Month: October 2024

Treasure the memories

CAREGIVER NOTE:
I’m hoping today will be a good day, though he’s not too much into Halloween. He’s been going to OT and PT and speech. He wants to come home — at least that’s what he says. So I’ll take that as a measure of truth and we’ll look forward to that regardless of how well he’s doing or whether he’s walking or not at the end of 30 days. I’m hoping he’s made enough progress to maybe want to complete it through the 100 days, but I’m not holding my breath at the moment.

We do have his bedroom and bathroom ready again. Plans now are to rearrange the living room to make sure there’s plenty of room for the walker or chair to maneuver. We’ll start on that this evening when I get home from the rehab.

POSITIVES:
No phone calls with negative reports from the rehab
He was dressed, resting and calm when a grandson visited
We seem to be making some progress at multiple fronts with hopes of that continuing.

10.30.24

CAREGIVER NOTE:
He was dressed, alert, lucid and coherent and raring to go yesterday. He’s not eating or swallowing food right now. His diet was changed and we’ll see where things go from there. He’s pretty much asserting his desire to be independent – He still can’t put much weight on his left side, but hopefully, he’ll do the work with the therapists so he’ll have some independence when he does come home in a few weeks.

POSITIVES:
Briefly caught a glance of his sense of humor

You ARE amazing! 

CAREGIVER NOTE:
No calls overnight or so far this morning. He had a pretty good day from what I understand, though he’s still sleeping quite a bit during the afternoons (I’m pretty sure the meds are the cause for that as he’s still needing some support for anxiety and his wants to get out of bed without help). I plan on spending a couple of hours with him today…

We did get his upcoming dr appointment on the transportation calendar yesterday so that has been checked off. They will transport him to the appointment and we’ll meet him there to have his sutures removed and have his 2 week post-op check. So far, he’s left the remaining sutures and butterflied bandages in place — Fingers crossed he leaves them alone until next week.



respect the process

CAREGIVER NOTE:
He had a pretty good day overall… Meds seem to be adjusted and he seemed a little more settled yesterday. He did sleep well Saturday night into Sunday. The pneumonia is being addressed aggressively. Antibiotics, breathing treatments and sitting up for deeper breathing. The only problem with his sitting up is that he does try to get out of bed a little more frequently. He “played” with his sheets teasing me about getting out of bed but didn’t. He’s in there and hopefully, will continue to improve. The boys are on board with the current plan — giving him a few more days before making the decision regarding starting hospice care for additional supports and services.

POSITIVES:
He ate a good breakfast –
Lots of smiles throughout the day — with some very lucid moments
Showed kindness to those helping him yesterday.

Look for the magic today.

CAREGIVER NOTE:
The x-ray results are back. No new breaks, thank goodness, but he does have some pneumonia in his lower left lung. He slept again for most of the day. They were able to get some meds into him yesterday, but he was spitting most of them out. He did eat some breakfast and were hoping he would eat a bit for dinner. The nurse I spoke with late last evening said he did take the sleeping and anti anxiety meds last night, but not the rest of his meds. At this point, I don’t think they are all that important — His comfort is more important for healing and peace.

We tried to get some extra help by hiring a nurse to sit with him during the night, however, that didn’t work out because of liability issues for the rehab company. We’ll see what happens today — though I think we’re much closer to bringing him home and starting hospice care much sooner than we’d planned.

POSITIVES:
No falls
No calls that he’s being non-compliant
We get to spend some more time with him today.

Truly. 

Truly. We made it through and so can you. 

CAREGIVER NOTE:
He got out of bed overnight – and fell. No additional pain or visible injuries other than a couple of bruises and now we’re waiting for X-rays and readings. They’d even beefed up the fall prevention steps, but somehow, he side-stepped them. UGH. It’s going to be a long recovery process if he won’t follow directions and stay put and sleep at night.

He did go to PT and OT yesterday. We able to stand and take two small steps. Not sure how things will go today with last night’s fall. More to come I’m sure.

POSITIVES:
His bedroom is put back together and ready
He did eat some lunch on his own
He did go to OT and PT and at tried!

You can do this

CAREGIVER NOTE:
I’m not sure if today’s image is more for Him than for me. Yesterday was truly a very difficult day. He was transitioned from the hospital to the rehab center. He was pretty mad and let me know it. He said he didn’t like or love me anymore… but we need to him to try to walk again. We’ll give it a couple of weeks and see how that rolls out and if he’s not able to, we’ll move on to the resources available through palliative care and hospice most likely.

Today will be an incredibly difficult and hard day for him as they settle him into a schedule, adjust meds so they can get his days and nights sorted out (they’ve really been messed up the last 3 days). And hopefully, he’ll bounce back a bit and the dementia will not be quite as prominent. He’s re-lived a lot of memories the last 4 days.

POSITIVES:
He fed himself lunch
Ate half a sandwich with gusto
Asked for food on his own at the rehab center

10.24.24

CAREGIVER NOTE:
It’s supposed to be “moving day.” Yesterday wasn’t all that successful all around, though I’m pretty sure they’ll send him on. I’m hoping that will be a smooth transition whenever it happens. I didn’t hear back from the intake clinician at the rehab facility yesterday, but hope to hear from her early this morning.
He’s taking tylenol for pain. No additives to the tylenol.

POSITIVES:
He caught up on his sleep yesterday
No restraints needed
He left telemetry and the O2 lines alone.

hang in there

Hang in there because you are surrounded by many who care.

CAREGIVER NOTE:
Yesterday was a difficult day. He had just a couple of lucid moments during the time I was there. We’re pretty sure that it is from a combination of things and hopefully, today will be a much better day overall. His thoughts ranged from being a pilot, his brothers, cats to cabbages. At one point he was naming all the red veggies and how he wanted some pickled beets. He attempted to pick the cabbages at his feet, but couldn’t quite reach them.

It was a day to talk to all the providers and a couple of new ones. We’ll be talking more today as the plan for rehab and follow on continues. We had introductory talks yesterday and I have to go to the Pallliative Care office this morning before spending the day with him. Hopefully they’ll begin cutting back on the pain meds a bit and OT and PT will have more success today than yesterday.

POSITIVES
No restraints through the day
He was happy for most of the day
He ate well for dinner – not so much for lunch, though.
He did have a slightly greater intake of liquids throughout the day… preferring his Dr Pepper for sure!

10.22.24

CAREGIVER NOTEs:
No calls from the hospital overnight, so maybe they were able to get him soothed enough to sleep last night. He wasn’t having it earlier in the evening and did try to get out of bed on his own. It took both of the male CNA’s on shift and the nurse to get him back into bed before he hurt himself or did any damage to the “fix.” I came home from the hospital exhausted and shaky. I decided not to go back and sleep there. I needed to do some self care as we’ll start the some post hospital preps today so we’ll have things in line when he’s released from the hospital. I meet with the social worker today. We met the therapists yesterday, and they’ll be back today. He’s got a lot of work to do before he’ll be ready to be released from the hospital — I’m really hoping we won’t have to bring an Oxygen tank home with us, but the respiratory therapist isn’t all that hopeful.

POSITIVES:
The nerve block carried him through the day
He was happy to know that he could eat anything he wanted – no dietary restrictions
He loved getting phone calls and having visitors