safely ensconced in 509

Dad is safely ensconced in room 509 on the 5A floor at P/SL. It's actually a gorgeous room, with a fantastic view of the mountains. He is still "in isolation," which means we have to wear gloves & a gown when we visit, and that will continue until they get a test result back that says he's clean for the norovirus. The norovirus test tends to take about 2 days, but Dad is looking great actually -- his temperature is normal and his stool is pretty normal. In fact, they might transfer him back to Monaco tomorrow (he just has to not exhibit any of the symptoms, we don't have to wait for the test results for that). For now we'll enjoy our beautiful enormous room & view. :) Thank you everyone for all of your prayers and good thoughts!

here's a first -- a regular ward!

Don't you hate it when you -- or the doctors! -- make assumptions before all the tests are back. *sigh* One of Dad's tests from Monday finally came back, and he's positive for the norovirus. Which, honestly, is not at all surprising given his symptoms (you might recall that I had similar symptoms way back when), and it's kind of nice to have an explanation. However. The nursing home has refused to take him back with the virus (I assume that's a temporary thing, and that they'll take him back once they're certain that he's no longer contagious). Furthermore, Dad is exhibiting some of the symptoms again (TMI: he has diarrhea again). So, he will be transferred out of ICU today, but they're going to put him in one of the regular hospital wards at P/SL rather than sending him back to the Monaco nursing home.

I think Mom & I will go out to see Dad this evening, hopefully after he's settled into a new room. We get to explore a new wing of the hospital ooh how neat! ;) Ya'll might want to hold off on the visitations, though, until Dad gets a clean bill of health and isn't exhibiting norovirus symptoms anymore. Cuz, y'know, it's kinda ew. ;)

doing better

Dad's doing a bit better, so they're talking about transferring him out of ICU and back to the Monaco nursing home later today. He was in isolation yesterday, because they were worried that he had a virus, but he's back out of isolation now, which is much nicer. He didn't have a virus, so the issues were most probably in reaction to his meds.

In other news, Mom does indeed have an ulcer, poor thing, so hopefully we can get that healed up as quickly as possible so she can go back to drinking her lattes. :)

back to the hospital

Hey folks. Dad had some issues this morning, so we took him back to the ER at PS/L, and they'll be transferring him to ICU in a few minutes. This morning he aspirated some formula (so either his food formula backed up into his throat and then got into his lungs, or maybe he threw up), and had diarrhea, a bit of a temperature, and some blood in his urine. The current theory is that he might have some type of virus, but we're still waiting on confirmation.

I was in town this weekend, so I'll extend my trip awhile longer and stay til Dad is more stable. Please please send prayers and healing thoughts our way. Thank you so much!

nursing home staff seems to take good care of ed

We've been pleased with the care that the nursing staff has given Ed - what an enormous relief!

ed's in room 128 in monaco parkway nursing home

Ed's move was very uneventful, once we got to it - originally planned for 11:00 AM, but ended up closer to 5:00 PM. May have turned out to be a godsend, because a private room opened up and they put Ed into it, rather than sharing a room, for which we are very grateful!

Feel free to visit!

nursing home was previously known as "the mariner"

think we found a nursing home for ed

We have talked with and visited Monaco Parkway Health/Rehab and they are used to dealing with a coma patient with a tracheotomy, which has been the most difficult problem, and we think it's a good nursing home.

They have not given a final "yes" to Ed, since they have not seen his medical records, but Select Hospital expects to transfer Ed around 11:00 tomorrow, so they think that all the necessary arrangements can be made.

Cathy Mowry is going with me tomorrow to Select Hospital, and we'll meet Jim Whiting (Brian's dad) there, so we will try to work around the useless case manager that should have been working on Ed's case.

Here's the info on Monaco Parkway:
895 S. Monaco Parkway, 80224
(south of the intersection of Leetsdale and Monaco)
303-321-3110

As for me, I was a good kid and went to see my doctor who is having some blood tests run to see if I have an ulcer or liver problems. More to come.

Many thanks to all of you!

need prayers to find a different nursing home

On Monday, Hallmark nursing home re-evaluated Ed and decided that they would not accept him.

I did not handle the stress well, and ended up in the emergency room. Thankfully, Dawn, Brian, and Jim were there to get me over to the E/R.

So, we need to find Ed a good nursing home that has a room available NOW and will accept someone in a coma and on a trach collar and is a good place.

We were given the name of one other nursing home that would accept him, and it is not a place we would want to have Ed cared for, so that was pretty discouraging.

The hospital said that they could delay moving Ed until Thursday (originally they expected to move him yesterday), so we don't have much time.

We would very much appreciate suggestions.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers - we very much appreciate them!

Thanks.

moving ed this week

We will be moving Ed sometime this week to the Hallmark Nursing Center at 3701 W. Radcliff, 80236, just south of the intersection of Quincy and Lowell. The telephone number is 303-794-6484. Dawn, Brian, Jim (Brian's Dad) and I visited Hallmark today, and we are very pleased. Ed should feel very much at home, since it's right across the street from where we square dance with the Rolling Wheels.

