Sept 11, 2012 Doctors and Settling in to Rosewood

Tom and I spent the afternoon with Dad today.  We got to Rosewood about 9:45 and left about 3:30 today.  When we got there Dad was sleeping in his bed, though he was dressed in shorts and polo shirt.  He said he had gotten up and ate breakfast and came back to take a short nap before the doctors appointment.  We got Dad up and had him brush his teeth.  He was unable to put toothpaste on his toothbrush, so I helped him out.  The rest he seemed to do well, including getting out of bed with the use of the walker.

He did walk to the car with the aide of the walker (this is an older style walker with wheels on the back).  We got him to Dr Trang's office and unfortunately had to wait about an hour to see.  We did weigh Dad in before seeing him and he weighed 166 lbs.  Dr Trang asked Dad how he was doing and Dad said he was doing better.  Dr Trang looked in Dad's ear and said that it was the best that he has seen with Dad.  He asked about what Dr Nguyen was doing and we told him about the pet scan and possible chemo treatment.  He told Dad that he would call Dr Nguyen and Dr Heidari to make sure all three were on the same page.  He said he wants to see a minimum of another two weeks of antibiotics and would probably bet his house that Dad would need at least another month past the 25th.  He wants Dad to have a gallium scan around the 25th of Sept.  He said the gallium scan would highlight any infection that Dad has in the bone area of his skull.  He mentioned that he would prefer holding off of chemo until he is sure they have eradicated the infection, he is concerned that infection may come back. 

After Dr Trang's visit, we took Dad to the Garden Spot for lunch where Dad had soup for lunch.  He also enjoyed chocolate pudding, but not much more.  We then took Dad back to Rosewood, getting back about 1:30.  He wanted to take a nap. 

At about 2:30 we met with the staff at Rosewood, with representatives from therapy, food services, social services, nursing and activities.  We first discussed how happy Dad was with Rosewood and we were too, but did have a few ideas that would make it better for Dad.  Most of the items were from Jim's list, great job Jim.  We went through Dad's ailments, which included the SBO, Cancer, facial paralysis and stomach issues due to the antibiotics.  We talked about the food that Dad was being served and they are going to move Dad to mechanically processed soft foods.  They are going to start checking with Dad more to see if he is having diarhea and if so suggest the Imodium AD.  They are going to have evaluated by a Speech Therapist, to see if they can help with his speech due to the facial paralysis.  Also the OT will already had reviewed how he gets out of bed and told Dad that he was doing good.  They are going to observe him brushing his teeth and give him a routine that he can follow for brushing his teeth.  We also reminded all of them that Dad cannot hear out of his left ear and cannot see out of his right eye.  That Dad may not always fully understand them even when he says ok or nods in confirmation.  I talked about the importance of having Dad repeat back any important instructions or information.

OT will review Dad to see how he does dressing himself and the nursing staff will provide assistance to Dad in putting on clean clothes every morning.  We also let them know that Dad prefers to get up at 7:00 am so that he can participate in breakfast and all meals in the main dining room.  We reviewed all of Dad's medication and we questioned the stool softener and talked about the lacri lube and eye drops.  They said that Dad was getting eye drops every two hours, but when we asked when he got his last eyedrops, they said it was 1:06 pm.  We told them that he was at the doctors at that time and she said, oh sorry it was 11:06 am.  We said he was still not here and she said she will have to get back to us on when he had the last eye drops.

The meeting was very helpful in clearing up misunderstandings and the staff was very responsive and eager to help, often suggesting what they could do when an issue was brought up.  We did forget to mention the issue around response time when Dad needs to use the bathroom.  We will talk with the head of the nursing staff tomorrow.