More progress with my dad.

[dalesql]

So, I took my dad to his doctors appointment thursday. Doctor finally aggreed that the stomach tube was no longer needed and we could remove it. (And also once it is removed, the twice daily flushing with water to keep it clear, and the daily cleaning and dressing changes to keep it from becoming infected. This is effectively an open wound that we were holding open with a rubber tube, so infection is a constant risk. )

Took a day or so to track down the surgeon who put it in last february, and schedule the appointment with her. But that is now set, thursday the 13th, first thing in the morning. She said that it is a very simple procedure, not requiring a general anethesia, so preparation is simple, nothing by mouth starting at midnight the night before, and possibly modification of dad's coumadin dosage before and after for a few days.

This removes a big potential headache, as I had agreed to work the folk festival in Bangor Maine at the end of august, and nobody else in the family has the skills and willingness to do the daily care of this. Normally they take care of it themselves, but dad is not mentally prepared to do so. Mostly I think he would forget that he has to do it each day. So we would have had to hire a nurse to come in twice a day the whole time I was up in maine, which would have cost a fortune.

Dad also goes to the dentist this week to get his dentures redone, which should greatly help with his eating problems. He is still slowly recovering, he is walking out on the street each day it isn't raining with my mom. I am a little worried about him wandering as his mobility improves, but that is minor concern right now. We are researching tracking devices so if that does become needful, it is not a mad scramble to get something right the heck now.

Mom has flipped her bipolar to manic, and is full of energy. She is scheduling herseof for surgery to remove her cataracts in a couple months, so that is a hurdle to deal with then.

Had a plumber in today. Unclogged the kitchen sink and replaced a couple of leaky valves on the furnace. (we have high mineral content in the town's water, so these valves start leaking every several years. ) looking into getting an independent hot water heater from the furnace, so the furnace could stay cold all summer, saving a tankful or two of oil each summer. The two options are conventional electric hot water heater, or a hot water heater that heats the water by running a heat pump that pulls heat from the air in the basement and puts it into the water. More efficient, but more expensive to buy. It also has a wonderful side effect of dehumidifying the basement.

Yay, progress.

Comments

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Yes, yay, progress!

I, too, have a water heater that's tied into my boiler rather than an independent unit. But with just me here, and modest summertime use of hot water (cooler showers, and I don't run the dishwasher all that much), the draw on my oil supply is slight. At least, I think it is. I don't actually know, as I don't get my tank filled between the end of one heating season and the beginning of the next. So less than one tankful, obviously, and I think it's considerably less than that given how seldom I hear the boiler running.

But the notion of another device dehumidifying the basement in the summer is remarkably attractive. The single dehumidifier I have isn't up to the task, and I'm not good about emptying it frequently enough, either. This basement lacks a floor drain and I'm not handy enough to have come up with a way of pumping/draining it outdoors. Grrr.

Good luck with everything. Even with the immensely welcome progress of your dad getting off the feeding tube, your plate is still overloaded and then some. Hope you have a fab time working the festival in Maine.

[paradoox.livejournal.com]

Yay for Dad making progress.

WRT Basements and Water Heaters and De-Humidifiers, the problem I have with the De-Humidifier is more that it heats up the basement. (I tend not to rurn it and just deal with the humidity which isn't too bad. L likes to turn it on.) So, having it power a Water Heater would be a win. But, then wouldn't it need a drain? (OK, I can see you could drain it into the hot water tank directly and since no one should be drinking hot water, but I can see back-flow problems and ...) My basement is below grade and has no drain / sump-pump.

[dalesql.livejournal.com]

Yes, it definitely needs a drain. That is one of the major pains about my parent's house, no drain in the furnace room for the furnace and plumbing. The sewer lines exit the house just under the ceiling of the basement, so we can't drain into that from the basement. I will have to create a floor sump and put in a sump pump that will not be destroyed by pumping hot water from a leaking furnace.

There is actually a separate septic system in the house that took care of the basement bathroom and laundry room waste water. But that system is too close to the stream that runs through the back of our property, so it is unusable under the current septic system laws. If we ever sell the house, we really should rip out the plumbing stuff in the basement and plaster over the holes in the walls and floor. The basement bathroom and old laundry room are crammed solid with my dad's stuff, so that demolition project is way down the priority list.