Dad...

May 24, 2004 14:24

Dad is still in the hospital. When they performed the surgery for his gall stone last week, it turned out it was infected and they were unable to do it laproscopically, so the procedure was much more invasive. He is on some pretty heavy duty antibiotics, still connected to an IV and a catheter, and he has a drain tube connected to his incision.

I called several times on Sunday before I went over to visit him, and it rang and rang and no one picked up. Whether he couldn't hear it or it wasn't working right I don't know.

They closed the surgery floor he was on (for the evening I guess, since there were only three patients) and moved him to the 4th floor. The social worker came in while I was there and said something about moving him to another hospital (a convalescent hospital I guess), because he's still on heavy duty IV antibiotics, although he's taking some orally now too. He still has a drain on the incision and a catheter. However, the case worker said that his insurance should cover home care too, so she wasn't sure why the doctor wanted him to go to another hospital. I have to call the doctor today to find out what's happening.

Dad said he does have long-term care insurance, so that shouldn't be a problem. This is getting more complicated than we expected. I hope it clears up soon. The hospital now is fairly close to our house, the one she gave me an address to is a couple of cities over.

My father could care less about covering up. He's only wearing one hospital gown with absolutely no coverage in the back, and when he got up to get in the wheelchair, one of the nurses made a comment about how he was flashing everyone, and went to get a sheet to put over his lap. He said something about "Well, it doesn't work anyway, so who cares?" and when we got to his new room, he just sat there on the bed, complaining that it was drafty. Well, yeah, it's drafty, because you're showing everyone what's exposed to the draft! I pulled up the blanket, and we sat and watched "Colonial House," until Gareth got too antsy to stay any longer (he started asking "when are we leaving?" about two minutes after we got there, despite begging to come in the first place).

Dad noted to the nurse that he now had a beautiful view of the cemetery next door, and she told him to stop being morbid. Gareth was very curious, and Dad told him that a friend of ours was buried there. After we left visiting Dad, I figured there wasn't any harm in satisfying Gareth's curiosity, so we went to visit Paul. It's hard to believe he's been there for 25 years, longer than he was actually alive. I last stopped there two years ago, so I had to cast around a bit to find his headstone. I should remember what tree it's near. It has a picture of his Eagle Scout badge on it - his parents were so proud he got that.

Was yesterday some kind of Vietnamese memorial holiday? Those sections of the cemetery were fairly busy. Lots of people visiting and many potted plants and flowers. There was even a group of people sitting in lawn chairs with an umbrella. Wind chimes, spinners and suncatchers had been hung where there were trees,. I was interested to see that there were a few headstones that had little hedges of iceplant or other plants around them that were obviously more than a few weeks old. I had always thought they didn't allow that because of the mowing. But there were a lot of places decorated with little figurines and such.

Paul's section was pretty quiet. Gareth had to check out all the older upright headstones - one is for Warner and another for Talbert, and I wonder if those are the same families a couple of major streets are named after. The dates seem about right. There are also quite a few military headstones scattered about among the families, and a few people by themselves, like Paul, whose family is no longer in the area.

In any case, Gareth found it fascinating and not a place to be creeped out or afraid of. Maybe I should take them to visit Grandma on Memorial Day - something she always used to do, she'd like it if we did it for her. John is not going to want to do much that weekend I'm sure, it's a painful anniversary for him too.

cemeteries, dad, health

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