A Few Steps Back
My dad is still in the rehab unit, but the last couple of days he has taken a few steps back.
On Monday, after a full day of speech, occupational and physical therapy, I went for my usual visit after work and my dad has already eaten dinner and was back in bed tired. He didn't respond much so my immediate worry was that they started some sort of new medication that was making him drowsy.
After the nurses convinced me that he's just tired from the day, I backed down and just sat at bedside waiting for Moyee to come for the usual acu treatment. It was getting late, so I went to call Moyee to see if she can come back tomorrow instead, since my dad was sound asleep. When I came back to the room there she was, so the usual treatment began.
Meanwhile I noticed my dad started getting warm. Since Moyee felt his head and didn't think so I didn't think too much of it until later. 30 mins later, I got the nurse to get his temperature, and he had a fever of 103. The nurses proceeded with ice packs and tylenol. The worst part is that the crazy hiccups came back at 8:45pm and did not go away until 11pm when I left. The last time these long term hiccups were around.... that's when well, ehhh I'd rather not say.
A handful of tests were immediately ordered. Blood and urine sample. The chest xray was ordered but it wasn't administered until the next morning. The doctor's initial reaction was that he was aspirating (since he was also drooling a lot) so they hooked him up to Vancomycin, the anti-biotic for lung infection and another broad spectrum gram negative anti-biotic for 10 days.
The next morning, his fever was still up and down. His blood pressure actually wasn't affected. Despite the drooling, he was still able to take meds and eat by mouth. I spoke with Dr. Pence and the diagnosis was that my dad got another UTI as the chest xray didn't show anything abnormal. At that point his temp was slightly down to 101.3. And they would allow my dad to just control his temp on his own over the next few days. He was awake, he sat up a bit to eat.
In the afternoon, I got kind of a mean phone call from Dr. Englander informing me that my dad is to not have anymore acupuncture treatments and that the acu practitioners were not adhering to hospital guidelines. He was quickly to blame the acupuncture treatment as the cause of infection/fever even though I was just told my dad got a UTI. I thought the whole guidelines thing was crap because the hospital has never informed Dr. Zhu what was required other than clearance from the Medicine Department. Turns out Dr. Zhu and staff had to submit a treatment plan. Ugh. Dr. Englander was naming things off like Dr. Zhu left needles in places where he shouldn't have. And I would ask him for specifics and he would be kind of dodgy about it. I hate when people can't be specific with you because it's like they are afraid I am going to sue the hospital. Gah.
I told Dr. Englander that I understand the treatments needs to be stopped because of his fever, but I asked him when this issue can be revisited because I want my dad to continue with the treatments as it is helpful to him. He basically said nothing and repeated that my dad is to have no more acupuncture by any practitioner right now. Later I looked him up and apparently he's the director of rehab. The hospital really needs to step up on its communication regarding this whole thing. Prior to this incident, the medical team at TCNU or any hospital unit had no discussion or interest really in the progress of his acupuncture treatments, so how could me or Dr. Zhu or Moyee have any idea of what is required? I have break this ban.
This morning I called -- now his fever is down, BP is stable, hiccups are still kinda going. But now he's back on NPO (Nothing By Mouth) SIGH.
My brother is supposed to be down at the hospital today during the day, hopefully he can breath some reassurance into my dad....
On Monday, after a full day of speech, occupational and physical therapy, I went for my usual visit after work and my dad has already eaten dinner and was back in bed tired. He didn't respond much so my immediate worry was that they started some sort of new medication that was making him drowsy.
After the nurses convinced me that he's just tired from the day, I backed down and just sat at bedside waiting for Moyee to come for the usual acu treatment. It was getting late, so I went to call Moyee to see if she can come back tomorrow instead, since my dad was sound asleep. When I came back to the room there she was, so the usual treatment began.
Meanwhile I noticed my dad started getting warm. Since Moyee felt his head and didn't think so I didn't think too much of it until later. 30 mins later, I got the nurse to get his temperature, and he had a fever of 103. The nurses proceeded with ice packs and tylenol. The worst part is that the crazy hiccups came back at 8:45pm and did not go away until 11pm when I left. The last time these long term hiccups were around.... that's when well, ehhh I'd rather not say.
A handful of tests were immediately ordered. Blood and urine sample. The chest xray was ordered but it wasn't administered until the next morning. The doctor's initial reaction was that he was aspirating (since he was also drooling a lot) so they hooked him up to Vancomycin, the anti-biotic for lung infection and another broad spectrum gram negative anti-biotic for 10 days.
The next morning, his fever was still up and down. His blood pressure actually wasn't affected. Despite the drooling, he was still able to take meds and eat by mouth. I spoke with Dr. Pence and the diagnosis was that my dad got another UTI as the chest xray didn't show anything abnormal. At that point his temp was slightly down to 101.3. And they would allow my dad to just control his temp on his own over the next few days. He was awake, he sat up a bit to eat.
In the afternoon, I got kind of a mean phone call from Dr. Englander informing me that my dad is to not have anymore acupuncture treatments and that the acu practitioners were not adhering to hospital guidelines. He was quickly to blame the acupuncture treatment as the cause of infection/fever even though I was just told my dad got a UTI. I thought the whole guidelines thing was crap because the hospital has never informed Dr. Zhu what was required other than clearance from the Medicine Department. Turns out Dr. Zhu and staff had to submit a treatment plan. Ugh. Dr. Englander was naming things off like Dr. Zhu left needles in places where he shouldn't have. And I would ask him for specifics and he would be kind of dodgy about it. I hate when people can't be specific with you because it's like they are afraid I am going to sue the hospital. Gah.
I told Dr. Englander that I understand the treatments needs to be stopped because of his fever, but I asked him when this issue can be revisited because I want my dad to continue with the treatments as it is helpful to him. He basically said nothing and repeated that my dad is to have no more acupuncture by any practitioner right now. Later I looked him up and apparently he's the director of rehab. The hospital really needs to step up on its communication regarding this whole thing. Prior to this incident, the medical team at TCNU or any hospital unit had no discussion or interest really in the progress of his acupuncture treatments, so how could me or Dr. Zhu or Moyee have any idea of what is required? I have break this ban.
This morning I called -- now his fever is down, BP is stable, hiccups are still kinda going. But now he's back on NPO (Nothing By Mouth) SIGH.
My brother is supposed to be down at the hospital today during the day, hopefully he can breath some reassurance into my dad....
posted by Stroke Donation for Steven Leong at
8:42 AM
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