It’s 3 PM as I write this and I’m here in the nursing home that Dad got tranferred to today. He was late getting here and evidently Mom couldn’t handle the nursing home atmosphere and left before he got here. I felt bad that he made the ambulance trip from the hospital to here all by himself. I thought my mom would accompany him but she wasn’t up to it I guess.
His vitals signs were quite low and his feet and hands were blue. They gave him oxygen and by the time I got here, he’d warmed up and his vitals were back to normal. He’s on a mattress of the floor because he was pretty agitated and they were fearful he’d fall out of bed… and they didn’t have permission yet to use a bed with side rails.
I brought some skin cream and massaged his feet and hands and neck. He was pretty agitated still and didn’t indicate that he enjoyed it but I was doing it mainly for neurological stimulation.
5 PM – Now I’m just waiting for them to bring dinner. He evidently ate poorly at the hospital so I’d like to get a big meal in him. I like the staff here so far… very personable and attentive. They asked about pain medication and I explained his medication saga, that if he didn’t seem to be in pain, then we really didn’t want him to have anything.
They’ve got a diaper on him, which makes a lot of sense. I don’t know why they didn’t put one on him at the hospital. It’s pretty strange to see your old man in a diaper. I suppose I could wipe his ass if I had to but I’m grateful I don’t have to do that yet.
7:30 PM – He ate ravenously. Nearly everything on his tray. It was a trick to feed him, though, since he was still flat on his back on the floor. The nurse said she’d order a lounge-type chair for the morning so he could be cranked up to a sitting position to be fed. It has a tray that acts like a restraint, though, so it requires approval. Lots of regulations to protect patients, I’m learning.
Interesting tidbit… this facility is owned by the parents of a girl I used to hang out with in high school. She was drop dead gorgeous, way out of my league. She considered me a good friend, which was a very cruel thing, now that I think about it.