So, Joe has finally been discharged from Sunny View! It happened after the toenail was removed and the infection was cultured. We will have to wait another day or two to get the results of the culture at which point they will have to figure out how they are going to treat that infection.
My dad was thrilled to be at home...for a few days at least. He will be spending the majority of his time at The Fisher House with my mom so that he can do his outpatient therapy in Albany. Today he is scheduled to begin his hand and shoulder therapy. His shoulders have developed some tendinitis from all the weight he has been bearing on them. I believe once the shoulders get added to his therapy it will involve some ultra sound on them, which he said feels really good. In fact, while he was in Sunny View he had it done a couple of times. One of the really great Occupational Therapists snuck him into the therapy room and gave him an extra treatment when nobody was around.
Along with the hand and shoulder therapy he will be doing his physical therapy in Albany as well. He and my mom will probably be in Albany during the week, go home on Friday nights and stay there thru the weekend. My parents were both surprised at how he is managing around the house. He was able to get into his own bed with the help of his grand kids foot stool. He is able to use the ramps that his brother put in for him. Over the weekend he got himself up each hour and shuffled around the house with is walker. He will need to wait on taking a shower as we still try to work out how many handrails we will have to put in and where they should be placed. Overall, everyone is thrilled with the way he is managing for now. Of course, my mother is exhausted because although he is able to do so much it all requires her help and then there are all of the things that need to be done around the house.
On the day of his arrival home his brother, Billy came for a visit. He always comes on Saturdays whether it's to the hospital, rehab, and now HOME! So, Billy, my mom and dad had a little welcome home party for him with pizza and salad around a nice fire. My dad would like to be home more than a few days a week, but for now he'll take it.
I'm hoping that my mom didn't have to shovel to much snow this morning to get him out the door. That would be a whole new challenge, huh? Just learning to walk a few weeks ago and now throwing snow into the mix! If anyone can handle these challenges my parents can. All of this hard work will pay off in the end. Love you guys!
-Stacy
Monday, December 3, 2007
Friday, November 30, 2007
Day 100
Today was almost discharge day. They are ready to get my dad out of rehab. The average stay at Sunny View for an orthopedic patient is something like 8.2 days. So as you can imagine my dad is not doing much for their numbers. Although he is not your average ortho patient with a joint replacement. Anyway, I will attempt to give you the facts of the day without muddling it too much with my emotions (this is my third try so I can't promise you anything). It is all very frustrating since from the beginning of this whole ordeal my mom has been on people to "just do their job". Well, people don't always "just do their job".
The big toe that was broken in the accident has become infected down to the bone and nobody seemed to "notice" even though we discuss it with every nurse on duty. Today, when they were ready to sweep my dad right out the front door the Infectious Disease Doctor put a stop to everything. Ultimately, it was my mom who forced him to take a look and give her some answers. Once he x-rayed it he determined it is infected down to the bone. The nail needs to be removed and cultured to find out what type of infection it is so they can begin treating it.
We knew the nail needed to come off about a week ago when my dad starting visiting some of his surgeons for follow-up appointments. Both the ortho and plastic surgeons recommended having a podiatrist look at it and remove the nail. The doctor wrote an order for this which was ignored by the nurses at the rehab facility. The nurses told my mom that they can not do that here and handed the order back to her. This was on Monday. Now almost 5 days have gone by with the infection having time to worsen! Let's hope that they are able to clear up this infection and that it is not more staph. If people had "just done there job" in the beginning the toe could already have begun the healing process. Today when Dr. Leibers told the nurse to call and make the appt. she jumped and got one right away for later this afternoon.
It has been a roller coaster of a day, and I did not even mention the fact that there was NO discharge plan written for him, the podiatrist appt. finally scheduled for today was changed 3 times and he did not make any of them, the X-ray tech dragged and dropped the walker on his lower left leg where the plate is and may have damaged it, and my parents sat around for 5 hours before anyone bothered to say that they were probably not going home today! Ahhh, it's so crazy. As my mom said, "You can't make this stuff up, people wouldn't believe it!"
