I think I’ll start this one off by saying women are bombs of emotions waiting to explode. Actually that’s unfair to say, I think we were all emotional today for some reason. It could partially be due to a lack of sleep or the fact that most of our supporting cast are leaving tomorrow. I think mostly it’s the fact that everyone is upset they weren’t able to be here when the tubes come out. I know my sister is having difficulty because she wants him to know that she was here spending time with him. It’s just simple things that worked us up today.
I had problems focusing on anything today. I was just fatigued and out of it, so I was forced to go out and look around town and check out the hot springs (they’re natural pockets of hot water .. duh). After the tour, a lot of the family went out to get a bite to eat at a pretty nice Japanese place. I know I needed to get out and take a break, but it was hard to do. You don’t really focus on anything else besides how your dad is doing. I was going to stay in the room overnight again, but Chris volunteered and although I told her I wasn’t tired, as soon as I laid my head down I don’t think I woke up. Staying up for 23 hours is bound to make you tired. Maybe I should start drinking a little coffee. My grandma always told my dad that coffee made you short and he never drink it when he was younger and so every time someone ask if I’m a coffee drinker I have to tell them that story.
I apologize for the blog being boring and not to good for these past couple days, I haven’t had much time and I’ve been focusing on a few other important things. I forgot to finish the blog last night so it sort of ends abruptly.
Today started off fairly well. We met with a new doctor (Weekend staff I guess). Dad was switched from volume support to pressure support which makes him breathe more on his own. The doctor was pleased with the steps dad is taking, but is concerned with a few levels that are a little high. They noticed his white blood cell count was high which typically means some sort of infection. They said his lungs sound clear so they are doing several cultures to see if they can determine where the infection is. So he went ahead and put him on antibiotics to help fight whatever it is. The doctor lowered a couple more settings on the vent to make dad work a little harder to see if he could tolerate it and he became a little worked up. The respiratory therapist told us it really wasn’t anything major to have his levels a little higher because of his size.
Dad has been restless pretty much most of the day, and I’ve been working on the bed to make it more comfortable. Apparently hospital beds aren’t made for tall people and they don’t have any in the hospital so I took the end of the bed off. I’ve been moving his legs and doing a little therapy with him, and it seems to relax him quite a bit. He keeps kicking his legs off the bed, and it’s a constant game to try to keep his legs in a decent position. He is definitely more alert today and I’ve been trying to communicate with him through hand squeezes. I asked him if he knew where he was and what happened and he squeezed my hand for both. I’m not sure if it’s voluntary but I’m pretty sure he does understand me. I’ve asked him twice and I’ve had the same response. His eyes definitely look more like he understands today and that makes me feel much much better.
He’s been coughing less today, but still has some pretty bad episodes which really works him up. You can tell he’s no longer comfortable in bed, he’s trying to push himself up and move but he’s still pretty weak, so he’s making me do all the hard work for him. I had to laugh today when I asked the nurse to help me give him a boost and she couldn’t because her neck hurt too bad. Are you kidding? Why are you working and what are you doing in ICU then? That makes for great quality of care! Then she goes on to complain about her back issues and why she can’t get workers compensation, it was a real pleasure.
The respiratory therapist was great today, I really enjoyed having her work with dad and she explained a lot, and communicated like a champ. I think she got off to a great start when she told Chris I was cute (that always works). I feel I have to share this story to liven up the blog today, but Courtney asked me if I needed relieved in the room since we’re trying to stay with him around the clock, and my response was heck no there is a cute respiratory therapist here. We’ve been joking about pick up lines all week, so she was asking which one I was going to use. I replied back to her saying “ hey aren’t you suppose to help people breath better? Because you just took my breath away.” Courtney made my promise that I wouldn’t use it, so then I came up with the one saying “hi I’m Scott from the community health organization here to test your CPR certification and since you’ve already made my heart beat, how about we begin with rescue breathing.” Of course I didn’t use this but I would be interested in seeing the outcome of them. Haha.
Overall dad is doing pretty well today, we’re praying he continues to breathe on his own without problems and we keep decreasing a few of the pressure levels. This would help us take the tube out of his mouth and it would make it much more comfortable for him. I’m hoping the restlessness eases up. We’re hoping the infection goes away (I’m pretty sure there is a slight infection in his hand) and we’re hoping to get a new bed.
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