Dad is still in ICU. It seems that he is more sensitive to the Dopamine drip they're using to raise his blood pressure than most patients and they're having to wean him off of it more gradually than usual. Now, we're hoping for a regular room Friday.
We had a good day though. Dad was in better spirits. He doesn't want visitors, but we let his cousin Sandy and her husband Carl come in with us for the early afternoon visit. There were a few tears at first and when they had to leave, but it was a really good and fun visit. At one point when he was teasing Sandy about something, he spoke louder than we've heard him speak in weeks.
Since that went so well, he also insisted we let one of his and mom's friends come in for the late afternoon visit and he enjoyed hearing all the latest gossip and catching up on his friends.
For the last visit of the night, we even had him laughing (when we told him Ava locked her dad out of the house) and dad is staying on our asses about charging the dead battery in his van. That's a VERY good sign, because dad is one of those dads who has to fix everything as soon as you tell him something is broken no matter what time of the day or night it is. We're glad that the dead battery is bugging him.
The ICU nurses also let us extend our 15 minute visits to an hour or so which is wonderful, except for the fact that there are no chairs. That's no big deal, but by the end of the day going back and forth to the hospital and doing all that walking from the parking lot and standing...and worrying...we're exhausted.
I'm not complaining though. Dad laughed today.
5 comments:
I am so happy to read this, Laurie! Please give your dad a hug from your friends in Holland :-)
Yay; even I feel relieved to hear that he feels better today....and Ava locked her dad out of the house?
I'm glad he is doing better and is in good spirits.
Laurie I believe your dad and mine worked together at Texaco. Dad knows Red. My dad was in the hospital off and on a couple weeks for supraventricular tachycardia. When they got him home he was so weak they had to carry him. A few days later it was still the same. Then my SIL called a couple days after that to let me know dad was now getting out of his chair himself and moving around with his walker. I think when they are the age our dads are, they get weak much faster than someone younger. Dad was in bed 4 days and it knocked him down terribly. Don't give up hope. Here's hoping our daddies are around for a long time.
Thanks everybody. Much love to all of you.
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