As always, we have to be thankful for how far my dad has come. It really is a miracle and a tribute to the unbelielvably strong man that he is. We are also so thankful to have friends and family like you and for all of your prayers, kind words, strength and positive thoughts. It helps us tremendously to get through these tough times.
Good night for now,
Stacy
The big toe that was broken in the accident has become infected down to the bone and nobody seemed to "notice" even though we discuss it with every nurse on duty. Today, when they were ready to sweep my dad right out the front door the Infectious Disease Doctor put a stop to everything. Ultimately, it was my mom who forced him to take a look and give her some answers. Once he x-rayed it he determined it is infected down to the bone. The nail needs to be removed and cultured to find out what type of infection it is so they can begin treating it.
We knew the nail needed to come off about a week ago when my dad starting visiting some of his surgeons for follow-up appointments. Both the ortho and plastic surgeons recommended having a podiatrist look at it and remove the nail. The doctor wrote an order for this which was ignored by the nurses at the rehab facility. The nurses told my mom that they can not do that here and handed the order back to her. This was on Monday. Now almost 5 days have gone by with the infection having time to worsen! Let's hope that they are able to clear up this infection and that it is not more staph. If people had "just done there job" in the beginning the toe could already have begun the healing process. Today when Dr. Leibers told the nurse to call and make the appt. she jumped and got one right away for later this afternoon.
It has been a roller coaster of a day, and I did not even mention the fact that there was NO discharge plan written for him, the podiatrist appt. finally scheduled for today was changed 3 times and he did not make any of them, the X-ray tech dragged and dropped the walker on his lower left leg where the plate is and may have damaged it, and my parents sat around for 5 hours before anyone bothered to say that they were probably not going home today! Ahhh, it's so crazy. As my mom said, "You can't make this stuff up, people wouldn't believe it!"
As always, we have to be thankful for how far my dad has come. It really is a miracle and a tribute to the unbelielvably strong man that he is. We are also so thankful to have friends and family like you and for all of your prayers, kind words, strength and positive thoughts. It helps us tremendously to get through these tough times.
Good night for now,
Stacy
Monday, November 26, 2007
The latest news...
Okay, so there is a lot of news to report since it has been well over a week since the last blog...a lot of good and some not so good.
The not so good: the staph infection has returned, or more likely was never completely cleared up in the first place. They have been treating that orally with a very strong antibiotic and we are all hoping that it will finally be gone soon. We are not sure how long he will have to be on this dose of antibiotic. He has a good infectious disease doctor who sees him at Sunnyview and we are thankful for that. We feel confident that he will continue to monitor this situation closely.
Joe has been pretty nauseous in the last few days. There is a possibility that this has been caused by the antibiotics. They are going to do some very specific blood work (which they have been doing for the last 10 days anyway) tomorrow to make sure they are not overlooking something more serious. There is a chance that being on these strong antibodies for a long period of time could cause damage to the liver or pancreas.
The good: My dad continues to do great with all of his therapy. He has walked more and more everyday. He is beginning to bring the left foot a little bit in front of the right instead of just shuffling it up to meet the other. He has become very proficient with the walker and getting himself in and out of the wheelchair. He has done the stairs a few more times and even mastered some ramps with his walker! He continues to make us all very proud!
His last few doctor visits were really good. He saw his orthopedic surgeon who is thrilled with the way all of his bones look and the way he is progressing. He did say somewhere down the line they will have to go in and do a hip replacement on the right leg. They did the best they could with what they had to work with, but the "hip" he has now will not have a full range of motion.
The plastic surgeon said they will probably be able to cut away some of the incision at the same time as the hip replacement. I am not sure if this means they will be able to remove part of the "football" that is now part of his hip. The "football" is what Robb has named the new hip. It looks like he has a big bandage under his clothes on that right hip bet it is just the hip with some new calcified tissue. Yes, my dad has declared he is O.K. with his new "bubble butt".
In general, the plastic surgeon is very pleased with all of his surgical sites as well. He is not overly concerned with the fluid that has built up in one of the elbows. They are doing a lot of work right now trying to "walk" the old guy around right now. He would like my dad to get started right away on some hand therapy. The right hand may not regain as much strength or feeling as the left. However, he did say he thinks that they will be able to restore the left hand to 80% of what it was before. Yes, he said he believes that my dad will be able to swing the golf club again! That will not be for some time, but it is encouraging none the less.
