Riviera Dunes Marina, Palmetto, Florida – September 1 & 2, 2015
We got to see JP and Emma on both Tuesday and Wednesday morning. We met Bill and Ruth for supper at a fairly new restaurant in downtown Bradenton, Izakaya Nazuka Sushi Restaurant at 417 12th St. W. (Old Main Street). The food was good. If you’re in the area, you should check it out.
Ocala National Forrest – September 3 – 9, 2015
I checked Dad out of the rehab center for a couple of hours on Thursday so that he could go home and take a shower in his own bathroom. We made a quick trip sixteen miles from the rehab center into the Ocala National Forest to the cabin where he took a shower and felt much better when he returned to the center. I took the picture below from the lake-side door (we’ve never been able to agree which is the front door – lake-side or street-side.)
On Friday, Rick and I drove over to the east coast to spend the afternoon with his mother and brother in Ormond Beach.
I brought Dad out to the cabin again for a short visit on Saturday.
Sunday, September 6, 2015 – After visiting with Dad in the morning, Rick and I went for a ride in the forest. We drove around the Naval bombing range. The Navy’s Pinecastle Impact Range in the Ocala National Forest is the only place on the East Coast where the Navy can do live impact training. The Navy drops nearly 20,000 bombs a year at the site, a few hundred of which are live. The Navy has used nearly 6,000 acres of the 382,000-acre forest for target practice for 50 years under a special use permit from the US Forest Service. I remember many times, when I was growing up, the jalousie windows in the street-side door of the cabin rattling whenever they were dropping bombs. While driving around the range, we turned onto a short road that took us to the Farles Prairie Recreation Area. Set along the shores of Farles Lake, this recreation area is a launch point for outdoor adventures, including boating, birding, and fishing along the lake and prairie system. The picture below can be found at the website, http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/ocala/recreation/camping-cabins/recarea/?recid=40198&actid=29
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Monday was the Labor Day holiday. I picked Dad up from the center in the morning and took him to visit his friend Beverly.
When I went in to the center on Tuesday morning, they told me that his test results had come back clear. His infection is gone and he will be released tomorrow.
Dad was released early Wednesday morning. I took him to Beverly’s and left him to get settled in with her for a week or so.
Wednesday, September 9, 2015 – Tuesday, 9/15 – Palmetto and St. Petersburg
Whichever way you are going to adopt, consistency and cialis generika unica-web.com persistence are keys to success.
Rick and I drove back to Palmetto. We joined Ken and Jackie and Bill and Ruth at the Bradenton Yacht Club Power Fleet dinner in the evening and a good time was had by all.
We joined JP and his family for supper on Thursday, 9/10. On Friday, 9/11, we spent most of the day at the Moffitt Cancer Center where Rick got his second chemotherapy infusion. They give him a shot for nausea when he gets his infusion which keeps him feeling pretty good for the first three days, so we took advantage of that window of time to take the boat up to join Bill and Ruth at the St. Pete Yacht Club for the weekend. It was a rainy weekend, so we didn’t do much. But, we enjoyed the weekend anyway. While we were travelling to St. Petersburg, Beverly called and said that Dad was running a low-grade temperature. We agreed that she would contact my brother if Dad got any worse. On Saturday, my brother called and said that Dad’s fever had broken and he was doing OK. We returned to Riviera Dunes Marina on Sunday afternoon and Rick went to bed early. On Monday, Rick was not feeling well most of the day. Tuesday, found him starting to feel a little better so we went back over to JPs for a little while. I called and talked with Beverly and Dad. She said that he is doing well, but that he wanders at night. The home health care nurse said that he should not be left alone.
