Daughter and I trudged through the snow to the hospital this morning. There were multiple calls with Sisters today about various issues. Dad's kidneys are improving. They've restarted the blood thinner and a diuretic at a lower dose. He still has about 45 lbs of excess fluid he's carrying around. The kidney doctor assured me he would be able to get back on the diuretic and get rid of the fluid.
All of his heart valves are leaking some, but we need to wait for the cardiologist to tell us if it worse than it was in August when he had his last echo. Two are causing the most concern. I can't imagine them trying to repair multiple valves on him in his current condition.
The primary doctor was talking about sending him home. I told her absolutely not, he was too weak to live on his own and needed rehab. I think she was surprised, but set the wheels in motion. She's thinking maybe he can be transferred tomorrow. We'd prefer they get some of the fluid off first, but then, what do we know.
Far Away Sister is working on getting power of attorney and dealing with financial issues. Sister and I explored the possibility of moving Dad into the dementia unit with Mom. They probably won't accept him, as it's just assisted living and he is an insulin dependent diabetic. We're now exploring the option of getting home health care aides in for a couple of hours a day and getting someone to take him over to see Mom daily. That would enable him to stay in his apartment, and it would probably be cheaper. He's excited about that possibility.
In the midst of all of this, Daughter had one of her days of low blood sugars. I was getting ready to take her out to lunch when her blood sugar dropped into the 50's. She treated it, and it dropped down to 38. I went to the desk and they found me some orange juice to give her. I decided we'd eat in the cafeteria, as I didn't want to take her out in the snow with unstable blood sugars. Right before we left the hospital she dropped again. We treated again. After I finished meeting with the administrator about options for Dad, Daughter was back in the 50's again. While I'm pleased with what we accomplished today, I am also exhausted.
Tomorrow will be another long day. Hopefully I'll remember to take the power cord for my computer with me to the church tomorrow. It was a long day without it today.
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