Shayna was in desperate need of a haircut. Her ends were pretty bad and after we went swimming yesterday her hair turned green....again. Oh the things you go through with such blond hair. So today we got it cut!
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The result of the swallow test showed that he can eat normal food. WAHOO! He is allowed nectar thick liquids and solids. He can't have fresh fruit because there is too much liquid in them but other then that he can have whatever food he wants. Right now at the hospital he is eating chicken, veggies, rice, apple sauce, tossed salad with ranch dressing and a snicker doodle cookie. He has to prove that he can and will eat at least 2000 calories a day. They are going to watch him closely to see if this happens, when it does they will take out the feeding tube.
Last night someone broke into Dad's truck. We don't know what was taken, if anything. Mom has not been home since yesterday. Charleen and Ron and Vick were all staying the night at the house. Charleen's jeep was broken into as well, they took her binoculars. It's bad enough to have your car broken into, but this is just really bad timing. Dad is not aware of this yet. We are waiting for the right time to tell him.....who knows when that will be.
Dad had another swallow test today. As soon as the Dr. looks at it he will let us know if the feeding tube can come out today!! That would be the best news in the world for Dad to hear today. Then Mom can sneak in and your truck got broke into. YAY! Your tube is out......wouldn't that be awesome! He has another full day of therapy today, they will be working on stairs. If Dad can pass ALL of his therapy tests and get his feeding tube out today he can go home tomorrow. Can you believe it. How amazing!!! Let's hope it works out. He is so done with the hospital. He wants to leave NOW! If they decide he can leave tomorrow the Dr.s and nurses will go over a diet plan and all of his medications with Mom. There is a lot to do to get discharged but I know Dad is determined and will do whatever it takes.
So now that things have calmed down a bit with Dad and he is doing better and I have got my brain function back....I think....I remembered that I never told the story of whats going on with Tyler and I.
The day before Dad's stroke Tyler went to Pappillon in Boulder (Las Vegas) to turn in his resume. While he was there he was asked if he could stick around to fly the helicopter. He did and when he was done he was told that if he passed the drug test they would hire him right away. Of course he passed his drug test so he was asked if he wanted to start May 7th or May 21st. He chose the 21st. So, we are moving. We will be living in Henderson Nevada. YAY! We will be closer to Family!! I have absolutely loved living in Arizona and will miss my friends so much but we are all excited for the move.
I am not exactly sure when the kids and I will move. Tyler's new position allows him to work a week on and a week off so we will have time to search for a house and the kids and I plan on spending a lot of time in Utah. One thing we do know for sure is that we will be all moved and settled by the time the kids start school.
CRAZY!
I couldn't get my computer to work last night so here are yesterdays details. As I mentioned before Dad was in Therapy and had to walk over river rock. He actually had to walk over all kinds of terrain and he had to do it backwards as well, he walked through trees and had to keep the limbs from hitting his face. The whole time the therapist was just holding his belt buckle. He did a great job!
He went on a tour of the therapy restroom, they wanted him to see all of the upgrades he could to do his bathroom once he got home. Thank goodness we have Brock in the family and he lives close by. He will help Mom and Dad get this all done. But as I'm happy to report, Dad won't need very many of the upgrades.
Mom stayed the night again last night, she is trying to stay as much as possible when she has company staying at the house that can help take care of the dog.
Dad is and will be on a bunch of medication. Mom went through the list and told me what they are all for. There is about 10 different medications. It's crazy that someone can take so many different meds and not have any effects from it. I hope it stays that way and all of this medication does its job.
The result of his C-PAP with Oxygen study should be given to us today and also the swallow test results....as always I will keep you posted.
The kids wanted to go to Fain Park again today to show Tyler around. We took a picnic and hiked. Today we saw some fish, a turtle, a frog, some crawdads and ducks. When we were at all done at Fain Park we went to Dairy Queen and got some ice cream. Right now Tyler is on his way to his soccer game. The kids and I decided to stay home. We are pretty tired. Me especially, after our 3 hour hike yesterday the kids made me play soccer with them at the park by our house. And then hiking today.....phew!
So, yesterday Dad had a lot of visitors. It was good for him, it lifted his spirits and he was in a good mood all day. During therapy he was taught some tongue exercises to build the muscle back up. The back of his tongue is not working properly, it is not pushing the food in the direction it needs to be pushed so when he swallows it goes the wrong direction and heads to his lungs rather then his stomach. There is much more to it then that but since I have no idea what they are talking about, to much medical lingo, that is how I will explain it. Once he builds the muscle again he should be in good shape. They will do another swallow test on Monday or Tuesday to see if the exercises helped enough to remove the feeding tube. Lets really hope for this. The feeding tube is driving him CRAZY!!
I just learned that a nurse has been sleeping in his room at night because he doesn't like to obey the rules. He won't wait for a nurse to help him out with anything. He just gets out of bed and takes care of everything himself. This isn't allowed because he is still a little wobbly, and he was still hooked up to all of his paraphernalia so he would just drag it across the room with him. Haha! He has since been removed from all of his IV's. The only thing he still has is the darn feeding tube. Mom stayed with him last night and he slept very well. It was the first time they weren't in every hour doing a sleep study, checking blood pressure or checking IV's. He woke up today feeling very refreshed.
Today he had some therapy, they took him outside to walk over river rocks. He did a great job. The PT's are all very impressed with how well he is doing. He has had visitors again today which he enjoys very much. Mom has not called me very much today. I have not been getting updates as often but I think she is enjoying having someone there with her. So I'm not going to bug her. I will update as I hear things.
It is so amazing that Fain Park is right in our back yard.....Literally! It's hard to see but if you were to blow this picture up you could see right behind them on the very top of that Mountain is homes. That is our neighborhood. Fain Park is so well hidden we never saw it. We even tried to see it on our drive home and still couldn't. We had so much fun we stayed for 3 hours.
My poor mother is exhausted. I can hear it in her voice. I'm feeling so guilty that I'm not there....I should be, but I can't. It sucks!
Anyway, it doesn't seem like updates differ at all. Everyday is therapy, everyday he gets a little better, everyday he's annoyed he's there, every night he can't sleep.....same old same old. Last night they did a sleep study on him and apparently he got NO sleep. I don't know the results on that yet but of course when I know I will post it. Dad's blood pressure was a little high again today but they went ahead and did therapy anyway. He is with the speech therapist now and will be doing another swallow test. Watching Dad go through all of this is taking a toll on Mom. We tend to focus so much on the patient sometimes we forget how hard it can be on the loved ones.....good thing she's so strong!
I was able to get the full details on Travis's story..... He has Histoplasmosis. It's a nasty fungus that is incredibly difficult to get rid of but it is curable. YAY! He will be going back to the hospital everyday for 2-3 months for IV therapy.
The story on how he got it is actually a scary one but it makes you understand just what kind of a person he is. He was kayaking down a river in the jungle of Ecudor with a friend and his friends kayak tipped and went underwater and he got stuck under a rock. Trav dove in to save him and in the process swallowed a whole bunch of water. And that is how he ended up with Histoplasmosis......but he saved a life in the process! I'm proud of Travis and I am so happy to know he will make a full recovery!!
Today I am very stir crazy. I need to get out of the house and enjoy the beautiful weather. Tyler is a t work so I decided to take the kids on a picnic. We are going to Fain Park. We have never been there but it is only a 5 minute drive from our house. I will post pictures soon!
