Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2007. That Christmas we celebrated it in Florida with my parents. Prior to taking a walk, there had been a storm, and it was very windy. Along our walk, Mattie found this palm frond. He LOVED it! I remember walking around with it, because he wanted to take it back to the hotel. This was the beauty of Mattie Brown. Mattie loved nature, adventure, and exploration. Yet every adventure seemed to produce a gift... a little piece of nature that we would take back with us and appreciate!
Quote of the day: You would never know stars were there if you looked for them in a sunlit sky. It’s only when darkness falls that you realize…some things are always shining over us…just beyond our sight. ~ Suzanne Berry
This morning, I got up extra early because I had to take my dad to his post hospitalization cardiology appointment. At hospital discharge the cardiology team changed most of my dad's medications. Of course they did this with little to no explanation provided to me. When I discussed these changes with my dad's primary care provider, he over rode these new scripts and put my dad back on his usual medications. Today I got to speak with the nurse practitioner in the cardiology office. This is what I have found about nurses..... for the most part you are going to learn the reality of a condition by talking to a nurse. Meaning information that doctors may not feel comfortable sharing land up in a nurse's hands!
Throughout my dad's recent hospitalization NO ONE ever mentioned that my dad could have heart failure. This is the joy of hospitals.... instead of focusing holistically on the patient, they focus on the most pressing issue at hand. Which for this admission was my dad's brain bleed. But today, the nurse discussed with me my dad's echocardiogram results from his hospital admission. She admitted that a hospital admission is NOT the greatest time to take an echocardiogram, because when coming in through the ER, the patient is either dealing with a trauma, infection, or other major health concern. Which doesn't provide an ideal condition for a heart assessment. In any case, I learned today that my dad's ejection fraction is 45%.
Doctors use Ejection Function (EF) to diagnose and monitor conditions like heart failure. EF is an important measurement used in both diagnosing and managing heart failure. It calculates the percentage (%) of blood that the left ventricle pumps out with each beat, showing how well the heart is working. Doctors track this number to see how the heart's function changes over time, adjusting treatments when needed to improve heart performance and slow down the disease's progress.
My dad's EF is 45%. I had the nurse go back to his July admission, when he fell at home because he was weakened by a virus, to compare his percentages. In July his EF was 60%. In comparison to now, his heart is considered to have mildly reduced function...... pumping a little less than half of the blood out of the heart chamber, and this explains why I am seeing his shortness of breath with activity.
Though my dad was present for this conversation, he wasn't tracking the nurse! Instead, when the appointment was over, he said..... he was happy that he got a good health report today! It made no sense to correct my dad or to have him worry about his ejection fraction..... that is my role. When caring for someone with Alzheimer's, you have to judge and make the best possible decisions for them, and I am convinced having him worry about his heart is not in his best interest. One of the things I have learned about Alzheimer's is that some information can get stored and gets revisited every minute... almost like an obsession. I chose to eliminate that fear, worry, and perseveration today from the equation. Nonetheless, it adds to my list of significant health issues to monitor and assess for each day!
Changing the subject.... last night, Indie and I watched this Hallmark movie together.........................................
To me this movie had many important messages, not only to young couples, but to all committed couples. In fact, at one point in the movie, the grandmother stands up and says to this young couple who has been fighting and not sure they want to get married.... you don't leave or stop talking when things get challenging. NO! Instead, you find a way forward together.
This adorable movie hit home to me because it resonated with my core values about commitment, loyalty, and love. Love and commitments are forever, they are not only shared and shelled out when things are going your way. It was refreshing to know that my view on marriage was shared and played out in last night's movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment