Tonight's picture was taken in July 2003. I will never forget that moment in time. We took Mattie to the beach for the FIRST time. He was 15 months old and it was on this trip that Mattie began to take his first steps! It was a very exciting time. Of course the summers in North Carolina are hot, so that afternoon, we came inside for a while to cool down. We had book time on the couch and it was no wonder what book Mattie picked out.... Good Night Moon! It was his all time favorite book, and ironically this book was given to me by one of my graduate school mentors as a baby gift. It was not a book I grew up hearing, but I came to appreciate the words and all the visuals! To this day, I can still recite the book, that is how often we read it! In fact, when my husband was on travel, we would text message each other good night, using several of the lines from this book!
Quote of the day: The good times and the bad times both will pass. It will pass. It will get easier. But the fact that it will get easier does not mean that it doesn’t hurt now. And when people try to minimize your pain they are doing you a disservice. And when you try to minimize your own pain you’re doing yourself a disservice. Don’t do that. The truth is that it hurts because it’s real. It hurts because it mattered. And that’s an important thing to acknowledge to yourself. ~ John Green
This morning I received a text message from our pharmacy that several medications for my dad were ready for pick up. The pharmacy also let me know that one of the new medications was flagged because it could interact with other drugs my dad is taking. I am VERY thankful to CVS! Because it clued me in to look at what was prescribed and get down to the bottom of the problem! I literally reviewed the medications prescribed today and saw that all of my dad's blood pressure medications were altered. I am tired and juggling a lot, so I did not appreciate learning that my dad's medications were changed throughout his hospitalization, and yet I WAS NEVER ALERTED to these changes!
So I immediately called the hospital this morning and spoke to my dad's nurse. She was in the middle of working with another patient and promised to call me back. Ideally I wanted to pick up all the medications from CVS before my dad came home. But after waiting 90 minutes, I told my mom, that we should just go to the hospital. While driving, my dad's nurse called me and I explained the issues. She told me she would look into it and have answers for me when I arrived.
When I got to the hospital, I met with my dad's nurse, who explained the changes to me and also told me one of my dad's previous medications was stopped altogether. We then reviewed my dad's blood pressure readings for all 15 days and I agreed to continue the new medications and set up an appointment with his cardiologist soon. The discharge process went very smoothly, and the same nursing assistant that admitted us to the unit, was also the same fellow who helped us with discharge. Jeff is the kind of nursing assistant you want to clone. He exudes positivity, kindness, and compassion. He absolutely loves his job, he loves interacting with patients and families, and it shows! When you work with someone who loves what they are doing, it makes the whole interaction go smoother, if feels like a more meaningful connection, and leaves you feeling like you are in good medical hands.
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This evening, my dad managed to get up the stairs. He is clearly strong enough to do it, but he is physically exhausted, which made the stairs challenging for me. I am hoping that with more days at home and getting acclimated to life outside of the hospital that he will be more alert, engaged, and active. But I am happy to say that the bed rail I assembled works and he can't reach the latch to open it, so hopefully this will keep him safe throughout the night until I get him up in the morning.
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