Christmas was different this year. We had already planned for it to be small and low-key. Eric and Matt planned to come for the morning and have brunch with us. Christmas Eve, Mike and I were just watching movies and I planned to assemble our breakfast cassarole (lovingly referred to as "vegan" cassarole, since it is anything BUT vegan!). Instead, I ended up starting that and leaving it for Mike to finish and I spent the evening and night with Dad and Mom at the Emergency room and then the hospital.
The trip earlier in the month to the fun Christmas get-together and the celebration of his 90th birthday here in Cedar City really tired him out, and then he started coughing more, had no energy or appetite, had the runs and just felt awful. Matt Rynearson, PA, had briefly seen him in The Assisted Living Place Formerly Known as Brookdale ( Our House Assisted Living is the new name we cannot get used to) on Wednesday December 15, and he prescribed a round of antibiotics for him. So Dad did a Z-Pak for Wednesday through Sunday December 15 through 19 of that. No improvement and with more diarrhea from that medicine and the Mucinex we gave him for the cough. Mom and I took him to the InstaCare on Tuesday the 21 and they did a lung X-Ray which indicate no pnuemonia, yet that bad cough just persists.
Then we took him in to the ER on Friday night. He was so weak and just out of it. They admitted him to the hospital that morning around 1 am and that's when I took Mom home to get some rest.
As they admitted him for observation that night/early morning, the medical history was being gathered. The first question they asked Dad was if he had any allergies and he said, "no", so I figured I'd better stay and make sure the CORRECT answers were being given. I snoozed on the recliner off and on during the early morning. In the morning I gave Mike directions on baking the cassarole. I came home for a couple of hours at noon to visit Eric and Matt and eat something, then got Mom and took her to the hospital to visit. They were supposed to let us know what was going on, but we'd missed the dr visit, they kept Dad for another night. And he's miserable. I didn't stay the night and neither did Mom. They just set up a camera monitor so he'd be safe. So--Saturday night, Sunday night. Then Monday they said they'd release him the next day IF he was able to walk. He couldn't. They kept him another day. Finally on Wednesday he was released to go to Stonehenge, a skilled nursing facility right near the hospital.
I'm typing this on Thursday, so he's had all of one day there. And I think he's improving. They will be doing physical Therapy with him twice a day and occupational therapy once a day. Mom goes for daytime visits, he's on his own at night, poor guy. He doesn't communicate his needs and Mom's just so used to doing EVERYthing for him. He needs to be coaxed to eat, so she just feeds him. Still no appetite. But he's been up for a walk and he's exhausted. The diagnoses was viral pnueumonia, so it's going to take time to clear up. He needs to get back to where he was at Brookdale, able to walk into the bathroom and to the table to eat, and maybe even to bed to sleep. That would be good. Strength and appetite is what they are shooting for.
Nick and Kaylee and kids drove down on Sunday. I didn't get to see much of them until night time and was gone a lot here and there during the day. But it was still a good visit with them and the kids. They ended up staying an extra couple of days so they could at least say "hi" and "bye" to Damian's family as they arrived in Utah on Tuesday night. Flights all over were being cancelled due to covid-affected crew shortages, and their flights were no exception. They scurried and found one. They are with the Kraley's from Texas, too. It's a ski trip for them.
He went from looking like this on Christmas Eve in the afternoon, to this:
by nine pm when we took him to the ER. Quite a contrast.
Below is a view of him in his hospital bed. He spent basically FIVE days there, languishing in the bed and he was so tired of it. Oxygen was about the only treatment. That, and rest. Some nutrition. He just has no appetite.
Oh, Dear. Those things happen. But he's UP! and walking, so that's a good thing. He walked to the door of his large private room and back to the bathroom to get cleaned up and changed. They physical therapists did that and Dad was cooperative and succeeded in getting up and about for the first time in DAYS. That's progress. I spent a good chunk of Wednesday with him and his cough seems much improved.
Mom is mostly happy to be spending some time in the day with him. She can encourage him to eat his food. She can rest on his bed if she wants. She can order from the dining services there, or get snacks from the fridge. I packed her some snacks today. She just had her back injection on Wednesday afternoon, so her blood sugar will be soaring. She got nuts and celery with peanut butter from me. I hope she eats it.
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