Friday

From Nancy:
Went to see Dad this morning and took him a sausage roll from Rick's Bakery and "good" coffee. He ate ALL of it and said the coffee tasted good. He looked okay although I've noticed his voice is now very faint and weak. It's becoming harder and harder for him to talk for any length of time. He is anxious to do more and more PT which is a good sign. He said he didn't sleep well and thought the dose of steroids yesterday hyped him up some. The nurse did say they were going to change the timing of the Lasix so he wouldn't get it right before bed time.(duh - what a no brainer - I can't believe they haven't done this before now!!!)

Dr. Jackson (lung doctor) came in while I was there. He thinks the fluid in his lungs is just a pocket of fluid. He is not convinced that it is Organized Pneumonia like Dr. Templeton suggests. He says organized pneu is typically all over both lungs and is not concentrated in one place. Antibiotics would not "cure" it since it isn't a bacterial (or viral) infection. It's more inflammation caused by something inhaled, medicines taken or something else. Anyway - they are going to take a chest x-ray and then put him on heavy diuretics and then take another x-ray in a couple of days to check progress. If they don't see improvement - he may want him to have a CT scan which might involve a move to WRMC for the test. I wasn't clear on that so not sure if they can do that at Regency or not. But for now he's on steroids and I guess will stay on them until they can figure out how to effectively treat the fluid.

Jamie came by to see Dad last night before heading to the Hog Bball game in which the Hogs actually surprised everyone and WON. ;-)

Rusty is still without power as am I. Even when the power is restored to my side of town - not sure when I will be lights on since SWEPCO will have to come back out and physically attached a power line back to my house since the box was ripped off. Also hopefully will have some tree trimmers early next week to at least carve out a space in the drive way. We will see if they show up or not. We have all sustained massive tree loss.

Trying to not get discouraged on all fronts but I know that God loves us and He wants us to trust in Him above all things. We are fortunate that no one was hurt and that we aren't cold and starving. We can learn from this time of darkness if our hearts and minds are soft and we can ALWAYS be thankful because it can always get worse...............

Thanks Nancy.

Charlotte and I spent the night with Mom last night. Limbs are still falling as the ice melts from the tops of the trees and refreezes on the lower limbs making them even heavier. We came home to let the cat out at around 9:30 am and we got power restored around 9am. The house is still trying to warm up but it is good to feel like you are not a refugee anymore. Thanks to all our friends who offered to put us up and feed us! (Even when we didn't take you up on it.)

As you can tell by Nancy's report, we are on the medical merry-go-round again. so this morning I went to try to find someone to talk to. I am waiting on a call from one of the doctors to find out why the difference in diagnosis. I learned my lesson at WRMC that despite egos, we are not going to treat the same symptoms with two different treatments. When the attending physician and the original physician are in the same group and clinic, there ought to be some consultation. Egos aside I will not let this go on. It is confusing to Mom and Dad and is not very good practice.
Even the OT and PTs are at odds on what he can do. Some of the exercise that Dad has been doing at WRMC evidently is not acceptable at Regency, so I have that to deal with. As a result, Dad is not doing anything and his muscles and spirit are starting to atrophy.

I am trying to maintain a positive attitude, but it is not easy at this point.

Pray that I don't lose my christianity in the next few days.

God is good!