More about Dad (mostly)

I spent a lot of time with Dad and some with Mom on Mon and Tues. 

Overview:
Monday, Dad seemed pretty down.  I sat with him at lunch and dinner.  He really wasn't interested in eating much and had to be coaxed.  Dentures kept flopping around making it hard.  Also, he is generally picky -- has never been big on fish or vegetables.  The meat is chopped; looked OK to me, but he finds it unappetizing just because of the way it looks.  He is finally allowed to have thin liquids again so he was able to have ice cream!  At least that was good.  Anyway, the day was kind of a bummer, though he did cheer briefly when Liz came.  He isn't particularly interested in TV and doesn't read much, so he spends a lot of time sitting asleep in his wheel chair (like many if not most of the residents in medical).  He says his mind wanders all the time, but mostly to things that are not good.

Tuesday he seemed somewhat cheerier and he ate better.  I think some of this was due to the improvement in his teeth (that I'll explain in a minute) as well as the fact that a lot was going on.

Mom was pretty much the same.  (Years ago she told me that as you get older you get 'more the same' -- i.e., your personality traits get stronger.  That is certainly the case for her!)  She was glad to see us and seems pretty settled.  It does seem like she doesn't do nearly as much as she used to, though -- lots of naps.  She does have a smaller puzzle going, but it isn't going very fast.  And she plans to get Christmas cards sent out some day.

Doctors and Dentists:
Monday Dad had a visit scheduled with the mobile dentist to start on getting his dentures fixed.  Liz came specifically to be there for the dentist, but as it got late she called to find out where they were and they had no record of his appointment.  In fact, they had no plans to be in the county that day.  Since we had been considering the mobile dentist because we thought they might be quick to respond if needed in an emergency, we decided maybe we should reconsider.  Liz called  local dentist recommended by the Lima folks.  They had a Tuesday cancellation, so she came back on Tues and took him.  That went pretty well.  He verified that Dad should have new dentures.  It will take four visits (a month) to get them -- a long time when you are in pain -- but he made some temporary adjustments to Dad's current dentures that seemed to help and should be OK for a month.  Eating seemed to go quite a bit better after that.  Between this and being off of thickened liquids, I think/hope his eating and spirits will improve.

Liz also took Dad to the Urologist.  (It worked well that she could do both apptmts the same day.)  It was not great news -- he seemed to have a fuller bladder than they would like (amazing what they can do with ultra-sound) -- but it was not so bad that they will go back to the catheter quite yet.  The doctor wants to see him again in a few months.

Therapy:
Because of the way Medicare works, both he and Mom are now down to three days a week of therapy.  (I think you get five days for some period of time after you come out of the hospital.)

The PT seems to have helped Dad's walking.  If he remembers -- needs a lot of reminding -- he will stand up straight like he is supposed to.  We walked down to Mom's room, hung out a bit, and then walked back.  I'm pretty sure that was a first for him.  (The distance between rooms might be 40-50 yards? including an elevator ride)  I think normally the only walking he does outside of PT is to and from the dining room, which is maybe 15-20 yards.

Speech therapy seems to be helping, too, or at least he is doing well enough that he can have thin liquids as mentioned before.  (If you don't remember, this is not really about speech but about his ability to swallow w/o aspiration -- i.e., food going down the wrong way. )  He has been on 'supervised eating' meaning that someone keeps an eye on him as he eats.  I think there are two reasons for this:  watching out for aspiration and making sure he eats enough.  For these reasons, they haven't wanted him eating anywhere but in his regular dining area.  Good news is that the speech therapist says he doesn't need to be supervised any more from the aspiration perspective.  Not sure yet about the other aspect.  Anyway, when they say it is OK, he could go eat with Mom.  That would be nice, but is still somewhat problematic.  First, someone has to take him (I think Mom thinks she could, but I don't know if she can or if they will allow it).  Second, someone has to encourage him to eat.  The aide in the dining room normally does this.  Not sure how that would go with Mom in charge, though I can sort of picture it...

Other stuff:
After way too much work, Dad finally has a regular land line phone.  Yay!  It seems that it will be much easier for him to get to and to operate.  I canceled his cell phone.  I hope this actually helps.  Have been realizing that he doesn't actually spend a lot of time in his room so it may still be hard to reach him.

I put up a number of pictures in his room.  Had to hang them by strings from the ceiling since we aren't supposed to put nails in the walls while he is temporarily in this room.  Not great, but better than nothing.  He seems to like it and that is what we are aiming for.  (Dor, I cracked the glass on a picture of you.  No offense.  Will get it fixed:)

Am thinking I will order a transport chair (folding wheel chair) for when he goes out to doctor, church, etc.  Lima does not really have a supply of them for borrowing, though we were lucky to borrow one a couple of times.

One last thing:  I am pretty impressed with the folks at Lima.  All things considered, they do a great job.  And I am also very thankful that Mom pushed to get signed up there and to sell the house when they did.  Things are not perfect, but they could be a lot worse.  And Dad and Mom are very fortunate that Liz spends so much time visiting and watching out for them.  Few residents seem to have that much family involvement and it makes a huge difference.

[P.S. I just got Dad on the phone -- finally.  Figured he would be going to bed and he was.  He seemed very sad -- on the verge of tears.  Wishes he saw Mom more.  Feels like he is 'holding everything up'.  I'm guessing that probably means he feels like he should be good enough to move up to assisted living, but he is not and he thinks it is his fault.  Please pray for him.]