Hello to all of you,
I do not have very much to report today, but will try to let you know what I do. Dad seems to be relatively unchanged for the last week. He was extremely tired most of the day today. He ate a good breakfast, but then ate nothing for lunch. Jamie said he ate most of his supper. He was deeply asleep for most of the morning and afternoon. I tried numerous times to get him to wake up enough to talk, unsuccessfully. I read portions of the Sunday newspaper to him, but he would be asleep almost as soon as I started reading. He said he was looking forward to Church, but when the time came, Brooke and the aide were unable to wake him sufficiently.
He woke up when Don & Linda, Keith and family and Kevin and family came to see him late this afternoon and had a fairly good visit with them. He was awake when I was there around 7:00 pm this evening and we had a fairly good conversation.
He did fairly well yesterday with two of his therapies, but was too sleepy for the third.
They have apparently decided that the residents, including Dad, are using too much bottled oxygen. They wanted to take his oxygen concentrator to the lunch room this morning for breakfast. I went along with it, but later decided that the walk there should be with oxygen from the bottle. The nurse said that he was authorized to have an oxygen bottle when he walks to the therapy rooms, but not otherwise. I told Brooke when she came in to insist on having the oxygen bottle on him when he walked to the lunch room at noon and evening. Both of those meals were delivered to his room, so it was not an issue. I don’t have any problem with them transporting the concentrator to the lunch room when he is eating, but believe we need to be insistent that he have oxygen when he walks. Seth, you will have to deal with this in the morning. If you have any problem, let me know and I will come to help you. I don’t think they will resist the oxygen as he walks if we don’t object to having the concentrator while he is there.
As I talked about in my last email, I decided that we needed to consult with a local neurologist who could examine Dad and review all of the CAT scans and history. To that end, I called the office of Joseph Watkins, a neurologist that Charlotte and I worked with once before (and liked.) His staff informed me that in order for Medicare to pay for it, he had to have a referral from another physician. I called Dr. Dahl’s office and requested such a referral from him on Thursday. Dr Dahl called me on Saturday and indicated that his staff had sent the referral on Friday. I will call tomorrow to set up an appointment as soon as possible. I think that could be 2 – 3 weeks based on my conversation with the staff of Dr. Watkins, but we will try to get it as soon as possible. If any of you would like to participate in that meeting you are welcome to come along. If you have questions you would like to have addressed, please get them to me (preferably in an email) and I will attempt to have them addressed.
I have talked to Karlene, Karl and Don regarding the fast we had as a family. I would love to hear from any of you that have additional insights that we should all understand.
Here is the schedule for the next two weeks. You will see that we don’t have many signed up (my fault because I haven’t sent this out earlier.) I would appreciate it if you can let me know soon about the early days, especially tomorrow night.
9/27 Monday morning and afternoon – Seth
Monday evening – Open
Tuesday morning and afternoon – Seth
Tuesday evening – Sallie
Wednesday morning and afternoon – Seth
Wednesday evening – Open
Thursday morning and afternoon – Seth
Thursday evening – Open
Friday morning and afternoon – Seth
Friday evening – Open
10/2 - Saturday morning – Karlene
Saturday afternoon – Karlene
Saturday evening – Open
Sunday morning – Karlene
Sunday afternoon -- Karlene
Sunday evening – Open
Monday morning and afternoon – Seth
Monday evening – Open
Tuesday morning and afternoon – Seth
Tuesday evening – Open
Wednesday morning and afternoon – Seth
Wednesday evening – Open
Thursday morning and afternoon – Seth
Thursday evening – Open
Friday morning and afternoon – Seth
Friday evening – Open
10/9 - Saturday morning – Open
Saturday afternoon – Open
Saturday evening – Open
Sunday morning – Open
Sunday afternoon -- Open
Sunday evening – Open
Thanks for all you are doing to help Dad. I continue to be impressed by your commitment to Dad.
I love you,
Martin