Diaries

I went to the hospital first this morning to visit dad and see how he was doing. Frances was in the ER with mom until 2am this morning before she was finally moved to a room. Frances did not get home until 4am. Dad’s fluid weight has gone down though his  creatinine levels are still elevated. He was supposed to get up and try to walk today with PT. I left at 11 to go to work. Frances took the day off to make phone calls concerning assisted living places then went over to see mom. This afternoon she visited a couple of places.

Right now, I need to be at work as much as possible. We have several big things going on that I need to be there to handle at least through tomorrow.

It rained all day yesterday and this morning. The sun came out midday but the clouds rolled in again late this afternoon. We’ve had roughly an inch of rain so far.

Frances took the day off from work to take care of my mom. She has been getting progressively worse the last few days with her cough and being very weak. Frances took her to the doctor this morning who promptly sent her to the hospital.

I worked my day as usual then left at 4:30 for a haircut appointment. Frances called just as I arrived home to let me know how things were progressing. They had been throwing all sorts of antibiotics at her infection in the ER but with the large number of patients waiting to be seen and moved to beds they was still in the ER at 6pm. I advised Frances to go run her errands, go home, get something to eat, and then take whatever mom needs back to the hospital later this evening. They will take care of her in the ER until they can move her to a bed.

In the meantime I have been on the phone with dad’s nurse, doctor, and social worker getting updates. We are trying to get a list of places to put dad when he leaves the hospital other than the horrible place he was before. Depending on how mom recovers they both may have to go to assisted living places to get better. So, now we have both parents in two different hospitals.

House cleaning chores this morning. I need to finish cleaning off my desk and pay some bills.

Just talked to my sister. My mom is not doing too well. I suspect she may have another infection. She has not been feeling well the last week or so. That along with all the stress of my dad’s illness is taking a toll on her. And, with mom and dad both not doing too well right it is also taking a toll on me and Frances. There are times when I think I could get in my car, get on I-40 and just start driving west. Children who opted NOT to help care for their parents if they had the opportunity or parked them in nursing homes so as not to be bothered is just hard to comprehend. There are exceptions to the rule where the parents were not very good and did not provide a good life growing up. At least when my folks do pass away I will not have to sit around saying “I wish I had…” because I did and so has Frances. And, we are not the only ones doing this either. So, we will keep going and get through this no matter how hard it is.

It’s a chilly, windy, raw day. The rain is moving in this afternoon with highs only in the 50′s.

Another marathon night in the ER with dad. I finally sent Frances and mom home at midnight. They had to go by the apartment first then mom went home with Frances. They finally assigned dad a room at 1:30am. I went on up to his room with his personal belongs and to talk with the nurse. When I left at 2:15am he was still not up to his room.

Bob had finally fallen asleep waiting on me but, of course, woke up when I got home. It was well after 3 by the time I finally fell asleep. Bob got up at 8 with Colin, I slept until almost 8:30. After reading the paper and eating breakfast I took off to run errands. This afternoon I drove over to the apartment to pick up a couple of things for dad and to head over to the hospital.

The doctors are not sure if he has pneumonia again with his lungs so full of fluid. Both his home health nurse and the nurse last night mentioned aspiration pneumonia may be causing all these episodes. Dad was awake when I arrived at the hospital around 2:45 this afternoon. I talked with both his doctor and his nurse about his condition. Right now things are sort of on the fence. He could get better, well enough to go to a rehab facility or get worse and go to hospice. We will just have to wait and see.

It was cloudy, windy, and very chilly all day. Now the sun is out and while it is still windy, it has turned into a fairly nice evening.

It’s been a long week on both the work and home front. I stopped by the library and grocery store on the way home then mowed the lawn while Bob had a casserole cooking in the oven. When I came in from mowing Bob said Frances had called. Dad had fallen while trying to get in her car at Creekside. He was okay but very weak.

Yesterday morning Frances had mom at the doctor to run some tests so Marcy stayed with dad. I talked with Marcy this afternoon. She said dad was pretty weak yesterday. Mom told Frances she had a bad time with him last night, I guess getting him up and down.

I called Frances and insisted she call 911 and have them take him back to the hospital. This progressive weakness from Wednesday to today indicates something physical is going on and will only get worse.

So, I will shortly be taking off for the hospital, most likely until the wee the hours of the morning.