Another Day

I got up early this morning and was with Dad at 7:00 a.m. in order to be there when his doctor got there and of course the doctor didn't show up until almost 11:00 a.m.  Just my luck

Dad had a rough night. He woke up somewhere around 3:00 a.m. and had a horrible nightmare about being in a war. He woke up and thought it was real and got out of bed by himself on the wrong side and ended up getting all tangled up in his wires. From the story I got he did finally push the call bell and the nurses came rushing in and had to calm him down and get him back in bed and unraveled.  When I showed up I saw the sign on his door that said "bed alarm" and right as I read it, the one nurses aide saw me and said your dad is making all that noise (I could hear the alarms going while he was moving around in his bed. They are very touchy)

Good thing about today is Dad has lots of help since today the student nurses where there so every time we needed something, someone was there really quick. After I spoke with Dad and he told me what had happened the student nurse came in and explained to me what she read about the incident as well. I was very upset and started crying. Let me back track a bit since I didn't get to update yesterday evening. I found out last night that dad hasn't had any pain meds since Monday after the NG tube went in. Which, is good that he isn't in pain anymore, but doesn't explain his 'loopiness'. So, after hearing what happened during the night and seeing him this morning, I'm just very worried that something isn't right with him.

Alot went on this morning, but while the nurse was giving him his bath she noticed that his port was leaking. She called in the nurse and she had to call the IV nurse to the room. Turns out he must have pulled out his needle from the port last night during his scare. I was upset and voiced it about how the nurses didn't check it after they got him back in bed, but of course everybody present now wasn't there during the night.

Finally the doc came in and I voiced my anger about the nurses not checking the port and he did make me feel a little better stating that sometimes it's hard to know that it's not in because of the tape that is around it to hold it in place. That made me feel better. He said it's not as bad as the nurses made it sound and they put an IV in his arm to get his 'sugar water' for today and then tomorrow they should be able to access the port again so they can resume his nutrition, etc.  We also discussed his 'loopiness' and the doc is ordering bloodwork to see if there is anything funky going on. He did say that liver disease can sometimes cause excess ammonia to be in the blood and that could be the cause, but the test will show us if there's anything going on. He also said that he will order another XRay to see how things are going. He said he wants to make sure that there's not a block also in his small intestines. But, he said when we first came to the hospital and they did the XRay that it didn't show any signs, but he wants to be sure. I let the doctor know that I had to leave soon so he has my cell number and will call me with the results.

Later, Dad's case manager had visited and we discussed his occupational therapy and physical therapy that he will start receiving today. She stated that they will evaluate him throughout his stay and that will determine whether or not he is safe enough to go home or whether he will need to go to rehab when he's released.  She also discussed that he'll be getting trained on how to take care of his ostomy bag and the person that will be there for him should also learn. Well, I guess that will be me since Mom can't do it. I'm not sure that i'm ready for this, but of course, it's my Dad, and I will do anything for him.

Clark and I were up to see Dad last night and we brought him a VCR and some movies since he's extremely bored and really doesn't like TV. He was happy about it, but of course last night we couldn't hook it up because the wires weren't long enough. Today when the one nurses aide was in the room she saw the DVD and I told her what happened and next thing you know she brought in a table and we were able to set it up for him. Now the problem was that Dad had requested a box set that he had, but it was about War. We turned it on and as I watched the first minute of it, I said to him that I didn't think this was such a good idea especially with the dream he just had last night. He agreed, so later I will bring him something more of a comedy for him.

Looks as though Dad is in this for the long haul and probably won't be getting out for at least another week. I hate seeing him like this. He's so sad and bored and angry and weak. I could keep going on with the ANDS.

I finally got back home around 1:00 and will now attempt to get some work work done for Todd and take care of Mom and then will go back to the hospital later on.