Wednesday, September 16 – Wednesday, September 30, 2015 – Ocala National Forest
As we were driving back to the forest on Wednesday morning, Beverly called. Dad had a temperature again and the home healthcare nurse felt the infection was back and he should go back to hospital. Beverly wanted him to go to Munroe Regional Medical Center this time. I dropped Rick off at the cabin then drove into town (about 20 miles) to meet them at the hospital. Dad was admitted on Thursday morning and on Friday, 9/18 – The infectious disease doc said Dad has “staff” infection – not sure which type yet. A neurologist examined him for his complaint of neck pain and ordered a spinal tap. When Dad woke up from that procedure he could not talk for about ½ hour and had very hard time breathing. On Saturday, 9/19, the neurologist called the house before 9 am saying Dad has meningitis but is responding well to the three antibiotics he is on. When I got to hospital, I was told that he also has MRSA. Brother, Rick stayed until after the 7 p.m. shift change to talk to the night nurse. While talking to the nurse, the doctor came in and told Rick that Dad is responding well to the antibiotics and should make a full recovery, but he will need 8 weeks of daily IV antibiotics to insure that the infections do not reoccur. They are still very concerned about his heart. It is not pumping as it should and he will need another procedure to figure out what is causing this problem.
Monday, September 21, 2015 – A Transesophageal Echocardiogram (TEE) was performed this afternoon, but the nurse that brought him back to the room after the procedure said that they were unable to get a clear picture. Infectious disease doc says the 5-day culture on his blood taken yesterday was negative today. She says that Dad may need as little as 4 weeks IV therapy. Dad struggled to breathe all day on Tuesday, 9/22. He seemed much better on Wednesday, 9/2. The nurse read the notes on his chart that were left by the heart specialist. His heart is operating at 15% of its capacity. He said that no other procedures were indicated and also wrote, “hospice?” Since my brother was coming back on Thursday, 9/24, Rick took our car back to Palmetto to get the shocks installed. They did a swallow test on Dad and reported results that everything going in his mouth is going to his lung instead of his stomach. He can no longer eat or drink without catching pneumonia. He will need to have a feeding tube in his stomach. Talked to Dr. Burganna, he says in order to go to a rehab he will have to have the feeding tube. If he wants to continue “pleasure eating” he can go to hospice. He said that he felt we should continue the antibiotics and retest him on Monday. On Friday, 9/25 – Donna, who administered the swallow test, came up to the room with photos of Dad’s throat taken during the swallow test. She says that the infection has weakened his throat muscles to the point that they are barely working. They are not strong enough to push the food down his esophagus and his epiglottis and vocal chords are not closing to keep the food out of his wind pipe. She said that she agreed with the doctor that the test should be repeated on Monday. In the meantime, she gave him some exercises to strengthen those muscles. When I got to the hospital on Saturday, 9/26, the nurse told me that she had helped Dad get out of bed to go to the bathroom. This is the first time he has been out of bed since being admitted to the hospital. We turned on the TV and he watched football. I left early so Rick and I could drive over to Ormond Beach and spend a few hours with his mother and brother.
Sunday, September 27, 2015 – Dad was sitting in a chair when Mary Alice, Richard, Savannah and Ethan came in to visit. Mary Alice was very pleased to see her grandfather and felt sure that given the chance, he will continue to improve. After getting something to eat, they stopped by the cabin for a short visit with us before going over to see her sister Melissa.
On Monday, 9/28, my brother, Rick, returned to hear the results of a second swallow test to be given to Dad today. The woman who administered the test came up to talk to Rick and me around 5. She said that Dad had improved from an “F” to a “D+”. She said that she was very impressed with how hard he worked to do whatever she asked of him during the test. She said that he could improve, but she wasn’t sure that he would. She said that he was no longer aspirating everything that he ate or drank and that we could choose to have him eat pureed foot with a thickener that made it the consistency of honey, as an option other than having a feeding tube. She covered pros and cons of the three options.
Tuesday, 9/29 – Received a text from Mary saying that they were home safe in Tennessee. Saw the doctor. He recommended that we choose to try to pureed food, but we told him that we thought Dad’s best chance for recovery was the feeding tube. He said OK and that he would have to have a gastroenterologist look him over before he could be scheduled for the procedure. Rick went back to his home and I returned to the cabin for the afternoon. Later, the gastroenterologist called and said Dad is a high risk patient due to his weakened condition.
I sat with Dad on Wednesday, 9/30, from early morning until after he had the procedure. He came through with flying colors.
They started feeding Dad through his new tube on Thursday morning. After we were told that he would be transferred to a rehab center tomorrow, Rick and I left Ocala returning to the boat in Palmetto.
