The decline of my father in law

DanaC · 11-03-2013, 12:08 PM

Just catching up with this thread:

My sympathies to your FiL and of course you and Mrs griff. Awful to watch a loved one in pain. Amazing how something like that can basically take over the whole family for a while.

Glad you guys got to do some Halloween hanging out. And good luck with the brace plan. Hopefully your FiL will get some decent and relatively pain-free quality of life back.

glatt · 11-18-2013, 10:53 AM

So the update here is that my FiL was promised a discharge from the hospital last Monday, but his blood work wasn't where they wanted it to be. So every day they kept poking him with needles and every other day or so they would do an excruciating CAT scan to see if the diuretics were getting rid of the fluid on his lungs, and things kept improving slowly, but we were not there yet. His spirits kept getting worse by the day when they would say "maybe tomorrow" and then no dice. So finally on Thursday, my wife told the doctor that the discharge had to happen that day because we were close enough and staying in the hospital was torture. And the doctor went along with it. It was a 2.7 week hospital stay.

He's been in a rehab place since Thursday night, with a large back brace he has to wear whenever he gets out of bed. They make him exercise 5 days a week, and I think he stays in bed with the brace off on those other two days. The rehab place is good enough, and he has a private room with a window view of some shrubs and trees that are changing color. Nobody is sticking him with needles or prodding him or making him have CAT scans. It's much more comfortable and quieter. The staff appear to treat the patients well.

When we time our visits to coincide with the pain drugs wearing off, he is 100% there mentally. But if we show up when the pills have kicked in, he's all mumbles and full of negativity. So now we try to time the visits well.

Hopefully he will get strong enough to go back to his assisted living facility. We've got some cautious optimism now, and at least he's out of the hospital. They took care of him there, but every day was an ordeal.

Griff · 11-18-2013, 04:22 PM

Sounds like a good change for him anyway. Good luck man.

11-18-2013, 04:22 PM	#3
Griff still says videotape Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 26,813	Sounds like a good change for him anyway. Good luck man. __________________ If you would only recognize that life is hard, things would be so much easier for you. - Louis D. Brandeis

11-18-2013, 10:53 AM	#2
glatt ™ Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 27,717	So the update here is that my FiL was promised a discharge from the hospital last Monday, but his blood work wasn't where they wanted it to be. So every day they kept poking him with needles and every other day or so they would do an excruciating CAT scan to see if the diuretics were getting rid of the fluid on his lungs, and things kept improving slowly, but we were not there yet. His spirits kept getting worse by the day when they would say "maybe tomorrow" and then no dice. So finally on Thursday, my wife told the doctor that the discharge had to happen that day because we were close enough and staying in the hospital was torture. And the doctor went along with it. It was a 2.7 week hospital stay. He's been in a rehab place since Thursday night, with a large back brace he has to wear whenever he gets out of bed. They make him exercise 5 days a week, and I think he stays in bed with the brace off on those other two days. The rehab place is good enough, and he has a private room with a window view of some shrubs and trees that are changing color. Nobody is sticking him with needles or prodding him or making him have CAT scans. It's much more comfortable and quieter. The staff appear to treat the patients well. When we time our visits to coincide with the pain drugs wearing off, he is 100% there mentally. But if we show up when the pills have kicked in, he's all mumbles and full of negativity. So now we try to time the visits well. Hopefully he will get strong enough to go back to his assisted living facility. We've got some cautious optimism now, and at least he's out of the hospital. They took care of him there, but every day was an ordeal.

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