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.

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

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.)