Today was a mixed day for Dad. First the good news...
We arrived at the "spa" to find Dad up, dressed and sitting at the table with breakfast being served. He again ate a hearty meal and even though he was facing institutional scrambled eggs (even at a 5 star restaurant they are suspect) he devoured everything else on his plate, the oatmeal, the toast and all the great "thickened" drinks. The speech doctor was working on Saturday reinforcing how great Dad is eating and with his focused work on his gutteral sounds and projecting his voice he was moving smoothly forward with his vocal recover.
In the food department Dad continued his appetite through both lunch and dinner with even a few "thickened" shakes in between.
Dad's physical therapists had Dad taking STEPS, 7 in all...one giant leap in less than 24 hours. In addition, Dad found time to exercise in his room to speed up his strength recover...now I know where I got that "type A" personality!
The bad news is that Dad was increasing tired all day requesting sleep throughout the day even with great, stimulating conversations with Mom and I, Uncle George and even Hank and his wife Lil. As the evening wore on, Dad continued to complain about being tired and in addition there was blood in his urine...something that we believe the "spa" should have noticed. Lucky for us, Mom was on top of it and once she got the nurses going they found that Dad's blood pressure was also 80/50 (for you non-medical folks that too low) and she called the doctor to recommend he travel to Condell.
Where we are now is that Dad is resting comfortably in ER waiting for a room. His urine is clear, his blood pressure stable and color is back in in cheeks. We don't know what the root cause is of this sudden change but under the care of the Condell team we are confident we will find out shortly.
We gave Dad our love and promise that we are all keeping him in our prayers and went home for a well deserved nights sleep.
CarleneLabels: Bad News, Good News |
