Getting back to normal – Dad’s Pneumonia Recovery

Well, it’s been almost a month since I’ve posted because I’ve been swamped with many “To-Do’s” along with Josie in assisting with our parents’ needs. Every week, we’ve had to alternate our days with Josie spending most of her time staying at our parents’ home. Our dad has been recovering quite nicely to the amazement of the therapists and nurses that have come by to check on him. I think that all the prayers and our dad’s own will to survive something like that has really been extraordinary. He’s still in a long recovery process, and we still have to get another Xray to check on his pneumonia but so far so good. But, we still have the challenge of having someone around to help out on the weekends. With their financial situation, and ours, it’s something we’re trying to figure out in terms of hiring extra help, if we can even hire extra help!

Home Sweet Home

Josie has sacrificed alot of her time as our other sister has on the weekends. I’ve tried to help out as much as I could, but with a 2 going on 3 year old toddler and a husband that works various hours in the healthcare field, it’s hard! Sometimes, it’s infuriating when all eyes are turned on just the girls in the family, but I know that this happens in many other families that are going through the same experience as we are.  And, in many ways, we are blessed that there are 3 of us! I can’t imagine going through this if I were the only child as my Godmother was when she cared for her ailing mother and worked 40 hour work weeks on top of that. 

Josie has been able to go home for part of the week, leaving the care to our caregiver Cristina. We wanted to make sure that she wasn’t getting too burned out caring for both of our parents now that Dad needs more assistance. But still we have to be there almost every day because Dad looks for us. 

Progress, then Regress

This last weekend, we had another scare that popped  up. After weeks of continual improvement, Dad all of a sudden started hallucinating pretty badly thursday night and onto friday. He was pulling out his oxygen tubes, he was anxious all night long and didn’t sleep. Friday morning, he started eating wrong again. He was slurping up his oatmeal, not taking his time. Josie started to worry about him aspirating his food again, so she took it away. She called me up and expressed her concern with his situation. She was stressed out because she wasn’t sure if it had been caregiver error or something related to his condition. 

To take a step back, I have to explain my sister. She like me, is very meticulous about the way she wants things done. I wouldn’t say that she was anal about everything, but she likes to have an established system where few errors can happen. I credit her for the majority of our dad’s recovery so far. But because of his sudden change in mood, she thought that perhaps her leaving him alone for a few days without her put him at risk. Ah my sister, the constant worrier. Well, she had reason to on Friday because he was seeing people, he was thinking that something was on him, and then he tried to get out of his lazy boy and fell to the ground. She called me and asked if she should just go ahead and take him to the ER. I told her to go ahead and call 911 and have the ambulance pick him up. After all, we didn’t know if this could’ve been a stroke. He was doing something similar when he suffered his stroke 9 years ago. 

Hospital Visit Again

So here we were again at the ER, another possible repeat of February when Dad went in the first time for severe pneumonia. Only this time, things seemed to flow much smoother and faster. The doctor ordered an Xray, blood test and CT scan. Each was done within the hour or less  of each other. Usually ,we’re waiting forever. Lo and behold, everything came back fine other than the fluid overload that was already diagnosed by his primary doctor. They could find no reason to keep him so they decided to send him home. 

An Almost Tragedy

Given the positive prognosis, a tragedy almost occurred when Josie was bringing him back home in the car. Dad tried to open the car door while she was driving on the freeway going 7o miles and hour! He took off his seatbelt and tried to get out of the car. She was talking on the phone to my husband when this happened and screamed, “Oh my God, what are you doing?” He told her he was hot and wanted to get fresh air. She grabbed him by the arm and held on to him as she tried to exit off of the freeway. Luckily, other motorists let her pull over. Boy, had our dad gotten out of the car, surely, he and my sister would’ve been killed. Hallucinating or not, Josie angrily told him not to do that again. But minutes later as she drove back onto the freeway, he took his seatbelt off again and so this time, she pressed the childlocks and kept a tight grip on his arm. It’s a good thing she has automatic shift and not manual in her car, can you imagine?

At home and all Ok

It was weird, because of that fiasco, Dad was all fine again! Now ,it’s almost a week later and he’s doing just fine. We’re waiting for his follow-up visit with his doctor in another week to see how the fluid is draining. We’re making sure that he doesn’t aspirate his food again and keep his airways clear with his breathing treatments and inhalers. So far so good. Let’s hope this weekend goes by smoothly.