GOING HOME DAY

GREAT NEWS ! ! !



Things have been busy, but not really exciting until last night. Dad, for some reason, couldn't stay put. Oh, before I continue, guess I need to explain something. It is too hot in this room for me. It is a huge room, but so is the bathroom. Being the thinker that I am, at night, I've been moving my chair bed into the bathroom because it's really cool in there. Dad goes to bed around 8pm, and I go in there and do Sudoku, play on the PC, etc. throught the night. That way, I can to stuff without disturbing him. If I get bored, or he needs to use the bathroom, I go to the waiting room and watch Spanish TV. One more item, his surgeon, Dr. Lambert, came in yesterday morning laughing at my "office" in the restroom. Ok, enough background to continue.



Yesterday Angie brought Dad's beloved Stella up for a visit. We met in the courtyard. Stella was excited for a minute, then she was busy marking her territory. She kept eating something, and when I looked, it was either dry cat food, or rabbit poop. I couldn't tell, so she had to leave. They also told us yesterday that if all went well with Dad, he could go home today. Maybe it was all the excitement, but he was a handfull last night.



Around 1am, he got up and opened the door on the housing of his IV machine, and disconnected it....... his antibiotics and saline solution went all over the floor before I heard the commotion of him getting back in bed. I asked him what happened, and he said, oh I made a real mess out of this thing-a-ma-jig. Okay, I put him back in bed and got went to get the nurse. When we came into the room and started fixing the mess, I asked him what he was trying to do. He didn't remember anything. Not getting up, not me coming in.... nothing. We him back to bed and he went back to sleep. He continued to get up and walk around last night, and I don't think he normally does this. If he does, he doesn't wake Gary or me up, so, he's probably not normally doing it.



The doctor came in this morning (I was in my office) and he knocked on the door, stuck his head in and said hi. I came out and saw that Dad had pulled his IV out of his arm, and it was bleeding. He was awake, but didn't realize he'd done it. They had to doctor his arm. Thank goodness the doctor said he could go home, so they could just leave it out. By the way, Dr. Lambert is a general surgeon, and one of the best doctor's I've ever had. I won't go into what he's done for me, or Angie, or Dad, but with him, it's not all about the money. I mean, what's a $500 office visit?



Anyway, that's all that's exciting. Between the surgeon and the current Internal Doctor, they believe that Dad's problems could very well have been caused by his hernia causing gastritis, then pancreatitis. The pancreatitis was mild, as well as the gastritis. The treatment of nothing by mouth for 24 hours, morphene, and antibiotics for the gastritis have gotten his blood work numbers to almost normal.



Here is a quickie version of Dad's hernia. It is a paraesophageal hiatal hernia, and the stomach has actually gone thru the hole the hernia created, and it is now outside the stomach area, and is resting on his heart and left lung. The lung is now about 1/3 the size of the right lung. Too large for normal surgery. Repair would involve thoractic surgery, and the risk doesn't justify the fix. It is constantly twisting, and if it gets tangeled, it will be a very miserable death. Dr. Lambert explained all this to us 2 years ago. Therefore, Dr. Lambert reinterated that if it happens again (severe high abdominal pain) to again go to the ER.



Now...... I'm going to quit blogging and go find a newspaper. I was so tired yesterday, I went home from about 4 til 8 and took a nap. . I brought the paper back, and read about Haiti. What a mess. I want to get caught up on the news. I have got to find a paper, and I don't understand a word they're saying on the Spanish TV channel.



Later......