Tonight's picture was taken in June of 2003. Mattie was a year old and was shown in one of his favorite modes of transportation... on Peter's back. That day we took Mattie to Great Falls in Maryland. He was my nature lover, and it was from Mattie that I learned to appreciate being outdoors.
Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.
- number of people who were diagnosed from the virus: 1,867,620
- number of people who died from the virus: 108,051
My dad transitioned home from the hospital last night. As I mentioned in last night's blog, he was released counter to what his family wanted. My mom maybe energetic, but she isn't strong and certainly no one trained her on how to help guide and move my dad. So asking her to take this on alone was a real mistake. I was up last night until 1:30am talking to my mom. I know all too well how scary it is to home, feeling isolated and alone, and unsure about how to provide care to a loved one. Though I couldn't do much over the phone, morale support goes a long way.
Last night, while on the phone with my mom, my dad was hiccuping for two hours straight. He has had the hiccups for ONE WHOLE WEEK. How would you like that? That alone is debilitating. But to have NO PLAN in place to get rid of them, I am sure further set my mom off. Earlier in the evening, I did a peer-review literature search for research on persistent and intractable hiccups (hiccups for longer than two weeks). There is not a lot of empirical research out there, mainly because it is a rare condition. Nonetheless, I found three articles of substance and I literally read them and then wrote to my dad's doctor, suggesting he consider adding one of these drugs to my dad's regimen. Ironically, he took my advice and I am happy my parents have another drug in their arsenal today if this is needed.
This morning, I called the in home health care company scheduled to work with my dad for the next 9 weeks. They were absolutely lovely and a big difference from yesterday's surly nurse. In any case, my dad's in home assessment with a nurse is scheduled for Friday. So you see the level of support my mom has had? NONE! Two and half days released from the hospital before support in the form of an assessment is provided. Needless to say, when my dad's doctor called me this morning, I was professional but firm. The healthcare field doesn't think about the psychosocial aspects of care nor the ramifications of illness on an entire family system! If they did, they would never have released my dad yesterday from the hospital.
On Saturday, my Mattie would have graduated from high school. I am quite sure Mattie would have had a lot to say about comparing his graduation to Sunny's.
Sunny on the under water treadmill (click on the video to check it out)............
No comments:
Post a Comment