Ed will have a private room at Hallmark, and they have 24-hour visiting (you just need to buzz to have the receptionist open the door), so please continue to come visit and talk to Ed, and of course keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Many thanks from all of us!

meeting with case worker

The case worker on Dad's case asked to meet with Mom today at 3 (Denver time), presumably to discuss how long they'll keep Dad at Select before we need to move to a new facility. If you happen to read this post before that time, prayers for serenity on my mom's part and wisdom & good bedside manner on the case worker's part would be greatly appreciated.

decreasing frequency of updates

Ed continues to be quite stable. We continue to pray for a miracle, and appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

We will expect to post here less frequently, unless something - good or bad - happens, in which case we will post ASAP.

how we expect to proceed

We aren't sure exactly where we will be going in the next few weeks, but our plan is to sustain Ed until at least three months after his stroke, since that is the far end of the period during which a stroke victim should regain consciousness. The three month period would take us to about April 5.

It will take a miracle for Ed to regain consciousness, but we do believe in miracles, so we are going to hang in there. We continue to visit Ed and talk to him, since we still feel his presence.

If you would like to visit Ed, please feel free to do so. We very much appreciate all your thoughts and prayers.

just stopped by to hug ed and pray

bad news

Dr. Silo examined Ed today and said that he could offer no hope for his recovery. Ed's brain stem is severely damaged - only the very lowest part of the brain stem is functioning, which is the part that controls blood pressure and breathing. The middle and upper part of the brain stem is not functioning, and does not recover.

big day delayed

Well, Dr. Silo didn't make it in to see Dad today, so he's supposed to come by tomorrow sometime after noon. We're a little frustrated but still glad that the doctor will make the time to evaluate Dad. Our nerves are stretched a little thin, as you might imagine, so prayers for patience would, again and as always, be appreciated.

big day tomorrow

One of the specialist doctors, Dr. Silo, will be in tomorrow morning to evaluate Dad. He comes with extremely high recommendations, including one person who said that "If Ed is in there, the doctor will find him. And if he's not there, he'll tell you."

So, we're a little nervous. We all believe that Dad is still in there, somewhere. But, we don't know how best to show that to someone else (a.k.a., an "outsider"). Mom is going in to the hospital early to be there when the doctor comes by. The whole family has observed that Mom can get Dad to react in unique ways, ways that he doesn't react to any of the rest of us, and we really believe that that's because their connection is still there...because he is there. However, Dad's reactions have been a little hard to predict -- some days he's pretty "twitchy", and other days he just seems tired out. Also, we know that he doesn't do a lot of "purposeful" movement (yet), like jerking away from pain stimulus or dilating his pupils or opening his eyes. On the other hand, Dad apparently didn't open his eyes much after the aneurysm surgery, even before the stroke and coma. We're hoping that, for purposeful movement, Dad will relax his arm when Mom tells him to, as he was doing yesterday (and tonight!), and that that will be enough for the doctor to see some hope for us.

We'd like to ask for a whole bunch of prayers/thoughts:

• Responsiveness from Dad. Heck, if he'd just wake up before the doctor gets there, then everything would be dandy! ;)
  
• Serenity for Mom. This is not a command performance on her part, and if Dad isn't twitchy then we'll just figure something else out.
• Knowledge and faith for the doctor. Knowledge so that he can see what is best for Dad and the rest of the family. Faith because scientific knowledge is not all that there is to this world. And we have to believe that Dad's fate will be decided by more than just his actions tomorrow morning.

Thank you, everyone. I'll let you know how the meeting goes as soon as I find out tomorrow (I'm back in Portland again, so my knowledge is once again being relayed via Mom & Dawn).

birthday wishes

Today is Mom's birthday! And the 28th of this month will be Dad's birthday. It's a decadal birthday this year for them...yes, they're both turning 30! Again. ;)

We were thinking that if Dad woke up today, that would be an awesome birthday present for Mom! But, I guess it'll have to be a belated present. One or two days late wouldn't be so bad... ;) Come on Dad, you can do it!!! WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP!

maybe ed relaxes an arm when i tell him

One of the therapists suggested that a "purposeful" response from Ed would be to relax his arm when we tell him to, since his muscles are pretty contracted as a rule. It seemed like Ed was able to relax his left arm sometimes when I told him to do so, which is a little bit of encouragement that we could really use. So, we'll see if we can get him to continue this tomorrow.

no noticeable changes

So we'll just keep hoping and praying.

a few more eyelid twitches i'm told

A pesky little transmission problem and a delightful ride with a very helpful tow truck driver to meet Dawn and Brian and our spare car resulted in a late visit with Ed today, so he was pretty sleepy for me. Or maybe he was just tired from trying to cheer for the Cardinals in the SuperBowl!

I understand that he was quite "twitchy" with his eyelids when folks were talking with him before I arrived - now we just need him open those baby blues!