Friday, April 9, 2010

Yesterday was kind of hectic--in the morning I went to Harris-Teeter (always a pleasure) to grab ingredients for some edible "puree diet" food for Tommy, since pureed food and "thickened" liquids are basically yucky. Tommy won't even touch the gluey liquids. My approach is just to go with delicious soups, instead--at least they're "intended" to be pureed. I mean, pureed pancakes? Please. I got him lobster bisque and then ran it through the blender at home just in case there were any little chunks of lobster, and he gobbled it up at dinner. For tonight I have made gazpacho.

Just before dinner I met with the nutritionist and, like the head of physical therapy, she is young and extremely bright and nice. Good sign. They had Tommy in the gym when I got there around 4--a Filipino guy named Peter, who seemed very good and was also very warm to Tommy, was working with him at the parallel bars and got him to stand for maybe 20 seconds (with a lot of support), so that was good.

At dinner Tommy was extremely tired. A friend of his, Frank Carr, came to visit right after dinner, and also the facility's doctor arrived at about the same time. The doctor turns out to be Dr. Raj, who was Tommy's primary-care doctor until last summer (at that time, I changed Tommy to Dr. Giddins because Dr. Raj was basically unavailable when Tommy was having a gallstone emergency and was being led around the barn by all kinds of unfocused specialists' assistants...we couldn't even get to the specialists). But we always have loved Dr. Raj, so we are very happy that he is on the case while Tommy is at Atlantic Shores rehab because he knows Tommy very well.

Also, yesterday Tommy's lungs were making a lot of noise so they gave him an X ray and found that there is a small area in his lower right lung that they think is pneumonia, so Dr. Raj has prescribed a stronger antibiotic than what he has been getting.

I asked Tommy at bedtime if he feels comfortable and secure at this new place and he said yes. One day down...more to come.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Well, as Diana recently told Janis, Tommy has nine lives. A week ago
Tuesday he was raced into emergency surgery at Atlantic General
Hospital in Berlin, Md. (a very good hospital) for removal of a
disintegrating gall bladder. For two days after that, he was "septic"
and fighting for life in the ICU. He had so many tubes and wires going
into him he looked like a robot. Two days after surgery, his system
finally kicked in as his white blood cell count started to fall and he
was able to begin to keep up his blood pressure without being pumped
full of fluids. His recovery was steady after that. He is now on a
puree diet and his swallowing is improving daily, so he should soon be
able to handle actual "food".

Yesterday afternoon he was moved to the residential rehab place, which
is in Millsboro, a 20-minute drive from the house. The docs can't say
exactly how long he will be there, but that it will probably be a
matter of weeks rather than months. He is still very tired and
sometimes confused, but when he's awake he's often alert and hits me
with the occasional zinger. Example: Yesterday at lunch time, when I told him
I was going to run down to the hospital's cafeteria to grab a bite, he
said, "Check and see if there's any beer in the fridge." (He hasn't
had a beer in more than two years, of course.)

Tommy has a lot of work to do to get back to where he was before the
gall-bladder surgery--he is unable to stand up on his own, so even
transfers are being done with the help of various mechanical lifts--but
he says he wants to come home and that he's ready to buckle down. He
will have therapy sessions in the morning and afternoon. I will be
with him for dinner every evening, so a good time to call him (on my
cell phone--302-344-8652) would be from about 6 to 7 (i.e., right after
dinner).

If you want to send him a card, here is the address:

Atlantic Shores Rehab Center
231 S. Washington St.
Millsboro, De. 19966
Attention: Tom Long, Rm. 703D

Thank you for all the support and good wishes. I know it means a lot
to Tommy to hear from his family and friends. (Me, too '-) ~Connie