Sunday in The Red Room

The folks and I have come to call the area between the house and garage The Red Room as the chairs are painted red.  Dad and Glenn got here about 11am and Dad is soaking up some sun and visiting with Ev.  Glenn is building a platform for my recliner to make sitting and standing easier for Dad until he is stronger.

It is a beautiful day and I have home made chicken and vegetable soup for lunch!

Saturday in Rice Lake

Ev and Wanda have the day off. Not going to see Dad until 5pm, we will get there in time for the folks to watch Lawrence Welk.  Glenn and I will go get Subway sandwiches for supper to eat after LW.

I got up about 9,  Ev slept till 11, had breakfast, then lunch, now going back to bed.  I am making big pot of chicken soup for next week.  No salt, trying to find new spices we like that have no sodium.

Dad had occupational therapy this am and will have physical therapy this afternoon.  He walked with his walker down to breakfast this morning with Glenn and that is a ways down long hallways and an elevator ride.  Glenn is there taking care of everything, so I have the weekend off.  Yay Glenn!

We are hoping for discharge to home early next week if Dad continues to get strength and balance back at this quick rate.

Thanks for all your concern over the past week!! 

Wanda

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Wanda

http://lifeinricelakewi.blogspot.com/ 

Rehab has begun

Dad was up walking the halls at the rehab center today, getting stronger all the time.  He said he slept good there last night.  Yay Glenn for coming to Rice Lake this weekend.  Ev and I are home in jammies and headed to bed early.

More tomorrow.

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Wanda

http://lifeinricelakewi.blogspot.com/ 

Rehab

Ev and I checked Dad into the Rice Lake Convalescent Center this afternoon for a rehab assignment.  We were disappointed with this facility, but of course we had been 5 days in ICU in a brand new, state of the art hospital and this facility was built in 1968.  The staff seems friendly, I'm not really sure there are enough of them, but we got through the initial stuff, had dinner together and helped Dad get into bed before we left for home.  Glenn will come tomorrow and help us with whatever is next.

Thanks to all who have sent messages of encouragement, we love it!

Rhythm

The procedure went as planned today. Dad's heart is back in rhythm! Yay!
Wanda from my Android

Whatta Day.

At about noon, the cardiologist did a Trans esophageal echo gram on Dad's heart.  This gave him the last bit of information that he needed to do an electrical shock cardiac-convert procedure.  The first shock was successful to restore Dad's heart to a normal sinus rhythm.  Yay!  Dad was awake and laughing during most of the procedure according to the nurses.  The drugs that are used are the type that allow the patient to be awake but remember nothing about the procedure.

The set up for the process started about an hour ahead of time, but the actual TEE & Cardiac-conversion took only about 15 minutes.  Amazing!!

Dad was exhausted after all of this activity and slept until supper time.  When Ev and I got back there after 6 he was sitting up watching TV and wondering where everybody was.  He is breathing the easiest I have seen him breathe since he got to Wisconsin.  

So, what is next?

Tomorrow, assuming all is still fine with heart rhythm and lungs, Dad will be released from Lakeview Hospital.  For a short period, he will go to the Rice Lake Convalescent Center for rehab.  We hope that this will only be a few days, but he has to be able to get up the 5 steps into my house and also motor from bed to bathroom, etc, safely before he can be here. So, knowing Dad, he will put in the work to make that happen faster than anyone would guess.  The nice part about this place is that it is straight up Main Street and then one block towards the lake so Ev can drive there herself without problem if it turns into a longer stay than just a few days.

The VA connection also got established today.  Between my phone calls and Gus's followup, Dad can now use the Rice Lake VA Clinic, which means that he can have his protime/INR  tests there and the VA will cover the cost of his meds.  Yay for cutting through red tape!

Ev and I are tired tonight but so relieved that I am expecting this to be the best sleep of the week!

Thanks to all for your concern and the text messages and your emails & support.  It all means a lot, whatta week!

Medicine is a good thing.

I am a planner

Tuesday Afternoon Update: This morning the cardiologist saw Dad. He is concerned that Dad's COPD is probably what caused his heart to go out of rhythm and so has ordered breathing treatments and steroids to get the breathing improved. If this works overnight, then tomorrow at noon the cardiologist, will numb Dad's throat, put a camera down to take pictures that will show him if there are any clots present in the heart, if there are none, he will shock Dad to convert his heart rhythm back to normal rhythm.   Ev and I are happy that we now have a plan of action and we also both really liked the Cardiologist.  He was good about explaining in simple terms what is going on with Dad's heart and what it should be doing.

So, once we have rhythm, then we can move on from there.

Yay.

A change in schedule

At 3am on Saturday morning Ev woke me up to say that Dad was having pain when he is breathing.  The ambulance arrived and transported Dad to Lakeview Hospital in Rice Lake.  His heart rate was very high and also out of rhythm.  After a few hours in the ER, he was admitted to the hospital and is being medicated to control his heart rate and the hope is that it will go back into rhythm on its own.  Time will tell.  So, the big family party of 30+ had to be cancelled.  Ev and I got some good sleep last night and will head off to the hospital soon.  Now we wait.
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Monday evening and Ev and I are home catching up on some rest and Dad is still in the ICU.  I ran over to see him at supper time and he was doing okay.  His heart is still out of rhythm and his heart rate a little fast.  Tomorrow a cardiologist will see him and then we will know more.  It was 90 here today, so a good day to stay indoors.