Kind of a rough end to the week for Dad

A few up front items to note:

• Dad is now in room 2016 -- but possibly not for long. They're looking to move him closer to the nurse's station just as soon as a room opens up.
• He is extremely tired, and his left side is rebelling a bit (hopefully just because he's tired and not because they decreased his dose of steroids this week). They are actually checking in to see if a CT scan is warranted, as he's fallen out of bed a few times this week (more details below), and they want to ensure it's not a bleed in his brain again.
• A reminder to all that he really can't see out of his left side. With his door located where it is, please walk around to his right side. . .that's much easier for him to recognize who is in the room.
• We'd like to limit visitors this weekend if possible - please only between the hours of 3-7PM (which allows him a nap after therapy in the afternoon), or even push it out a few days. Even Mom is not going up -- which is also a much-needed break for her -- to try and force Dad to rest.

So the end of the week isn't like what we wanted. Yesterday there was a meeting of the care managers, Dad, Tracy and Mom. They feel he's not making as much progress as they would like. Now, we feel he IS making progress (considering just three weeks ago he could barely get to a standing position, and now he is walking with help down to meals), but know that he has a long way to go. Several nights this week he's been found on the floor next to his bed, as if he'd tried to get up on his own to use the bathroom and then just couldn't physically muster the strength to get all the way back into bed. Last night he was found twice. Ugh.

Now, we have our own questions about how the bed alarm didn't alert someone a bit more quickly.. .but that's for another time. Thankfully the bed is very low to the ground at night (for this very reason - so he doesn't hurt himself if he does work his way out of bed).

Tracy spent the morning up at Brookstone, going to rehab with him (trying to get a sense of how much they are pushing him vs. listening to him say, "I'm tired." ). He really does need an extra push to get better, but obviously there's a fine line between exhaustion and just not feeling like going through the exercises in the mornings. She's also getting more information about how the facility evaluates/assesses progress.

In the mean time, we're actually investigating other facilities to see if there are others more focused on brain injury patients. Brookstone has been very nice, but starting to get the sense that this may be more than they signed up for. . .but that has yet to be determined. We're evaluating options as we don't want to waste a single day of the 100 paid days that Medicare offers us to help get Dad well.

You all have been so nice, and continue to ask what can be done. Once Dad gets rested up again, visitors always help. As do small treats like a fruit parfait from McDonalds or homemade cookies. He escaped from the facility this week, as planned, to go see his oncologist. Mom and Tracy took him through McDonald's for a chicken wrap and a fruit parfait, and you would have thought it was a steak dinner. He was able to see the progress on the new deck, finally underway after a year of working with insurance companies on the storm damage from last summer, and get a view of Omaha from somewhere other than his bed.