July 11th

Just left Dad.  He had a chest xray early in the morning.  No doctor showed up between 7:30 and 9:30.  His vitals, particularly his O2 levels, were better than yesterday morning (91% yesterday vs 95% today).  We walked around the floor and he had a nice pace going.  When we got back, breakfast was waiting – scrambled eggs and sausage.  He ate most of it.

Tom’s plan for today is to walk over to Dr. Nichols office and see if he can get a consult with Trevor the PA (one sharp man).  Tom feels we need someone to help coordinate all the various hospital doctors.  If nothing else we hope he can give us a holistic assessment of Dad’s condition.  After that Tom will walk over to Dr. Rose and see what the progress is on Dad’s ear.  Dad said it didn’t hurt this morning.

In assessing his demeanor, I believe he knows the fluid came back to his lungs too quickly and that has him a bit depressed.  He also knows his ear needs to be fixed and he wants to have more energy.  He is hoping the doctors are doing something about those things, but I got the feeling he’s losing a bit of confidence in their ability to improve his situation.  Dad’s emotions do fluctuate through the day (as I’m sure all of ours would).  We had a nice visit and he was conversational.  He has an amazing ability to be of good cheer….