Author: nurtureyrheart

Mom, Wife, Grandma, Full-time Elder-Care giver; Multi-media Artist, Word-Smith

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

update

CAREGIVER NOTE:
We spent all of last evening (Sunday) in the ER – He fell. He was having an hallucination and lost his balance as he tried to get out of bed. Needless to say, he got a ride in an ambulance, a series of full body CT scans, x-rays and a full blood work up within the first hour of arriving. It was a pretty busy night there. It didn’t take long to determine that he had injured his left hip and that surgery would be necessary to repair it. Luckily, there was a room and staff to cover his admittance to the hospital as an inpatient and surgery was scheduled for just 3 hours after his being admitted.

He had his first PT, OT and Respiratory therapy sessions today. His recovery will certainly take longer as the procedure needed has a longer healing time and he won’t be able to put full on pressure on the leg for nearly a month.

He’s already trying to get out of bed on his own — I think I’ll have my hand full tomorrow – even though the block will have worn off by tomorrow morning.

POSITIVES:
He was full of gratitude to the nurses, CNA’s and techs who helped him out over the course of the day.
He was able to choose his Ala Carte meals from the hospital dietary menu without too much problem and ate well.
A friend from church brought him a bouquet of flowers to brighten the room.

Who are you not to be?

CAREGIVER NOTE:
Don’t lose yourself in the process of caregiving…. make time to do the things you love. That was my reminder yesterday as I visited with a friend during our online crafting session.

There are days it’s not easy — but taking that to heart, I set up my assembly area (because I didn’t finish during the online session) in the living room so he could be a part of that if he wanted and I could still get some work done. He checked things out a couple of times, asked a couple of questions and was satisfied that all would be good. And he did like the finished card when I was able to show him a finished one.

He chose to watch some shows other than news yesterday and that was nice. A little football and some Antiques Roadshow. We had several good conversations throughout the afternoon and evening.

He’s been up for the last hour and a half. He’s getting a slightly rocky start to his day. I hope things will settle down as soon as his bowels finish emptying out. (sorry about that, but it’s what happens when you have had radical surgery because of colon cancer).

POSITIVES:
Good conversations throughout the day.
Was able to let go of not having a good meal at the restaurant and not hold on to the disappointment of not being able to eat his favorite meal. The restaurant did comp part of the meal — however, it sounded like it wasn’t the only meal that hadn’t met the standard and it was still early in the day.
Didn’t start a rumble when T and A told him he couldn’t drive to the restaurant for lunch — T was designated driver for that.
He has already taken the responsibility for “cleaning up” the bathroom this morning — well sort of, I’ll still need to go in and do a little deeper cleaning and sanitize everything in a few minutes. but at least he’s done a pretty good job for a start.

10.19.24

CAREGIVER NOTE:
Not the best of nights — up 3 times with vivid dreams. Dream 1: Looking for car horns under his bed and out the window. Dream 2: Good times with old friends. Lots of laughter and joy and in good spirits. Dream 3: Playing a game, but lost the ball and no one could find it. Again looking under the bed and all around the room. He’d fixed the bed so you couldn’t tell he was out of it. UGH! He also thought he was somewhere else and wanted to go home and to his own room. He’s slept well since 2 am, thankfully.

POSITIVES:
He enjoyed phone calls with two of his sons
In good spirits most of the day
Enjoyed a “linger longer” conversation at the dinner table again last evening

Just one thing at a time — 

CAREGIVER NOTE:
complained a bit more about the pain yesterday, thankfully, the tylenol helps when he’s willing to take it. He was up and moving a little more, though. That’s a good thing.

POSITIVES:
Zingers – and they were good
Stayed up with a conversation at dinner and participated
Slept all night

Listen to your heart.

CAREGIVER NOTE:
He can’t remember falling or even going to Urgent care for the x-rays or talking to the dr. He couldn’t understand why things were hurting yesterday — and he didn’t want to get up, get out of the chair, walk or anything. He seemed more confused than his normal. He was willing to hydrate and did take in sufficient fluids over the course of the day. However, changing his underwear as necessary was another thing altogether. Hoping today will be a better day in the realm.

POSITIVES:
No mishaps of flooding or plugging receptacles yesterday
No anger regarding his not remembering recent events
Enjoyed listening to some current happenings in the family

Make today a good one.

CAREGIVER NOTES:
The rice bag was a good help yesterday, not heavy enough to put much pressure on his rib area, but enough to bring some comfort with the warmth and help of a tylenol. He did drink more liquids, but not quite enough to keep the dizzies away. Let’s hope today is a better day in that realm.

The bathroom sink was plugged up again late last evening. At least things didn’t flow over onto the floor and down into the basement. YAY! Easy fix, so everything was put back to rights in about 10 minutes and after another change in underwear, he was ready to go back to bed.


POSITIVES:
He was in good spirits for most of the day
He ate well
He tried to be helpful

Be a good listener.

CAREGIVER NOTE:
Suspicions confirmed. A fractured rib is causing the pain. He finally relented and okayed a trip to Urgent Care yesterday. I’m glad and it seemed to relieve his anxiety some hearing the dr’s findings after the x-rays were read. The pain only occurs when he is moving around, so he didn’t want to walk or move much to cause more discomfort. His instructions from the dr were for him to keep moving, lots of deep breathing exercises and when he is resting to use the heat packs and take tylenol as directed. The one thing he wasn’t happy to hear was that the pain would last for an additional couple of weeks….

POSITIVES:
He showed lots of patience and kindness to medical personnel that were trying to help him while at the very busy Urgent Care.
Joking around — and throwing out a few zingers over the course of the day and into the evening.
Willing to try to change a couple of things in his routine for the day for a few weeks. (We’ll see how that really rolls out — but it’s good to see that he’s willing to be a little flexible right now.)