Arrangements

A year older...

Well, Dad is officially a year older, and he certainly had to work for this one! Last night Mom, Grant and myself ate carrot cake (Dad's favorite) and drank Stone IPAs (more favorite than carrot cake) in honor of Dad's 57th birthday. Honestly, we didn't know if he'd make it to this one, but in true Comstock fashion, he simply hasn't given up.

And so it is with this final blog and a very heavy (heart broken, really) heart, that I want to let those of you know who perhaps haven't heard, that Dad is now on hospice care here at the house. Again, his pneumonia was causing high fevers and trouble breathing, but by suctioning through his stoma and managing his fever, we were able to get him comfortable and alert enough to ask if he wanted to go back to the hospital. Using a fairly reliable nonverbal form of communication we developed in therapy (close your eye for yes), his reply was a clear "no."

So this would bring me to the reason Grant has suddenly appeared! No, he's not done serving in Lesotho, but we felt it would be a good time for him to come home, spend some time with Dad and say goodbye. Ben is also coming home for the weekend, so we can at least all five be together one more time! Grant's travel plans depends heavily on the next couple weeks; it is certainly nice to have him home for a little bit.

For those of you who have been so supportive and worried about us, I just want to say this: From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Your support over this past year has been what has truly gotten us through it. As a family we are all processing the impending events of (what I imagine will be) the next month in our own ways; it's certainly not easy. Speaking for myself, I have found peace with our decision and now, although he has put up a truly remarkable fight, it is time for Dad to find some peace of his own.

I won't be blogging anymore, but please feel free to stay in contact with me through email or phone, either way, I'm usually free. If you would like to come by the house to say hi to dad or Grant while he's in town, feel free to contact my mom or myself. I'll leave our contact info below.

Allie: allisoncomstock@gmail.com

805.558.7515

Anne: acomstock@roadrunner.com

805.558.3732

Update

Unfortunately I'm not in the mood to be too cute and clever with this update, but I definitely wanted to let everyone know what's going on with Dad lately (sorry I totally missed March althogether).

Well, the beginning of last week found us once again back at the hospital. I'm starting to know the nurses and respiratory therapists on a first name basis ("Cindy could you call Sue? He needs suctioned"). Or then there's the occasional person who recognizes me and inevitably waves and asks "Hey, how ya doin'?" to which I fight the urge to reply, "Well, seeing as I'm in the ER again, pretty crappy, thanks!"...smiling all the while. At any rate, he'd been running a low grade fever for a while, his sputum had turned at least ten shades of green/yellow, he wasn't tolerating his feedings (he's down to 115 lbs. if you can wrap your head around that)...and we just knew it was time to head back in.

So that's where we are. His cultures have come back (takes a while to determine what's growing in what), and it looks like we have the same culprits as back in January except this time packing a bit more antibiotic resistance. The infectious disease doctor wants to treat him until Friday and then send him home. I guess the bottom line is that these are the kind of infections you don't really ever get rid of, you just suppress or try to control them for as long as possible. We also have a physical therapist coming in to move him around and try to keep from reversing the progress he's made in the past couple months...but to be honest, that's going to be a challenge after being in bed for 2 weeks straight. I guess we'll see!

If anyone would like to come to visit him, you are more than welcome! He's wide awake most of the time and probably totally sick of me and my mom at this point. We're in the new wing of the hospital in a super swanky suite in the Cardiac Telemetry Unit where there's a flat screen TV and the nurses are rockstars. Just sayin', in case you need a little incentive :)

Hopefully all is well with you, I'll be sure to update sooner than later next time.

Brace yourself, it's a long one!

Hi all!

Yeah so it's been a while...my bad! But hear me out; when your whole life revolves around taking care of someone, there comes a point when you are tired of thinking about it...and talking about it...and writing about it. Luckily I have some positive news for this update! Let's dive right in, shall we? I'll start with a brief summary of the past two months:

The year actually started out on a pretty positive note! That might sound surprising considering my last update, but Mom and I decided to take on a more "no nonsense, take no prisoners" approach to Dad's care in this new year. The bottom line? He needs intensive physical therapy. And a lot of it. And when insurance stops paying for it (because they will...oh yes, they will...), well, we're just going to pay for it out of pocket.

So we started out with a fabulous new therapist who specializes in therapy for brain injury victims, and right after the the first visit...bam! We were back in the hospital. And in true Tom Comstock fashion, Dad not only had pneumonia, he had three kinds of pneumonia! Such an overachiever, this one! But this is apparently something that's going to happen on a pretty regular basis. Because of his condition, Dad is simply more vulnerable to certain infections than healthy people who can stand up, cough, swallow...you get the point. Upon discharging Dad, the infectious disease doctor said Dad would be in and out of the hospital from here on out (specifically he said it'd be a "revolving door" for us). So that sounds like fun, huh?

But I said I have positive news and I wasn't just trying to sucker you into reading on! Dad has been out of the hospital for a couple weeks and almost immediately after his discharge we started with back with the new therapist. Our goal is to control his "tone" (what makes him spasm and tense up) without dulling his cognitive abilities. Julia (PT) is pretty sure we can improve all of this through positioning, stretching, movement...I mean, I'm a fan of the valium, myself, but hey, who isn't?? All kidding aside, she has already shown us in a just a few visits that she knows what she's doing. She is positive and hopeful and has plenty of plans for Dad's recovery. We also just purchased a new therapy mat platform for the house so that we can continue Dad's therapy here on a daily basis. Even with 3 visits to Julia per week, we'll need to supplement his therapy with work at home. AND I think it'll make a great decorative statement in the dining room...

To give you an idea, picture a 6'x8' version of this in purple :)

So that pretty much brings us up to date! We're also planning on purchasing a standing frame (explanation and description to follow once we've got it) for the house as well. That's a bit trickier than the mat platform though, so it'll be a little while before we order it.

Mom and I are doing alright...over Thanksgiving I purchased some unconditional love under the guise of getting a therapy dog for Dad. Which is where Maxwell comes in...so I'll share with you a picture of the first day he came home!

He's about 3x that size now, but you get the picture! He's brought a LOT of happiness and light into our house through a rough couple of months! He's quite a snuggler too, but we have to keep a good eye on him with Dad...I have this fear he'll chew through Dad's gtube. Eeeeeww. Don't worry, we won't let that happen.

With that I'll save something for next time. Feel free to call either my mom or myself or email either one of us if you want to hear more about what's going on with Dad. Hope this finds you all well!