Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Wednesday Morning: Don and Polly at Home

Dropped by this morning to drop off a bunch of bananas. (That's ONE bunch, not A bunch.)

Denise was there from the senior service and was taking Dad's vitals. I was confused at first and thought she was part of the home nursing care, but evidently she was from Tami's senior services. While I was there she did the breakfast dishes and made Dad's bed.

Tami came by soon after I arrived to meet with Dad and to make sure what needs to be done is getting done. She is certainly thorough and supportive! It looks like the Presbyterian/Medicare team will be helping Dad with his showers and wound care, so Tami will be there to help Mom take care of Dad. Groceries, laundry, things like that and Mom certainly needs all the support she can get. She seems to be handling the current load, but there's not much room for any more complexity.

Scheduling is still a little ad hoc. Mom expects to get her final treatment schedule next Monday when she goes for her first treatment. In her mind all other schedules revolve around that. I think she could probably push Timmerman's office on scheduling, but I'm not going to push it. She's telling the services to schedule around her treatments and so that's the way it's being done.

Dad could be doing better.

He has a bedsore on his backside that makes it very difficult to get comfortable, especially lying down. Sleep has been difficult. The 'Ambien' is bottled with the generic name and evidently that has caused confusion and he didn't have any last night.

In general, he does not like taking the 'relaxation' drugs. He says the Xanax gives him bad dreams and that the 'Ambien' doesn't work. I know the feeling. The drug they gave me for sleeping just made me crazy so I would just lie in bed feeling crazy but unable to sleep. Like being awake during nightmares: the bitch is you can't wake up!

It would help if he had a chair in the living room that would be good for sleeping. He finally admitted as much this morning.

In general, he's still a little confused and complained yesterday of blurry and occasional double vision. Mom called into Dr. Wiggins this morning. When Dr Wiggins called, he talked to Dad so it's difficult to find out exactly what he said. (Dad's confused and has a hard time remembering things.) Dr. W wanted to set an appointment for next Monday afternoon, but that conflicted with Mom's treatment, so they pushed it back to NEXT Wednesday. I told Mom that was unacceptable to call back and renegotiate. She did. We see Wiggins Fri. He seemed to think what's going on is normal post-op, but I know I'll have a better weekend seeing the doc on Friday!

So it's now 2 pm. I just talked to Mom and the physical therapist is there and I've got to get some work done!

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