The Beat Goes On...

3 days are in the books. Day 2 wasn't too exciting. He was picked up for dialysis about an hour late. The transportation company swore on their mother's graves that they had "no idea he had been discharged from the nursing facility". So even after a call to the dispatch service that Medicaid uses to ensure the word had gotten to those people about his discharge, they had no idea. The dispatch person assured me when I called on Friday that they knew he was going to be picked up from home. I was at work so the daughter was left to deal with "those people".

After attending a boring class for work, I stopped by the local WalMart to pick up some things for my daughter and to also get some strips for his glucometer. My daughter texts me to tell me the medical equipment person in at the house to set up the tube feeding equipment and demonstrate how to use it. I rushed home so as not to keep this dude from his other appointed rounds. I, of course, already knew how to use this pump and really just went through the motions because that's his job and he gets paid to do that. We received 1 pump, 30 sets of tubing and bags, and 5 cases of Nephro supplemental liquid. He's to get 5 cans a night! Holy quacamole! He gets this thick, nasty looking stuff overnight through his "PEG" tube at 70cc/hr. Yikes! That's alot of liquid. It does a good job of maintaining his caloric intake and blood sugars. He's not eating by mouth very well.

Today has been a good day. He starts the day out alert and ready to meet the world. He quickly fades as the day goes on but at least he's trying. He ate a good portion of his breakfast and I was glad to see that after yesterday. I changed the dressings on his coccyx and both heels today. The wound on his coccyx doesn't look very bad although it is open and has some drainage. That's good because that promotes healing. The wounds on his left foot are generally small and are looking like they're on their way to healing nicely. The wound on his right heel, however, looks really gross(sorry..no other words to rightfully describe it). It's a big wound measuring approximately 6cm across. It's open and draining thick purulent drainage with a slight odor but no redness or swelling seen. He has an open wound on his right bunion area of the foot but that's not as big nor as nasty. Pressure sores or "bed sores" as they used to be called are very hard to manage once they've become as big as one of his has become. Diligence and dedication to doing the dressing changes really helps a great deal.

They have such cool things in the medical profession now that weren't available when I was doing patient care of this magnitude. I was told early on that there is an ointment you can put on pressure sores that will debride them for you now. I was amazed! I'm from the school of nursing that thought the only way to debride was to clean w/soap and water and scrub area with a soft brush or pick off the dead skin and tissue with "tweezers" and scissors. Those days, apparently, are gone forever. An ointment can do that now. The only stipulation is to not get the ointment on the healthy, pink tissue because it will eat that as well. I was flabbergasted when I learned this. But how neat and painless for the patient.

I got home from church at about 2:00pm and had decided that I was going to get him out of that bed today one way or another. I do have the patient lift so why not use it? After seeing the transportation people use the wheelchair to get him into the room yesterday, I started to think, why not? So I lifted him off of the bed, put him into his old "hand truck"(that's what he called it once upon a time), attached the leg attachments and rolled him into the living room with the rest of us. What did he do but fall asleep. I fed him dinner(beef BBQ, mashed potatoes, and potato salad). He ate about a third of that. I put him back to bed and hooked his tube feeding up. He's resting comfortably.

Tomorrow, hopefully, the calvary will arrive and I will get some help. If not tomorrow then Tuesday. I did have to take an extra day off because of their failure to act swiftly enough but you can never have too many days off IMO.

I'm tired but not broken or beaten. I've done well considering that I've not done this type of nursing for over 20 years. My back will certainly waste no time in reminding me that I'm not as young as I used to be.
LOL