Difficult Day

    Today was a little difficult.  We were told that dad now needs 10 liters per minute of oxygen.  He didn't need any oxygen two days ago.  I got check signing authority on their checking account so that I could pay the bills.  Dad had difficulty holding the phone this evening, but he could talk.  My daughter, my mother, and I were all upset.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A temporary Stalemate - long

   My dad has been fighting a long, arduous battle against covid since November 2.  For a month, he experienced the fevers, weakness, and the shortness of breath that is common for covid patients.  Why has he survived?  I think he has had three great loves that have allowed him to persevere:  love of family, love of nature, and love of sport.    My father has always had strong emotions.  Over the years, he has done much for my mother, my brother, his aunt, and my children.  My mother has had chronic fatigue syndrome, so my father did the shopping and ran the house financially.  He always helped his now 97 year-old aunt in Brooklyn with any financial matters together with multiple phone calls.  He sent my brother and I though college and calls us a few times per week even though he is not talkative (my mother does most of the talking.)  He always drove the 4 to 6 hour trips to the hospital when my son was having lung issues...
Read more

Good news, weight loss sliver lining (long 800 words)

Dad is doing alright.  His biggest problem is that he needs 10 liters per minute of oxygen to stay alive.   He is doing very well with occupational and physical therapy.   His lungs need to heal.   He has other neurological problems that largely predated covid.   His eye hand coordination, balance, and ability to read have been problematic over the last year.   As a result he has had difficulty operating a cell phone.   But otherwise, he is improving. The last two days have been a great improvement for me.  I was discharged from the hospital two days ago!!  At the hospital, my lungs had healed enough that I was on room air (no supplemental oxygen) for 23 hours a day.  I am staying at my parent’s house and my daughter has driven down from Brown University to take care of me.   My high high school friend Scott helped me out a lot in the hospital.  Normally, I take a vitamin D supplement prescribed by my doctor.  The hospi...
Read more

Recovery

    My father has improved a lot of the last few days.  He wanted to leave the rehab center today, but they said he would die if he left without oxygen, but I'm not so sure they're right about that.  Dad is down to 3 liters a minute and saturating around 96% which means he may be able to be on room air either now or in a couple of days.  He still has balance issues and he is not always 100% there mentally, but my brother is working on getting him discharged so that he can join my mother at Harmony assisted living in State College, PA.    Today, I was well enough to shovel snow!  I had to shovel a small path to my car and I had to shovel little lanes for each tire and get the snow off the car.  I was able to do that and drive for an hour afterward. I still have an elevated resting heart rate and I often feel a bit of dizziness when I first get up.  But my resting heart rate is returning to normal and I usually need to wait a minute or les...
Read more