Shift Change

In between visiting my Dad and running back and forth through the horrendous traffic I had to take care of his bills. This was "fun" as I had to locate his check book, stamps, envelopes, and the bills. Not an easy task if you saw his apartment.

It was getting down to the wire and he wasn't getting released anytime soon, so I activated my nephew. He would come up and I would get him orientated on what needed to be done and his responsibilities regarding the way my Father was behaving. I requested that he record any conversation with doctors and nurses, and anything unusual the my dad talked about. I also let him drive as he is an extremely good driver and I never get to look around when I am in Seattle as I am always the driver (not to mention the terrible traffic).

I met him at the apartment and the first things my nephew did was dump bleach in the shower. On his previous visits he stated that the shower looked like it had not been cleaned in years. My nephew stayed with me in my hotel room until I left. He slept on the floor. he had gotten used to that because that was the only place to sleep when he stayed with my dad.

During the time I was up there they put a PICC line in his arm since they were feeding him intravenously it made it so they had to poke him less often. The doctor (who just got back from vacation). Has tests done and determines that My dad needs a second operation to clear a small bowel obstruction. That operation is performed before I left (If I remember correctly).

So now I have to go back to Phoenix, nephew drops me off at the airport and I fly back. I start getting the ball rolling on moving my dad back to Phoenix. all the while getting updates from nephew. In the last day or 2 nephew is up there he starts reporting the grandpa is acting really strange, is sleeping all the time, and talking incoherently (I have a recording that would be funny (later)). He gets really worried about it and calls his mom. She calls the nurse and request they look into it. The nurse is reluctant to do anything...

More back story.
one thing I noticed is that when I got there my dad had the same nurse for several days but then he started getting a different nurse each day. I would have to continually explain to each nurse that my dad was not acting himself and would have to explain how he was before he went had the surgery. That he had a job, drove 15 miles back and forth to work. drove fire trucks in parades, weddings, and other events. For some reason all they kept seeing was an old guy that wasn't doing very well and... (oh well) old people get sick and die (No one ever said this but it was the attitude that I got from them.), or "oh it's just side effects of the anesthesia" *shrug*.

So anyways my Sister reads the nurse the riot act and gets them to do some more "looking". Come to find out that (gee wiz Wally), he had a PICC infection and it had spread to his brain, he also had a blood clot in his leg.... Huh imagine that he had additional problems! He had another MAJOR problem but that is for a later post. So they give him blood and antibiotics and anticoagulants and by gosh he starts getting better. However with Dad stabilized (but not improving) nephew has to come back. He would have stayed longer but he had classes and tests that he could not miss.

So now we realize that we HAVE to bring him back to Phoenix because he may be unable to take care of himself for awhile after he is out of the hospital and with no relatives in Seattle it would be majorly expensive to have someone else do it and they would never let him recuperate in his apartment if they saw it (run on sentence?). I could barely walk through his apt and I was 46 at the time imagine a week 72 year old man trying to get around in it.

Word to the wise! NEVER leave your loved ones unattended in hospital anymore than you can help. Speak up if something seems wrong, I would rather look stupid than to have to plan an early funeral.

Now begins the planning stage!

Next Post:

"The great train migration" or "how do you move 24 years of "stuff" without breaking the bank"