Sept 20 - Strawberries and Showers

Dad was up and in the bathroom when I arrived.  I went to the dining room and poured him some coffee so it would cool by the time we got there.  It only took me three days of watching him burn his tongue to figure that out.  Yes, folks, I'm THAT quick.  When I got back to his room, the nurse had said something to him in the bathroom and there was no response and I wondered if he had his hearing aid in.  It wasn't on the nightstand and so it must be in his ear.  I was noticing the IV caps and kleenex on the floor and as I was picking them up, there was his hearing aid - on the floor.  There was not a battery in it and I scanned the floor and found not one, but two batteries (one still had the little tape on it).  Since the aid itself had been on the floor and Dad was still in the bathroom, I just went ahead and cleaned it and changed the filter.  That was the first time for me changing the filter, but I think I did it right.  I put the extra battery back in Dad's blue bag.

He ate half a muffin, a bit of eggs, and touch of coffee cake.  He would take a bite and then wait with the napkin up to his mouth and at first I thought he was having a teary session, but that didn't seem consistent with our "good morning".  I then realized he was having difficulty getting the bites of  food to go all the way down.  When I asked him if that is what was happening he replied, "the food just doesn't want to hit the bottom".  We talked about the weather, the space shuttle return to California, and that his diarrhea was back bright and early this morning.  You know, the usual breakfast conversations.

We had taken the wheel chair to breakfast.  I asked him if he had had a rough night, the diuretic being on my mind, and he said, "no, it was a pretty good night actually."  When we got back to his room his roommate who has a broken hip was being tended to and we met up with Mari Beth in the hallway for Dad's Nephro drink and morning meds.

She checked his BP twice because it was low (100/50) and decided to forego the BP med.  Dad was having problems getting the pill down and Mari Beth got a little applesauce and that seemed to help.  While we were doing this she mentioned that the blood results would now automatically go to Hedari, Saike, and Nguyen.  She asked me if he was going to see the oncologist again.  I said I hoped so and that we were focusing on the infection and kidneys for now.  She was worried about his platelets which continue to drop.  She informed Dr. Memon that the last three tests had shown a decrease from around 50 to 34.  Blood will be drawn today for kidney function.

The room wasn't ready when we got back so we went for a little walk.  The PTherapist met us in the hall and  told Dad she would be seeing him later.  He pretended his hearing aid wasn't working.  We headed for the patio and when I did my fakie right turn to the PT room he played along and said,"no!,no!,no!"  We went out to the patio where we found a rosemary plant.  I bruised a leaf and asked if he could smell it and he said "yes, that still works".  Right next to that was a strawberry plant in a planter and when I told him he said, "oh, so that's where they get the strawberries from".  Then I said it was a pretty small plant and he replied, "That's why I only get half a strawberry".

We finally got back to the room, he had just laid back in his bed and the TA came in and told him it was shower day.  "Would you like a shower?"  "Oh, yeah!".  He directed her as to the clothes he wanted and I walked him to the shower room and kissed him good-bye.