August 14, 2012 Update

Dad had a real good day today.  He was up at 8:30 to get ready for his doctors appointment and only took a one nap and a couple of short 20 minute naps.  His energy level was a little low in the evening, but we had the kids and grandkids here which makes it a little hard. 

Other good news, Dad test for C-Diff came back negative.

We did see Dr Trang today who noticed a big improvement in his mood and mentioned that he could see Dad's left ear drum for the first time.  He told Dad that he would be on the antibiotics for at LEAST 6 weeks and probably longer.  Dr Trang wants to see Dad in two weeks.  His pain level was 2 almost all day, he is eating good and sleeping good.  His weight today was 167 lbs up 2 lbs from last week.

Dr Nguyen called today to check up on Dad and Tom told him that he is doing better but sleeping a lot of the time and tired a good portion of the time he is awake.  He asked Dad to come in for a Procrit (EPO) shot, which we did after Dr Trang's office visit.  This will help with his anemia and hopefully give him a little more energy.  We asked Dr Nguyen about the Lasix and he said Dad could take it (Trevor would order it for the fluid in Dad lung/abdomen as well as the swelling of his feet/ankles and Dr Nguyen would take him off of it).  Dr Nguyen also said he would prefer that we keep Dad on the Lexapro (anti-depressant) and cut back on the pain meds.  We tried putting Dad on 1/2 tablet on Hydrocondone 4 x today and he said he pain was ok.  We are hoping that the antibiotics are starting to kick in.

Dad has enjoyed his visits with Amelia, Will, Krys and Sarah.  He hasn't been able to enjoy the smaller kids too much, but it sure has helped me having the little ones here and the energy they bring.

We see Trevor at Dr Nichols office tomorrow at 1:00.

Love to all,

Bill

July 6th

Dad had a full day of doctors today and as you can imagine he was a little down about it.  Dr. Rose had him see Dr. Nichols for a pre-op exam and then he was off to Kern Rad for a chest x-ray.  After that it was over to Memorial Hosp for and ekg and blood work.  Tom reported he was spent and hungry but after he got some food in him he perked up.  They wanted him to be checked for something called CDEF, a bacterium that can proliferate when someone, particularly the elderly, is on antibiotics for long periods.  CDEF can cause loose bowels and other intestinal problems.  We think they do this through a stool sample, but Tom says no one ever asked for one.  There is a blood test, so maybe they did that.  We will follow-up on Monday.  Dad is home resting now.  I’ll go over tomorrow and visit with him a bit.  He seems to like the Fresh & Easy meals Tom brought by as well as the Insure.  It’s going to be uber-hot here this weekend.