Father's Day Part I

Sooo, Mom and I definitely thought today was Father's Day...we're a bit disconnected lately, you see. As such we decided we are having two Father's Days this year. I mean, hell, why not?

Even though today is not the official Father's Day, here we sit in the hospital with him, watching a little soccer, reading a little bit of the Sunday paper. You know, we're just chillin'.

And I mean that for real, he is super chill right now. Yesterday and today he looks remarkably more comfortable and relaxed. We've been sitting him up in a cardiac chair, which he loves. His fever is down and his infections appear to be responding to the myriad of antibiotics he is receiving. He still goes through periods of profuse sweating, but as one of the doctors reminded us this morning, his autonomic nervous system is wacky (for lack of a more medically accurate term) and could be the cause of not only that, but the fevers as well. His heart is also doing better. Earlier in the week doctors noticed fairly frequent runs of ventricular tachycardia, which have subsided. His pneumonia is also getting a little better, as he is coughing up a ton of secretions (btw, sputum is my new favorite word) and although they have decreased his O2, his O2 sat remains high. All in all he is well on his way to being healthy enough to be moved from the hospital to a sub-acute care facility.

And speaking of sub-acute care facilities, we've decided where he'll go next! He'll be going to a really nice place in Oxnard called CareMeridian. There, the main goal will be to wean him from the trach and get him to a level of functioning in which he participates in his physical therapy. We looked at a few facilities and decided on this one because of the high staff to patient ratio, it was really clean and new, and honestly, was the least like a "nursing home" that we visited. It was a tough decision, but we're really excited to get him moved. He'll most likely be discharged Wednesday or Thursday of this week, if all goes accordingly.

My Nana (Dad's mom) is coming out to visit this week from Richmond, which we are really looking forward to. I've put the phone on speaker and let her talk to Dad a couple times and his face totally lights up, it's really sweet. Moms are certainly the best when you're sick, so we're sure he's looking forward to her visit too.

That's pretty much it for now, I'll try to update more frequently. This has become less of a daily update than I intended. Hope this finds everyone well and please let us know if you would like to come visit. It's a little bit of a drive (or cross-country flight) for many of you, but Dad is doing well enough for visitors now (OR you can wait until he's in Oxnard to avoid the hellish traffic and $11 parking). Either way it's good for him to hear other voices!

Oh, and Happy Father's Day. Ha.