A long couple of days...;)

Sorry no posts the last two nights, but I have been pretty busy with stuff...I did my parents taxes for the first time. Geez, my taxes are so simple...Theirs proved to be a little more complicated that I had thought, but I got them compiled and to the CPA. And then last night, I spent from 5:30 pm-12:30 am in the Sharp Grossmont Emergency Room with Dad. They decided to send him because his edema (swelling) has not gone away. He still has a touch of pneumonia (you can't tell by talking to him or hearing him breathe), but no sign of infection. They did a blood panel and urinalysis, and all of that looked pretty good.

The doctor came in and told me that the edema is being caused by him not having enough protein in his system. When there is not enough protein, the walls of the veins, vessels and capillaries tend to get a little weak, and they start to leak fluid. This fluid leaks out into what they call the "third space" or "interstitial space," which means it is outside the cells. It is pretty hard to get rid of once it gets in there. My Mom was having the same problem when she was in the hospital, so I asked if we could give him albumen through his IV to help strengthen the walls of his capillaries and other vessels. The doctor told me that albumen only lasts about a day, and then I asked if he got more protein in his diet, if this would turn around. He asked what he had been eating, and I told him "um, nothing, he has been NPO (nothing per oral) since he was admitted into the hospital a week and a half ago, with the exception of the nutrition he is getting through the feeding tube." I asked if he new if the fluid was high in protein, and he didn't. Either way, he told me that they couldn't do anything else for him, so they sent him back to Magnolia.

He was doing ok today, but the edema is painful, so we are helping him with pain meds. And I have asked if they can research if his nutrition is high in protein, and if not, can we find something that is. I will be following up on that tomorrow!

Mom was quite upset when Dad went to the hospital, but she was back to herself today. I am afraid that she is not really changing much with the change in medication. She is still quite agitated all the time. No one ever moves fast enough for her. She wants to do everything right now and boy, does she get mad when she can't. I am guessing that this is just how she will be now...A new personality, I guess. She has brief moments when she says things like "I know I wasn't very nice to you, and I don't know why..." So, I think she understands what she is doing, but just has very little control over, well, anything. So, it has got to be frustrating to be in the situation where she is in a place where she needs help, but to also have little control over your emotions must be a double whammy. It doesn't make it any easier on me or the Magnolia staff, but I just keep hoping that at some point, there might be a sort of acceptance or calming with Dorth...Sort of an awareness or humility. Right now, she cries wolf over everything...Not because she is faking it, but because, to her, everything is a wolf, and a wolf is a wolf, no matter how big, or small or ferocious or tame. Now, please don't think I want her to stop fighting, or trying, or striving to get better or stronger, but it would be easier on all of us, most of all her, if there was some sort of rationalization behind her actions...An awareness of how her actions effect those around her. Everyone keeps telling her that she will get more with honey than she will with vinegar, but the vinegar must be closer...:)

Well, we will have to just keep doing all we can to see if there is any thing we can change to help her along, and just be as patient as we can as she makes her journey...:)

Love to all!