IMCU --> 5th Floor --> PCU
The last 2 weeks have felt extremely long. There has been a lot going on with my dad’s health going up and down and then having the court hearing for the guardianship in the midst of all of that.
It all started when my dad got moved down to the IMCU on the 3rd. From there, he did better and he got moved back to the 5th floor on the 7th. Right before they moved him upstairs, they got him into a regular bed for PT to be able to do their routine more efficiently, since his pressure wound was doing much better and just about healed. (This detail will come into play later.) Shortly after being moved up to the 5th floor, he had a fever flare up from the infection, had labored breathing, and proceeded with having no bowel movements after resuming the tube feed. At that point, he was doing much worse. With his saturation dropping to as low as 83 and requiring 60% oxygen, he got moved down to PCU on the 10th. We’ve been in room 285 since then.
After a couple of days of being in PCU, it was discovered that he developed pressure wounds, again. Thankfully they had a sand bed available and got him into one right away. Up until this point, his saturation was still in the low 90s and dropping into the 80s. Not even 2 minutes after they transferred him to the sand bed, he was able to cough up secretions and his saturation went from 92, all the way up to 98 immediately. He has been staying in the high 90s since then. I was surprised with how big of a difference it made for his respiratory and abdominal health being back on the sand bed. Since then, his respiratory has been doing well (especially compared to before) and he has started passing gas and having bowel movements.
Throughout the last 4 days, he has been awake for most of the daytime. This is a drastic difference from being super lethargic and sleeping most of the time while he was on the 5th floor the second time. It has been very nice seeing him more awake and aware without his eyes drifting like they used to.
As of right now, he is still on antibiotics. His white blood cell count has been going down, which means the antibiotic is working. He has been back on the tube feed at a low rate, till his stomach gets better and he can handle the increase in volume. His temperature is back to normal and he look SO much better.
Yesterday, PT got him sitting up in the recliner for 2 hours. While in the recliner, I video called my family for him to hear their voices to help with the stimulation. During the call, as he would be looking at the phone and hearing my siblings talk, I purposefully moved the phone slightly to see if he would track and sure enough, he did. It wasn’t anything too drastic since I moved the phone a little evey time, but he did follow both to the right and the left.
We are currently waiting for him to have consistent bowel movements and see how he tolerates the tube feed prior to moving back up to the 5th floor.
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In the meantime, I had the court hearing regarding the guardinship. Thankfully everything went as smooth as we hoped. We are waiting to receive and submit some documents prior to receiving the orders.
I’m also having my Jeep brought down here today, so I will finally be able to get out a little more than I have the last couple of weeks and maybe get some more northern light photos, if the skies clear up during the nights. Hopefully, it’ll help fresh up my mind from the load that the last few weeks have brought.
Thank you, again, to everyone who helped us throughout this time; it means the world to me!