The Long long road.

Well, a quick update on dad.

We have made it through a week now.

To be perfectly honest, it was pretty grim in the first 5 days. I honestly thought I was about to become half an orphan last Tuesday.

Tuesday was rock bottom for all concerned, the doc said to call the family, so I don’t suppose he held much hope either. Some of the family was there on Wednesday, and they have been coming in dribs and drabs.

I certainly appreciated the extra support – I was falling apart and finding it hard to keep it together for a while, but with the extra help, it was all good.

Dad has made a remarkable rebound so far, his BP has come down quite significantly, and seeing his BP is better than Rob’s, that’s saying quite a lot! He still has the headache, and is still wondering what all the fuss is and why he is in hospital. I think he realises something is not quite right.

His marbles are still all there. He knows exactly who we are and what year it is etc. He still has the smart arse remarks. There is another guy in the ward, who mainly communicates by clapping. Dad is calling him the “clapping twit” and when he claps, Dad puts up his hand to clap aswell. You then have to raise your hand up and Dad then claps your hand!

He has had more tests – they all seem pretty positive so far, although there is still a bit of a bleed somewhere, as his HB keeps going down slowly. (No that is not a pencil – it’s the haemoglobin level)

Yesterday was revolutionary – Dad was assessed as being allowed to eat a vitamised diet again, although he is still pretty drowsy, he has to be up in his special chair and alert enough to make sure he doesn’t fall asleep half way through swallowing.
Tomorrow I am going to go to the market and get him some of his favourite fruit to mash up and take in for him. I think he would really like that. Last night he asked for beer, so I have got him some Coopers Stout – that should help boost the iron levels! Rob and I will go in later on tonight and take him the beer. (Might have to have one with him)

Things that have changed – Dad says his sense of smell is very acute now. He can smell the rubber gloves when the nurses put them on. It makes him a bit queasy. He also says when he has the MP3 playing in his right ear the boom, boom of the music hurts his left sides muscles, but if you put it in his left ear, no problems at all.

He has been a bit of a rat bag to, he managed to get his shoes out of his locker and put them by the bed – he really wants to get out. I asked him how long it took him – along time he said.
He pulled out his catheter as he said it hurt – they put a smaller one back in, but now it is out completely.
He had a nasogastric tube in, as they started to feed him, but he told me that “in the middle of the night, it fell out by accident.” It seems he didn’t like that one much either.
They put another one in last night – a much smaller one. He seems to be tolerating that one a bit better – for how long, who knows!
I did explain to him that he had to have it until he could swallow a bit better, he seemed to understand.

One thing Dad asked me on Wednesday “how am I doing?” I told him much better.

I hope he keeps it up.

We have more movement in the left arm, he waved his fingers at us when we left last night, we just have to work on the leg, as we keep telling him he will have to buy an automatic car if he can’t get it going well enough to change a clutch. That should be enough incentive.