Jim's Rosewood Playing the Cards Your Dealt

I thought it might be helpful to write up a couple notes to pass on to the team.

Things to talk to Rosewood about:
- Diet, high protein meals if possible.
- Regular eye drops throughout the day.
- Better response when he presses the button.
- Imodium AD every 8 hours to control his diarrhea, until we see improvement. Ask Dr. Heidari on Thursday for advice if it's not improved by then.
- Make sure every member of the nurse staff and PT/OT understands he only hears in his right ear.
- Ditto, he only sees out of his left eye and he can only see shapes.
- Have PT/OT help teach him how to get in/out of bed by himself. Lifting his legs up on the bed is getting harder for him.  Have them teach him how to put the toothpaste on the toothbrush with his vision challenges.
- He would like to change his undershirt every morning and put on a clean golf shirt.  Can we direct the morning shift to do this before breakfast.
- Make sure the staff doesn't allow him to sleep through a meal.  He did not eat lunch on Tuesday because he was sleeping and they didn't think to wake him. He can't read the clock.

Observations:

Dad likes to sleep in his undershirt and grey Depends. When I get here, I check to make sure he has a clean undershirt and new golf shirt on.  He wanted a couple "white" golf shirts, so I grabbed two from his closet. I didn't get a chance to write his name on the tags.

I check to see of he brushed his teeth after breakfast, he usually says no and ask me to help him, which means I move this toothpaste and brush to the sink and put the toothpaste on the brush.

Getting out of bed is a strain for him, so I've been helping him sit-up out of bed by letting him grab each of my hands and pull himself to the edge of the bed. I get his slippers on and then he can do the rest on his own.

The heart hospital asked for dad to take protein shakes, 2 per day. I don't know exactly which doctor requested it. They asked me to go to wal-mart and buy a case of Nepro. The problem is he never drinks more than a sip and it sits next to the window, near the sun. I asked John to see if we can substitute the Nepro, that he doesn't drink, for two tablespoons of a Twin Lab's liquid protein instead.  I spoke to the nurse about it tonight and she said the doctor will have to ok it and she can't give it to him.  She can't stop us from giving it to him though.

Dad more comfortable using the Depends instead of underwear. He still has Diarehha, I have tried to teach the staff to ask dad if he still has diarrhea, but they don't. So I have been asking for the Imodem AD every 6/8 hours for him and they have been great getting it for him when I ask.

He's having trouble chewing food on his right side.  That is why he likes soup for lunch and dinner.  Breakfast seems to be his favorite meal.  He doesn't like eating all the bread and breaded meals (ham on toast, cheeseburgers, etc...) or things that are hard to cut up.  I made friends with Simone and asked her if she could help dad cut up his food during her shifts and she said, "of course" and dad was very appreciative when she cut-up the cooked ham tonight.  She even made a comment how hard it was for her to do it with a butter knife.

Dad is wearing suspenders and likes them, however they are a challenge to manipulate when using the restroom. I think elastic shorts might be easier if they'll stay up.

I got dad to sit in his chair instead of going straight back to bed several times.  He's a good sport, but he gets bored in the chair because he really can't see well enough to watch TV or play a game.  We also said outside on his patio a couple times for 10 minutes or so and he seemed to enjoy getting a few minutes on sun.  We also went to the shaded area across from the PT room and he enjoyed that as well.

This afternoon we visited with John and Ranae and decided to walk over to the dining room for more space. I thought the change of location really helped Dad, he was more alert and attentive.  He also got to meet some other people staying there, like Charles (81) - the country music singer who invited dad to a sing along tomorrow at 4pm.

I'm going to post one more message about PT and OT next and see if I can include some photos and video I shot.

In closing, I share everyone's observations in terms of Dad's strong will and amazing spirit.  I'm blessed I was able to share the last couple of days with him.  A lot of the time, I would just sit with him on the his right side of the bed and give him play-by-play on the US Open or read him headlines from the news.

I got to watch him do all of his PT and OT sessions and got to see first hand how nice the staff are to "Mr. Bill" or "Mr. William". Are they perfect, no way. However, I never once witnessed any staff member being "short" with anyone.  Dad had two accidents while I was there with his diarrhea and each time two staff members came to his aid, took him in the restroom, shut the door and cleaned him up, and did it cheerfully without judgement.

I believe dad likes the variety of people and personalities and being on a set schedule. He's fighting using the wheelchair with all his might because he firmly believes if he allows people to start pushing him around in it, his legs will just weaken more.

I share the heartache and emotion of seeing dad like this, as all of you have.  This week I got a lesson in "Playing the cards I have, instead of complaining how crappy they are." He continues to be an amazing role model to me every minute I'm around him.

Love to all,

...Jim