth by the speech therapist, and I have hopes that this will have him progressing back to eating normally. ONce he can eat normally, the surgical stomach tube can be removed, and he gets that much closer to being home.
His memory is still bad, but the short term memory seems to be getting better. I don't have to tell him the same things quite as often. He does think he is in Saint John, NB though. This is probably prompted by memories of his long hospital stay there many years ago when he fell through the floor of a building he was repairing and smashed his ankle to bits.
Couple of more weeks of the antibiotic for the Lyme Disease, and the infectious disease specialist wants to keep close track of dad to be sure it's eradicated. They are trying to get him a bed in a rehab hospital. Spaulding Rehab in Boston they say is pretty much the only one that can take care of him at his current level.
My youngest brother thinks that Spaulding is some kind of horror show, and is pushing another hospital instead. But my youngest brother is also convinced that mom and dad are totally unable to live in their house and somehow I have been keeping them in their house in order to keep me living here rent free. So you can understand why I ignore his opinions on pretty much everything substantive. For the record, I'm not particularly happy to have moved back with my parents, and have my social life pretty much cancelled since I can't invite friends to my home at all. Mom doesn't like strangers in the house without a month or so notice so she can get it cleaned up to be suitable for visitors.
He also was telling stories to the nurses, and being much more his usual charming self. They are tapering off the anticoagulant, putting him back on the coumadin, Which wwill reduce one of the IV tubes stuck into him. He is now allowed to be fed by mouth by the speech therapist, and I have hopes that this will have him progressing back to eating normally. ONce he can eat normally, the surgical stomach tube can be removed, and he gets that much closer to being home.
His memory is still bad, but the short term memory seems to be getting better. I don't have to tell him the same things quite as often. He does think he is in Saint John, NB though. This is probably prompted by memories of his long hospital stay there many years ago when he fell through the floor of a building he was repairing and smashed his ankle to bits.
Couple of more weeks of the antibiotic for the Lyme Disease, and the infectious disease specialist wants to keep close track of dad to be sure it's eradicated. They are trying to get him a bed in a rehab hospital. Spaulding Rehab in Boston they say is pretty much the only one that can take care of him at his current level.
My youngest brother thinks that Spaulding is some kind of horror show, and is pushing another hospital instead. But my youngest brother is also convinced that mom and dad are totally unable to live in their house and somehow I have been keeping them in their house in order to keep me living here rent free. So you can understand why I ignore his opinions on pretty much everything substantive. For the record, I'm not particularly happy to have moved back with my parents, and have my social life pretty much cancelled since I can't invite friends to my home at all. Mom doesn't like strangers in the house without a month or so notice so she can get it cleaned up to be suitable for visitors.
