My sis and I went and saw grandfather today. Some things have improved to a degree. He has been moved from ICU after 2 1/2 months to the next level down intermediate. The one good thing is we can now stay with him basically long as we want. We have put up a bunch of pics on one wall for him to look at. The room is not too big and with all the machines they still use on him it can get crowded. He was awake today while we were there. We put his glasses on him and he enjoyed being able to see what was going on. A couple times he seemed to recognize who we were and then other times he just had that same look of just going with the flow. We have a tape player in his room and we played some of his music we brought from home. We keep trying to give him every stimulant we can to get his mind going again on the right track.
I saw his bed sores today really good today and it almost brought tears to my eyes. The ones on his back and bottom are just hideous and if he could speak I would not be surprised if he would not scream. They were redoing his bandages and applying ointments and it hurt my sis and I to see him having to go through so much. The plastic surgeons still want to hold out of doing anything until he is more along. I kinda understand the thought on that. He has been laying in a bed this whole time and if they do fix it and then a few weeks later right back where we started. Still I want to know what relief we can give him.
We had a meeting today with some of the nurses admins. We discussed trying to get the entire staff working on him to all be on the same page. To have a better plan and goals for him when they are working on him. The nurse that had him today did not know his history and that struck as really stupid. With someone in his condition there should be plenty of notes from nurses and docs all the way. That is going to be taken care of as well. It's kinda hard but right now grandfather is in a state of flux almost. He is well enough to be out of ICU but still needs almost special attention. The room and floor he is on is meant for people that might be going home in the next couple weeks. There really is no place for him. Even the doctor admitted that. He has speacial needs and is kinda inbetween what both floors provide. We are also going to get his voice therapy and the other therapys inline. He will not get any better unless these things are done everyday. Hopefully with todays and tomorrow another meeting that all this will be taken care of.
Sandy has been recovering from her surgery pretty nicely. She is chomping at the bit to get back to work. She is a lil sore still and that's to be expected. Still we had a good weekend with the girls and that was nice. She goes back this weds to the docs to get her release she hopes.
I still can't thank everyone enough for giving myself and my family so much encouragement. It has truly been a blessing. Thanks again so much. Ron Stryker
