Saturday June 20

I am so sorry I did not update yesterday. When I got home I stretched out on the couch and did nothing else. If I had sat in front of the computer first you would have had an update.

Yesterday when the nurse (not the treatment nurse but regular nurse) changed the wound vac dressing on dad I had the nursing administrator come in and look at the wound. She assured me it looked fine, in fact she thought it looked great and the edges of his skin was healing nice enough that SHE thought dad could do with out the wound vac and just go to regular dressings and bandages until he gets a skin graft (when SHE said he was ready for.) But they can't stop the wound vac without the surgeon's orders. Also there is a lot of drainage from when the feeding tube was removed - the drainage is basically stomach acids which is REALLY irritating dad's skin. The nursing administrator thinks the surgeon should have left the tube in so they would flush it out and no stomach acids would get to dad's sick. Hmmm......guess she forgot about how much pain the tube was causing dad. And SHE can't understand why the surgeon didn't put a stitch or two on the inside so it wouldn't leak (another nurse said today that doctors don't usually put a stitch in they let it heal on it's own -- which is what I have read on the internet). So she suggests another trip back to the surgeon. The nurse was supposed to have made an appointment before he left Friday but no one can find a record of it if he did. So now we will have to wait until Monday to make the appointment.

So that was the update you didn't get yesterday.

Today's update.......dad (with help) got into the wheelchair and I pushed him around the Manor and we went outside for a little bit -- not long as it is really hot out there today. I think it helped dad some to get out of his room.

What else...... I have told the nurses until I am blue in the face to only use paper tape on the dressing over where his feeding tube used to be. The skin is really red an irritated and it hurts when they pull off the tape and dressings. I want in this morning to find that they didn't use the paper tape. I know dad is going to be in major pain when they remove that tape. And that dressing has to be changed once a shift at least if not more.

Overall though Dad is doing really good. His arms are getting really strong, his legs not so much. But they will catch up I am sure.

Keep those prayers going up for dad and me.

Kathy