20th Night
With the days passing by so quickly, it's hard to believe that my dad has been in the hospital for almost 3 weeks. Although I don't have much to report tonight, the news today continues to be good overall.
Despite slight set back today in the physical therapy dept...my dad's overall strength has increased. The PTs weren't able to work with him today because his blood pressure has gotten really high overnight. My dad has been getting an IV injection of Hydralazine as needed when his blood pressure is dangerously high. He has been prescribed a daily dosage of another anti-hypertensive medication, but a dose of that led to his blood pressure to drop way too low, so the doctors have refrained from any regular blood pressure meds until today. Now he's taking Metoprolo twice a day. This med seems to be working for now, hopefully it will help stabilize his BP in the long run and not cause it to swing too low.
My dad has been obsessed with watching TV for the past few days. Which is ok, at least he practices using his eyes. Overall today he seems even more awake, but when he's awake he can be a little uncooperative. Speech hasn't improved much but other areas have shown much improvement. Today I handed him the TV remote and he was able to channel surf quickly like anybody. He's able to control more of his neck to support his head and was able to hold the phone when my aunt called. When I was trying to exercise his left arm to prevent it from tightening much more, I can ask him to relax and he generally has control of his arm so when I move it, it's much looser. He can extend and pull back his left leg pretty effortlessly -- well for his condition anyway.
Dr. Zhu and Moyee came by as usual. Tonight was my dad's 6th acupuncture treatment, which mean the fees are racking up. =( But it's working, so I can't have them stop coming.... More work was done on the left leg this time. There were 10 needles in the scalp, one on the chin, some one left arm, left leg and right leg. Since my dad is kind of unwilling to speak and has trouble moving his tongue, Dr. Zhu did a few pokes on my dad's tongue again. This is pretty hard to watch but it does make him talk!
My worry tonight is his oxygen intake. It is only in the low 90s right now and it drops to the 80s sometimes when he's holding his breath trying to swallow. When I left, it looks like he will get a decent night's sleep. Hopefully tomorrow he will still be on the up-track.
Despite slight set back today in the physical therapy dept...my dad's overall strength has increased. The PTs weren't able to work with him today because his blood pressure has gotten really high overnight. My dad has been getting an IV injection of Hydralazine as needed when his blood pressure is dangerously high. He has been prescribed a daily dosage of another anti-hypertensive medication, but a dose of that led to his blood pressure to drop way too low, so the doctors have refrained from any regular blood pressure meds until today. Now he's taking Metoprolo twice a day. This med seems to be working for now, hopefully it will help stabilize his BP in the long run and not cause it to swing too low.
My dad has been obsessed with watching TV for the past few days. Which is ok, at least he practices using his eyes. Overall today he seems even more awake, but when he's awake he can be a little uncooperative. Speech hasn't improved much but other areas have shown much improvement. Today I handed him the TV remote and he was able to channel surf quickly like anybody. He's able to control more of his neck to support his head and was able to hold the phone when my aunt called. When I was trying to exercise his left arm to prevent it from tightening much more, I can ask him to relax and he generally has control of his arm so when I move it, it's much looser. He can extend and pull back his left leg pretty effortlessly -- well for his condition anyway.
Dr. Zhu and Moyee came by as usual. Tonight was my dad's 6th acupuncture treatment, which mean the fees are racking up. =( But it's working, so I can't have them stop coming.... More work was done on the left leg this time. There were 10 needles in the scalp, one on the chin, some one left arm, left leg and right leg. Since my dad is kind of unwilling to speak and has trouble moving his tongue, Dr. Zhu did a few pokes on my dad's tongue again. This is pretty hard to watch but it does make him talk!
My worry tonight is his oxygen intake. It is only in the low 90s right now and it drops to the 80s sometimes when he's holding his breath trying to swallow. When I left, it looks like he will get a decent night's sleep. Hopefully tomorrow he will still be on the up-track.
posted by Stroke Donation for Steven Leong at
10:48 PM
1 Comments:
it's good to hear that dad is making progress... thanks for all the hard work, and wish that i'm there to help out...
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