Day 19 - January 9, 2013

Sorry that this is a day late.

Yesterday was another great day for dad. The nurses that get assigned to dad all have to be males because the female nurses are not strong enough to stop my dad if he makes tries to leave the hospital. Dad had a very attentive nurse yesterday. He took dad for a lot of walks around the ICU and through the hallways. My dad was also given the all clear to eat some solid foods. Dad was very excited about this. At lunch time he was able to eat, mac and cheese with sausage cut up into it, pudding and mashed potatoes.  For dinner they gave him turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, with peaches. He seemed to like the mac and cheese, however he really did not like the turkey and potatoes. Aunt Debbie and Uncle Tim were back with dad during dinner time. Dad took one bite and said, "This is nasty!" and he pushed the food away.

Dad had many visitors in the afternoon. Grandma and Aunt Denise stopped in with a lot of old pictures as well as a Michigan Wolverine hat and drinking glass. Dad was very moved by this. He cried and told me "these things are expensive, Denise is nice." Dad was able to spend the first part of his day with mom, Tom and Nathan. Nathan said that when he got there dad was sitting in a chair next to mom talking. As soon as he walked in dad got up, walked to him and shook his hand. Tony, Amber, Codi, Deb and Tim also stopped in for a visit. They will have to post their stories of their time with dad. I know that dad definitely gave them some good ammunition to use later.

There were others that stopped into visit but were unable to go back and see dad. Although we see a lot of progress in dad, if he gets confused or frustrated he starts to act out. I know one person who is very dear and special to my dad stopped in but was told he could not go back. This was because dad was being wrestled into bed by 4 people, he was punching, kicking, yelling and (I think) using some colorful language. Please know that we do not want your first interaction with dad to be like this. We want you to see dad when he is at his best, when he is able to go on a walk with you or to be able to sit and talk. I ask that everyone have patience with us as with my dad has we walk through this path of recovery with dad.

I was able to sit back with dad when his cardiologist came in (Dr. S.). Whitney and I were there as Dr. S explained to my dad what happened on December 22, 2012. He also explained everything that he has been through up to this point as well as explaining what the next few steps for my dad were going to be. Dr. S explained what a defibrillator was, how it was going to be put in, and how this new device could save his life. After the doctor left, dad laid in bed soaking in all in. I was not sure if he understood everything that had been told to him. After a minute or two we went for a walk around the ICU. As soon as dad sat up, he started crying and talking about the defibrillator. He understood that it was going to go into his heart and that (in his words), "this is going help so that the next event is not the end event." On our walk, dad talked about his concerns. He said his biggest concern was how much all of this was going to cost him. I assured him he had Insurance and this was going to be taken care of. The next time we saw Dr. S he was at the nurses station on the phone. Dad immediately walked up, tapped him on the shoulder and said through tears, "Thank you! Thank you for the defibrillator. You are a good man. Thank you."

Dad and I sat in the bed and I read his bible to him. I read him part of Philippians. I chose Philippians because, before my dad when into cardiac arrest he had memorized the entire book...yes not a verse or a chapter but the BOOK of Philippians. Dad said he liked hearing it and said that it sounded familiar. He asked to see his bible. I handed it to him, instead of trying to eat it like he did the day before, He opened it, flipped through the pages and said, "I like this."

We are noticing that dad is beginning to speak more fluently. His sentences are getting longer, his words still get confused. You can tell that he gets frustrated because he knows what he wants to say but it does not always come out how he wants it to.

Where do we go from here?

January 10, 2013 dad at 2:00 p.m. dad is going to get his defibrillator. His cardiologist said that dad can be discharged from the hospital as early as Friday. We were elated to hear this.


So the next step...Where in the world do we send dad? After making a few phone calls and talking to someone in Chelsea, Chantel learned that in most rehab facilities use what is called a FIM score (Functional Independence Measure), to determine where people are at when they walk in the door and they use it as a measure of progress for when they discharge people from their program. People who are most successful in the Chelsea program walk in the door with a FIM score of 69 and walk out the door with a score in the 90's. (The lowest possible score is 18 the highest is around 126). The FIM measures 18 different areas of function - 13 physical measures and 5 cognitive measures. We wanted to know where dad was on the FIM spectrum, so I requested that a FIM assessment be done with dad so that we could better judge where he is at. Once his we know dad's FIM score, we will have a better idea of what facility is going to be best for him.  This assessment will be done on January 10, 2013 right after breakfast. :)