Alarming stuff

    I got a call this morning that my dad had passed a restless night, that he was breathing about 40 times per minute, that his oxygen saturation was hovering around 92% and that his lips were going blue/purple. Staff wanted to know if it was OK for him to go to the emergency room. I resisted the temptation to say, "Ya think?" and gave the goahead for him to go to Baptist. They said they would call when he was under way.
    When they did, I ate a sort of lunch (since it takes almost an hour even for an ambulance to get from Lowman to Baptist) and headed to the ER. I was very apprehensive, but he looked good. The doctors were mostly reassuring. The chest x-ray showed that he had a lot of fluid in his right lung and also in his right chest. All he needed, they said, was more dialysis. So I waited with him while he got further tests and they got him set up for dialysis.
    As this went on, his oxygen saturation started falling again, alarming me a lot. But finally, they had him a room in the ICU. (You have to have a room to have dialysis even though you go to the hospital's dialysis facility rather than it coming to you; makes no sense, but there you go.) First, they were going to use a BiPAP machine to get as much fluid as possible out of his lungs. Hopefully, between that and the dialysis, he'll be a lot better. Hopefully, someday he gets fed, too. Helluva day he's had. As I type, he's probably halfway through the dialysis session.
    Even before this, I was going to write today about fairly alarming stuff about Dad, although it seems mild now. When we arrived yesterday, he threw the blankets off and was trying to get up, saying that he thought he could pee. He hasn't walked in weeks and probably wouldn't be able to do that, let alone pee. (He hasn't made pee in a long time, although he still did for the first couple of years of dialysis.) I assume that he was dreaming. He was attached to an oxygen machine, so trying to go to the bathroom would have been fairly disastrous regardless. I pointed out that he was in a diaper; if he could pee, he should just go ahead and do so. Eventually, he calmed down, I guess. I just hope he doesn't get further ideas to go walking when we aren't around.

Cat hair

    I'll probably be brief. I am, and have always been, allergic to these rotten stinky cats. It's not a terribly bad allergy, but if a cat hair gets up by my eyes (stuck in my glasses, say) I can have a pretty bad day. Today I found one stuck to the nosepiece, but by then I had the most astounding splitting headache, just next door to a migraine. It's getting better now, but not to the degree that I much feel like looking at a computer monitor for long periods.
    My niece-in-law, after giving birth, developed allergies to a dozen or more of her favorite fruits. She's taking injections with the idea of lessening the allergies. Also she's carrying an epipen. My allergy is so mild that I don't need such stringent measures. On the other hand, Harry will probably live at least ten years and I like to think Amelia has nearly that long herself. It might be worth a try. One more headache like that and it certainly will seem even moreso.

They're giving my dad rat poison!

    Well they are! Coumadin sounds a lot friendlier than Warfarin, though, and is of course a standard blood thinner. I doubt the dosages they're giving him would even kill a rat; I like to think not anyway.
    Let me back up. Yesterday during our visit, the ultrasound tech appeared and did the ultrasound on Dad's left arm. today, Dad's nurse called to say that the ultrasound confirmed that he had a clot in his arm and that they were going to give him Coumadin. I expressed my worries about blood thinners and dialysis; in the past when he was given them, he had grave difficulties stopping bleeding at the end of the session. In the past, he was a lot more on the ball than he is now. He wouldn't even notice himself bleeding these days. They are only starting this evening after dialysis. Hopefully, the treatment won't last long.
    Also yesterday, I figured out that staff wasn't ignoring Dad, that his call button wasn't working. They replaced it immediately and response to his calls was very, very prompt thereafter. Glad that I noticed.
    Today, I got my first bill for his care at Lowman. It was vast, significantly higher than I was expecting. Well, he's worth it!

Further malentendu

    Before the daily anecdote, let me pass along better news about my dad. He phoned last night to say that he was back from dialysis and that his arm wasn't troubling him. I'm not clear whether it's still swollen. He doesn't usually call me; just Margaret. I have a feeling that the nurse told him to call me because she has in the past (and he did) and she's an ace.
    Last night as I mentioned was my last time hosting Columbia Drinking Liberally. Only one friend showed up, but we had a pleasant wake. However, there was some kind of misunderstanding with the waitress. I ordered, clearly I thought, their burger of the day, the Moroccan burger. As it's a vegan raw foods gluten-free establishment, it wouldn't be much like a burger, but I was still charged about it. And it never came.
    My friend arrived, ordered guacamole (which isn't weird if raw, vegan and gluten-free) which we shared and it was very good. Still no burger. After an hour, she checked on us and asked if we needed anything and I asked what became of my burger. She assured me that I said I didn't want anything and I assured her that I had ordered the Moroccan burger. Finally, I just said forget it, I would pay my friend's bill and we would be done. She came back with the bill and a burger in a to-go box, saying I didn't have to pay for it. And I really enjoyed it when I got home. Her tip went up markedly, by the way.

