George came home from the hospital about 6PM August 10 by ambulance. He has a feeding tube and catheter. He is also still having breathing treatments to clear his lungs. He is restricted to no liquids by mouth because of the lung infection and they are afraid he will aspirate, which is getting water or other liquids into the lungs. He has several kinds of medication for pain, for nutritonal supplements, for breathing and other things. They now have to be crushed and inserted into the feeding tube by a syringe. So I am getting sighted help to do this part. Our son and I have devised a schedule four times a day, mostly at the 6 and 12 o'clock hours of the day. He gets pills and blood sugar testing. He also is repositioned in bed and cleaned up if necessary. I give him a few small ice chips and sometimes mouth wash on a little sponge or swab for the mouth. i dip the little sponge into cinnamon mouth wash. The food for the feeding tube is a liquid that comes in 8 ounce cans. His machine is set at 70 CC's (cubic centimeters) and each can has 230 of them. So one little can goes slightly more than three hours. We brought ten of them home with him and the company shipped 216 more that arrived from South Bend, Indiana on Thursday. We were not able to get the same home health care agency as before because they said they had too large a case load. We were very disappointed because we really like and more importantly respect Melody Ford and she looked forward to coming back. Well, we were assigned another agency and after only two days we have decided we do not want to continue with them. We are on a waiting list for when our other agency has an opening and besides we will do just fine and really we do have the right to refuse the home health care. It is hard to explain but the three ladies we met were very nice people. But they did not seem like they would be that much help and they had difficulty understanding us, our disabilities, and our abilities for that matter. Even George in his state of ill health said "That's all. Wrap it up." I think it is best because we are under enough stress as things are. My brother Dan is coming today to help with some of George's care because my son already had special plans for much of this day. There is an engagement party for one of his friends. I know it is a lot of work but it is wonderful to have George home again. He will probably be on this feeding for a few weeks and then the doctors will decide what treatment options there are for the pancreas. Dr. Phillips is coming on the 18th to see us. I am still taking three prescriptions for diabetes, antibiotic and pain. I do not think my foot has made as much progress as it should. I will ask the doctor next Thursday. It is good to be home and George and I wish to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers. Lora
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