The good news first. Yesterday they removed the central line in dad's neck as well as the wound vac on this hip. His wound appears to be healing nicely and it is no longer draining. Unfortunately, they loaded the ol' boy up with oxycontin for the removal procedures and he was loopy all afternoon and evening. Only minimal therapy yesterday.
The bad news is that they removed the central line and wound vac - two items that allowed him to meet the criteria for residing in St. Elias. So, I expect a battle next week over what we do next. The box in which I am afraid we are going to find ourselves is that he is too well to remain where he's at but too weak to go to the rehab program at Providence. I assume that would leave an Anchorage nursing home as the only viable placement. And I fear that the rehab at a nursing home will not be sufficiently rigorous to allow him to gain enough strength to go home.
The staff has a meeting next Tuesday that I expect will be critical. And the best thing we can do is demonstrate before then that he IS making progress with his therapy. The physical therapist wants to try to get him standing on Monday. A very important milestone.
I went to the hospital this morning and he was alert and feeling pretty good. I assisted him with upper body and leg exercises. I will go back late this afternoon and we'll do some more exercises. The PT and OT staff don't work on the weekends.
In the meantime, I am going to go for a walk on the coastal trail. Need some fresh air. The weather is pretty decent today with broken clouds and light winds. Quite pleasant.
Perhaps I can get some decent pictures...
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