Links

Bah. Catheters. Or at least that's my guess for these reoccuring fevers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteremia

G-Tube
http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/dental/tube_feeding.htm

Repeat Pattern

It's been almost a week since my last update. Although part of last week my dad's mood was pretty bad, but after my multiple complaints, the docs finally d/c Klonopin and since Wednesday he was back to normal.

Therapy has gotten a bit more aggressive over the last week. Speech therapist 3 times a day to help him with meals. Physical therapy helping him stretch out his muscles and practice moving his legs. And occupational therapy happening during the week to help him dress and sometimes help him try to stand. All these sessions require a lot of his attention which he's having a bit of a problem with, but overall with the help of my brother he is mostly cooperating.

When I left him on Saturday, he was exhausted and pretty emotional, but that shows me that he is thinking and feeling and the exhaustion helped him get a good night's sleep. Not exactly sure what happened internally overnight, but yesterday his blood pressure started to climb up again. It went as high as 180/100. It went down after an extra does of meds and a large BM, but in the morning it went up a bit again.

This afternoon, same as what happened almost 1 month ago on 10/13, he started getting a fever. I just got off the phone with my brother and it went as high as 103.9 degrees about an hour ago. Although his BP is fine, he's extremely agitated and it was really difficult for the nurses to get a complete set of blood cultures from him. Right now he down at radiology to get yet another chest x-ray. I am counting the days since he officially started eating 3 meals a day on top of having the g-tube and it's about the same number of days since he started eating a month ago that he also had a fever attack.

Last time they weren't sure if it was a lung infection from silent aspirating or a UTI, but I have a feeling it is the former and it's due to eating. A complete drawback but let's hope that the past 3 weeks of recovery has strengthened his internal system so he can fight this one off naturally in a shorter amount of time. It is flue/cold season....... right.. as I am getting sick myself.

Although test results will have to wait until tomorrow, I hope my dad can at least get an uninterrupted night's sleep. Now that the temperature is back down to 99 after a ton of ice packs, hopefully it doesn't climb up again. Please help us think of good thoughts.

Lastly, thanks to Mabel Ko and Chen-pin Hu to your donation. Night.

Yes We Can

On and off, my dad has been mumbling Obama! Obama! and telling my brother and I that he wants to vote. He might be too agitated (still not sure if it's the Klonopin screwing things up) to fully absorb everything, but my dad and I watched the electoral votes pile up and Obama's uplifting speech at Grant Park.

Hopefully my dad can sleep soundly through the night knowing that change has arrived in America and if history like this can be made, he will believe that he can recover.

Starting anew

A lot of other problems have been found in the last couple of weeks, but there's really not much of a solution yet. Apparently my dad's platelets aren't working, his kidney was deteriorating earlier but it got better, then there's the hematoma that's there's not much to do about, then his blood sugar levels were high and he got some insulin injections.

Most of this stuff has been pushed aside. Even though the problems are there, there's no cure. So the focus is back onto rehab.

My dad went back to the 2nd Unit Rehab center on Wednesday evening. On Thursday, he had a gastrostomy and his PEG gtube is now in place. It kind of hurts him but it's overall less annoying than the tube through his nose and throat. He has great potential to swallow and eat again, but he was sleepy yesterday and wasn't alert enough to work with the speech therapist on eating lunch. So this weekend, in the eating department, no improvement.

Today his greatest improvement was that he was able to sit really straight on the wheelchair without having to lean on the backrest. Although his head is often down, he is able to control it a bit. The main problem is that he gets really sleepy......which made me suspicious.

Over the last few days, the doctor has prescribe some drugs that I find extremely questionable:

Baclofen: A muscle relaxer and antispastic due to extra spastic movements in his arms? Maybe it can be proven that he needs it, but from what I've read, it's not recommended for stroke patients. About 10-63% of patients experience transient drowsiness.

Klonopin: Is used to treat epileptic seizures and panic disorders. The attending doctor prescribe this due to my dad's apparent "change of mood." Apparently it effects a chemical change that causes imbalance and anxiety.

Seroquel: Looks to be an extremely dangerous med to treat bipolar disorder. Although this has been discontinued, my dad did have to take it once.

I don't want to offend the doctors but I really want to be explicit that they cannot prescribe any mind altering or psychiatric drugs for my dad. Most of the time, these drugs just cause him to be extremely drowsy. And sleeping during the day is the last thing that he needs. He now has a limited amount of time that he can stay in the hospital and we really need him to be rehab'd as much as possible. Also, seeing that my dad isn't capable of communicating his problems to the doctors due to some lack of alertness but mostly language problems, giving these meds to my dad might as well be drugging him unwillingly. There is no test that the doctors right now can give to my dad to prove that he has any sort of need to these drugs.

Sigh, I am just very frustrated about this part.

My dad tonight said that he's been feeling scared, I asked why and he didn't know why. I hope this isn't the meds talking.....

Overall it's been a bit easier communicating with him as he is speaking louder and slightly clearer. Of course when he is in his sleepy mode, all words become a mumble. I continue to let him know what kind of improvements he has made. I know he is capable of recovery, even if it's at the pace it is now, but I need to make sure that he believes it too.

You can do it daddy!