Busy Week

Dad's had a great week, but it has been so incredibly busy! On Monday, Joe left to head back to New Hampshire to put his father in a nursing home (his dad has Alzheimer's and his mother, who just had knee surgery!, is just unable to keep caring for him at home). So I've been flying solo (and sad) here with Dad this week (wonderful family and friends have pitched in, so it hasn't been bad).

So, here's Dad's week in a nutshell:

Monday. He had PT in the morning where they had him practicing unsupported balance (that means no walker, no therapist, just Dad), which he can do for just over 2 minutes without wearing out. They also had him working on the recumbent bike and doing other things to exercise his leg muscles. It's a solid hour of exhaustion, and at that point he hadn't really slept in at least four days, so he started out the day exhausted. Then we stopped to find some audio books for him to listen to, grabbed lunch at Subway, then ran home to take Joe to the airport! By the time Becky came over in the evening to take him to visit Mom he was "too pooped to pop!" So Beck hung out with him and brought him dinner while I took a nap and felt sorry for myself that Joe was gone.

Tuesday. Day eight million and counting of no sleep. :( We got up super early to get to Dad's appointment at the VA with his primary care doctor. (This was my first VA experience and I am more concerned than ever that we really put more effort into taking care of our vets!) We got there at 8:00 a.m. (did I mention after zero hours of sleep we had to get up, get ready, and leave in time for a 45 minute drive?!) to do lab work, but when we got there they didn't have the order for it. We had to go back to his clinic (back down one floor and one long hallway...thank goodness Dad knew where we were going!), get the order, go back up to the lab, wait with a gazillion people, get Dad stabbed...and then we had about an hour and a half to wait for his appointment. We went to the cafeteria (for those of you who don't know the SLC VA, this is down about a mile of dark, creepy corridor [I think Becky told me they actually filmed the horror movie A Nightmare on Elm Street down there] ) and had breakfast and I read him the paper. We went back up to the clinic waiting room where I finished reading the paper to him, and finally (twenty more minutes past our original appointment) they took us back (for "ease" Dad used his walker, 'cause he needed to get up on the weight scale). We met with an assistant, a med student and Dad's doctor (this involved a lot of talking as we shared Dad's miraculous story time and again!). Let me just sum up the day by saying that we got to the VA at 8:00 and left there at 1:10 p.m.! We were going to meet Becky for lunch, but as soon as Dad got in the car, he fell asleep. Then we stopped to fill prescriptions for Dad (some old, some changes from his doc) which ended up taking about an hour and a half (don't even ask how that happened)! Poor Dad had had it by the time we got home and had a sandwich (sometime after 3). But he still wanted to go see Mom since he'd missed her the day before. Thankfully, thankfully, thankfully, the doctor gave Dad a different prescription to help him sleep. He actually went to bed at 10:30 that night and slept a full 8 hours without waking up!

Wednesday. Dad had so much energy from getting a good night's sleep! We went to see his new occupational therapist (annoying side note: his rehab doctor forgot to send orders for OT and speech therapy, so he went a week without any OT...not good for his poor left arm [we're scheduling an appointment with another orthopedist to see if the arm healed properly after the surgery, 'cause he's still having so much pain]) and she really worked him over. Then Dad and I went to the store to get some things for Mom, went to visit Mom, went home for lunch, then drove out to a follow-up appointment with his rehab doctor. The doc wanted to check on Dad's right hand to see once and for all if he has carpal tunnel. Well, it would have been nice if he'd told us beforehand that the way to do that is by shooting electricity through your nerves! He didn't warn Dad and just started shocking away! Needless to say, that wasn't very fun. Especially when he said, "Hmmm...your responses are a little slow, let's just crank it up a bit." !!!! Anyway, Dad managed bravely and the doc could tell there's CT in the right wrist. For now Dad's choosing to gut out the discomfort. If it gets worse, a cortisone shot is our next option, followed by surgery. We'll see how that goes. But after all that (the doc was running late, so our 3:20 appointment ended at 5:30!) Dad was wiped out. We went home, had dinner, and Dad pretty much went right to bed. And had yet another good night's sleep!

Thursday. We had an early breakfast out with a friend and when we got home, another friend came over for a visit (which allowed me to pop out to attend a funeral for the mother of yet another friend!), then Dad had back to back OT/PT . And since we got there a little early, they worked him for 2 hours and 10 minutes! (I don't know where he gets his reserves. Honestly, just the visiting exhausts him, let alone two hours of exercising! He amazes me!) After that, we ran home for dinner and Dad's brother and sis-in-law came over. (My poor aunt just had a freak accident and broke her foot! People, be careful out there!) Afterwards, Dad had another full-night's sleep!

Today. Today was a "light" day. The most Dad had to do this morning was lift his feet while sitting in his chair so I could vacuum under them. :) My niece and her daughter, the cutest baby in the entire world, came over to visit with Dad for a bit so I could run out to lunch with my sweet, newly-married friend. Afterwards I ran back and picked up Dad so we could go visit Mom for a bit. Right now, Dad is sleeping through the Jazz game after his exhausting week! Can you blame him? I'm exhausted just typing all of it!