Update on Dad

[hlmauera]

They moved Dad on Friday to Eugene Rehab. They took him off all his narcotics because of his reaction to them which has left him with just Tylenol to manage the pain. They speculate that his kidney function is too slow to remove the drugs from his system. This is suboptimal and he has a lot of pain and is very discouraged. He's been occasionally plain out mean and nasty. This makes it harder to be sympathetic. In addition the protocols that the facility has for managing diabetic insulin is insufficient to manage his blood sugar and he's had his highest ever blood sugar readings. (Max dose is 13 units, dad regularly takes 75-100, especially given the high carb meals that they provide). It's hard to hear him so discouraged.

Mom is frustrated and discouraged too. She hasn't been able to leave during the day even to get food for herself (the facility has nothing to offer her) and she is just now (8:30) eating for the first time since this morning. This makes her cranky!

The facility has been trying since Friday to get an order for Tylenol 3, hoping it might work where the other meds have been too much but his Drs office hasn't responded. Mom plans to make a stink about it tomorrow.

They administered a cognitive function test to dad today and he got 14 out of 30 questions correct. This is worrisome because we don't know how much is related to his current condition and how much is long term. It confirms what mom and I have both notice about his decreased cognitive function in the last couple of years but we are hoping it won't stay quite this severe.

On the other hand, he walked 23 feet today, which is farther than yesterday and he has 93 (% or degrees) of flexion which is pretty good. Extension is a little harder.

We are going to have to make some accommodations at home. We'll remove the shower doors and install bars. I sure wish we'd been able to get the remodel done before now so that they had a more open layout and a walk in shower but it just wasn't possible.

I know I chose to stay in this area so I could help in this sort of situation but I find it frustrating too and I'm not available much because of my job. I know mom doesn't want me taking time off to help but I may look into FMLA if this goes on too long. They figure dad will be at the rehab facility for at least two weeks but mom is going to need some respite care if his improvement is really slow.