September 21, 2009

Emily ended up coming home last night.  Dad was resting well, and she knew all the staff that was on the night shift and was comfortable with each of them.  She also feels very comfortable with some of the staff.  And she knows if she wakes in the night and wants to call and check on how he's doing that she can do that. She rests so much better in her bed than in the recliner they have in the room.  Last night they didn't even have a pillow she could use. Her back does so much better when she sleeps in her own bed! It was a good decision for her to choose to come home. Again this evening, she knew all the staff that was on duty and felt comfortable enough after the shift change to come home for the night.  She did stay quite late tonight!

There was lots of rain in Chattanooga again today and the water in the drainage canal at Emily and Gene's got up over the bank again.  It came into the yard up to the flower beds, but nothing like the other night when the dumpster was lodged up against the bridge stopping up the water flow.  Today there was news that a man in Chattanooga drowned in a storm drain similar to the one that flows through Mom and Dad's neighborhood. Perhaps people just don't understand the power of water!  Mom certainly does!  When the water was up this morning, she was watching like a hawk, and calling to check in with neighbors - she even called the city to let them know the water was about to breach the bridge again!

Gene is still running a temperature today.  His fever is at 100.4.  But his ventilator pressure remains at 20 and his oxygen at 35. He is resting very comfortably at this ventilator setting, his oxygen saturation is at 100%, and his heart rate seems to have stabalized in the 70's.

The medications that Gene would normally take orally are ground up, dissolved in water, and given to him through the feeding tube. So tonight when his nurse started to give him his medications, his feeding tube was stopped up, but she was persistent and worked with it and got it going.  The first thing she tried was some coffee!  Dad has been wanting a cup of coffee -- of course he didn't get the tasting part. When that didn't fix the problem, she got it fixed by using a second course of action - some of Mom's petroleum jelly.

Dr. Carver came this afternoon, after a week of being gone for a well-deserved vacation. Dad recognized that he was there and tried to focus on him for a bit, but he's tired and spent most of his time with his eyes closed seeming to rest. It is still very frustrating for both Emily and Gene that it is sometimes so difficult to understand what he is trying to say.  Sometimes she can understand him and but often is unable to and because she is so devoted to taking care of him and advocating for his needs, she can hardly stand it that she doesn't know what he wants.

Tomorrow the staff is having a family meeting.  They do a meeting like this about one time a month.  They invite members of the patient's family to come to a meeting that has a respresentative from each of the specialty areas.  Each of them speaks and lets the family know how he is doing and offers the family an opportunity to ask questions.  We'll be able to report on his progress from every angle next blog.