Feet too high

    On our visit yesterday, Dad kept complaining about something that sounded like his feet were too high. I'm pretty sure my hearing still works, but I certainly got an insight into how he feels when he thinks everybody is mumbling. Because what he was saying is that his feet were too hot. I took a blanket away and then he was happy. But it is frustrating when communication is so hard.
    Today has been worrying because I got a call in the morning that his left arm was very swollen. They thought it might be a clot but weren't sure. They had ordered an ultrasound; this fortunately can be done onsite. I haven't heard further, so presumably it wasn't anything dangerous or life-threatening. The plan as of this morning was for him to go to dialysis like usual. I assume that this is what happened. He also had a lot of coughing and congestion yesterday. Hopefully he has been given something for that.
    Today is also my last night hosting Columbia's chapter of Drinking Liberally. Possibly it's the last night for the club altogether, but hopefully not. Anyway, two years from now when the President, Congress and the Supreme Court are all Republican, no doubt there will be an uptick in interest. Regardless, it was a fun time and I wish I could continue. I'm just too stressed to do it justice now.

Solving problems

    Let's see if I can get all this in order. When I moved here, I didn't bring my almost very good stereo setup from my Dad's house because of the almost part. The tuner had been hit by lightning at some point and the sound would drop out frustratingly. Rather than hunt down a new tuner, I just bought a cheap radio/CD player at Big Lots. And it worked ok, but developed an annoying short in the volume knob, such that there was a lot more snap crackle and pop than I needed. I also had a portable CD player that would play CD-Rs, even data ones. It worked great except that I bought it without a power supply and the one I got from Radio Shack doesn't really fit. So Amelia the cat knocked it out of commission regularly and getting it plugged up again took many tries.
    So my brother got me a keen mini-stereo system that would play CD-Rs, including data ones, and also the iPods that he also gave me. (Quite a guy!) The deal with the data CDs is that I have a couple of dozen of them with old-time radio shows on them. As I mention now and again, I listen to them regularly. Now life was satisfactory for years, until some yahoo broke the antenna off my car. Then I felt the need for something that would play cassette tapes so that one day I might replace the stereo and antenna in my car. (One assumes they don't make them with cassette players anymore.) So I bought another mini-stereo system. This one has a 3 CD changer and plays CD-Rs, but not data ones.
    And THEN... (I sound like a four-year-old telling a story.) We had a cold snap and none of the CD players would work. (The one in the car won't work if it's chilly at all, one reason why I'd like to replace it.) So I went out to find furniture to put the mini-stereos on to get them off the cold floor. And I have succeeded. AND I got Dad a radio to listen to football games on, but the season's over, and it plays AM stations better than any of my other radios, including especially the first one with the short in the volume knob that started this story. SO I can listen to Columbia's Spanish station Ocho Cuarenta 840 AM again. Whew! That's a long way to go for little point! Point is, I've got better noise choices than before and am pleased.
    Last night's dreams were again bizarre, but all I can remember is my Dad inexplicably buying a mansion in Charleston, then I was driving around town because he was in his current real-life condition looking for a better facility for him to stay in. The town in question looked a great deal more like New York than Columbia or Charleston. Then I was in a museum but it had a canyon through it. Struck me as normal at the time.

Anyway I liked the earthquake

    Not to suggest for a moment that my dreams are more interesting than my real life, but they certainly continue to be odd. Last night's involved my bete noire. You know a subject's bad if I won't blog about it. It was somewhat in the direction of a nightmare, since I was mainly banging my bete noire on the head, but it was fairly cartoonish/ Three Stoogish violence. My dad and mom were around, more or less in command of their faculties. Then there was an earthquake, which was even more cartoonish, or perhaps stagy. Outside rows of trees were sliding by one another, exactly like stage props. It was a dream, though, so I took it as an earthquake. I got a big kick out of it, and quit banging anybody on the head long enough to call everyone's attention to it. Sooo a wild, wacky, obviously stress-induced dream with a certain amount of levity.
    I don't know why the cats have quit sleeping on my legs. After 9 years of Amelia doing so and several months of Harry doing so, it's almost weird having them sleep elsewhere, no matter how much I may have wished they would from time to time over the years. Mind you, it's only been two nights. But still. I guess Harry chased Amelia off and then when the territory was won, he lost interest, and she's either afraid to come back or she likes the new heated cat bed. On the bright side, if somebody comes along who wants to get married, she can finally do so without fear of claws in the night. Probably.