Too Much Hospital

Sorry to be slow in posting, particularly since there was a lot I should have said.

The past week did not turn out as expected, and the reason (I think) was not anything unusual with Dad.  From my perspective, it seems the people at Crozer were seeing Dad's swallowing issues for the first time and responded aggressively.  The social worker called a meeting of the whole family on Friday (the doctor finally showed up after 45 minutes).  It was one of these end-of-life type discussions -- we may need to make a decision about whether he will be permanently on a feeding tube if the swallowing is not improving, or does he want to just go for quality-of-life.  They were talking about under what circumstances he might go into hospice, etc.  Unfortunately, David and I both had to attend by cell phone and it was hard to catch everything, though I did catch up with Liz later for clarification.  Dad was alert and listening during the meeting, but didn't say much.  I think it is very difficult for him to follow a discussion like that with a lot of people in the room.

What is odd and frustrating to me is that I don't believe Dad's swallowing problem is any different than it was before he went in the hospital (he went in for a stomach virus from which he recovered quickly).  He shows no signs of dying -- at least not today.  Yes, the swallowing is a problem.  Yes, he could have aspiration which is dangerous.  But they were dealing with this at Lima and I think they can continue to deal with it.  He may have aspiration -- not sure that can be helped.  (Somehow through what I think has been a pretty long time with this swallowing problem,  he has amazingly not gotten pneumonia.)  Not sure how being in the hospital is helping unless he wants a feeding tube, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't.  As of tomorrow, he will have been in the hospital a week since recovering from the stomach virus.  Part of that time they weren't feeding him at all, then finally they gave him a nutrition IV.  They are waiting to do a video swallowing test tomorrow.  Meanwhile, his digestive system is not being exercised and he is not getting physical exercise (they may have finally started some PT yesterday).

I think the family agrees that him staying in the hospital this long was a mistake -- we should have been more pro-active in getting him out.  What I expect will happen is that after the swallowing test tomorrow, they will slowly start getting him back on pureed food and he will have to go through this whole process all over again -- not being able to eat food he likes for a while and needing a lot of PT.  As David pointed out, even if the swallowing test looks bad we/he will probably recommend that he eats anyway, so why have they bothered putting him through all of this?  Aargh.

On top of everything else, Uncle Tom's memorial gathering will be Tuesday and Dad won't be out of the hospital by then.  Fortunately, it sounded like Lynn and Merit will probably stop by to see him (as will we).

So, please continue your prayers!  Sorry to be so cranky.