We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner at Sunnyview with the entire family. We did not have the traditional meal, but that was not really the point this year. We obviously were all thankful for having the time to spend with each other and the second chance my dad has been given. We are also thankful to have friends and family like you who have been so supportive through your prayers, strength, and well wishes.
Happy and Safe Holidays,
Stacy
The not so good: the staph infection has returned, or more likely was never completely cleared up in the first place. They have been treating that orally with a very strong antibiotic and we are all hoping that it will finally be gone soon. We are not sure how long he will have to be on this dose of antibiotic. He has a good infectious disease doctor who sees him at Sunnyview and we are thankful for that. We feel confident that he will continue to monitor this situation closely.
Joe has been pretty nauseous in the last few days. There is a possibility that this has been caused by the antibiotics. They are going to do some very specific blood work (which they have been doing for the last 10 days anyway) tomorrow to make sure they are not overlooking something more serious. There is a chance that being on these strong antibodies for a long period of time could cause damage to the liver or pancreas.
The good: My dad continues to do great with all of his therapy. He has walked more and more everyday. He is beginning to bring the left foot a little bit in front of the right instead of just shuffling it up to meet the other. He has become very proficient with the walker and getting himself in and out of the wheelchair. He has done the stairs a few more times and even mastered some ramps with his walker! He continues to make us all very proud!
His last few doctor visits were really good. He saw his orthopedic surgeon who is thrilled with the way all of his bones look and the way he is progressing. He did say somewhere down the line they will have to go in and do a hip replacement on the right leg. They did the best they could with what they had to work with, but the "hip" he has now will not have a full range of motion.
The plastic surgeon said they will probably be able to cut away some of the incision at the same time as the hip replacement. I am not sure if this means they will be able to remove part of the "football" that is now part of his hip. The "football" is what Robb has named the new hip. It looks like he has a big bandage under his clothes on that right hip bet it is just the hip with some new calcified tissue. Yes, my dad has declared he is O.K. with his new "bubble butt".
In general, the plastic surgeon is very pleased with all of his surgical sites as well. He is not overly concerned with the fluid that has built up in one of the elbows. They are doing a lot of work right now trying to "walk" the old guy around right now. He would like my dad to get started right away on some hand therapy. The right hand may not regain as much strength or feeling as the left. However, he did say he thinks that they will be able to restore the left hand to 80% of what it was before. Yes, he said he believes that my dad will be able to swing the golf club again! That will not be for some time, but it is encouraging none the less.
We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner at Sunnyview with the entire family. We did not have the traditional meal, but that was not really the point this year. We obviously were all thankful for having the time to spend with each other and the second chance my dad has been given. We are also thankful to have friends and family like you who have been so supportive through your prayers, strength, and well wishes.
Happy and Safe Holidays,
Stacy
Friday, November 16, 2007
Keep up the great work!
Rehab has been an amazing chapter in this whole crazy ordeal. It is great to see the excitement and enthusiasm my dad puts in to all of his therapy. He is really anxious to move forward with building his muscles and getting stronger so that he can resume some sense of normalcy. The other day before I left he had walked 174 feet...what an accomplishment! He wanted me to make sure that I told people he is not walking, but the truth of the matter is that he is! Of course he uses a walker and they are little itsy bitsy steps. He doesn't consider that walking because most of the weight is on his arms. It was very impressive and the rest of us are considering it walking! He also went up and down 4 steps which took every single ounce of energy that he had in his body. He said it was like climbing Mount Everest. After that he took a 2 hour nap. He has gained about 10 pounds in 10 days and he is starting to look like himself again. His legs now have some muscle tone to them. He still think his arms look like "tomato poles", but he really is getting stronger everyday. We have been told that he probably will be discharged the week after next and will have to do home therapy for a while before he can start outpatient therapy. It will be too aggressive for him to do the outpatient stuff at first, so we will have to have a physical therapist come to the house.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
