I am starting to feel like my father is more like a criminal than a patient. He is still in the hospital. Still on the 17th floor in the Acute Care of the Elderly Ward. He is not improving. He's not really getting worse. He's sort of staying in one place.
His kidney's don't seem to be working very well, his creatinine levels keep going up, his blood pressure keeps going up. He is swelling like he's been stung by a bee. That said he doesn't seem to be too sick. He moves steadily, he is still coherent. He does seem to be getting grumpier though.
Despite having been in hospital for nearly 2 weeks with only a short break at home, he's allowed to get a day pass to go - TO THE OPERA. I find this bizarre. My mom will drop him off at the Opera House after she spends the day visiting him. Then he will take a cab back to the hospital for the night.
I don't quite understand why he can't stay home. But it does mean that for the first time in a week my husband and I won't make the journey into the city after work, I feel like I have a day pass too. A whole evening with my husband without hospital smells and crappy food for dinner because we don't get home until nearly 10pm.
I am through my scary 8:30 meeting for the day and feel like I can breath for the first time in a week. I think I'm going to insist on a date night!
Date night, yes! It sounds like you two haven't had much alone time lately. Have fun!
ReplyDeleteI remember spending several evenings at the hospital with my father-in-law, and it was so tiring, even if we were just sitting and visiting. I can't imagine the schedule you've been keeping.
I'll be keeping you and your family in my thoughts!
Thank you Sarah, We haven't had much time together... but last night ended up not being much by way of a date night.
DeleteI think a date night is definitely in order! Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteI spend every work day around the terminally ill, and while I can't claim to fully understand their mindset, I suspect the opera is just something your dad feels compelled to do- maybe even he doesn't understand it completely. I hope he really enjoys himself.
Will your dad consider dialysis if his kidneys get bad enough?
The hospital has called in a nephrologist to consult on his kidneys. I suspect that might be a possibility, especially since his creatinine are at 247 and the range given the units they are using is 70 - 120 for a man. We were talking about dialysis with him yesterday. He didn't realize it was a blood "cleansing" and that they would take the blood out and put it back in... he always thought dialysis was just an injection.
Delete