Five months into this ordeal...

Dad continues at Manor Care, and the past two weeks have been pretty uneventful. Last week he was moved to a larger room on the same floor, which makes things a little less cramped. The new roommate again leaves the TV on all the time and this one doesn't seem interested in Mom's reading, so that's a disappointment, but the view is better and with the increased space it's probably worth having done the switch. The food is the same as ever -- chopped up and institutional! Mom and Dad have started watching the menus so they can pre-empt meals that will be inedible with a request for something more palatable, though the dining staff doesn't always get the message (last time Mom called to make a request, they decided to ignore it since the request came from a woman, and it was a room with two men in it!!). Fortunately, over the weekend the family started bringing in some better food -- so Dad got chicken paprikash and pecan pie from Kirsten's birthday dinner, and he got some french toast casserole as part of the Mother's Day brunch Amy, Sarah and Katie put together to have at the rehab center! Dad is allowed to eat completely unsupervised (and it says so on the record now) and frequently feeds himself a meal sitting up in the lounge down the hall.

Dad's health and fitness continue to improve. He is up over 150 pounds (hooray!). They have put a wound vac on his bedsore -- this is a machine that applies light suction to encourage faster healing of tissue. It makes sitting up in his chair even more uncomfortable and hinders his movement, but it should be worth it in the long run. His stomach is still oozing a bit but rumor has it he's getting better there, too; the physical therapy tends to trigger the oozing, but they try to keep a close eye on it (though the weekend staff has been lax in changing the dressing, which doesn't help matters). Dad gets two hours of therapy a day, at least five days a week, and he can walk a full circuit of his floor with a walker now, though it tires him greatly. The staff there is very impressed by his improvement and they're still saying he can be home by Memorial Day, which is only three weeks away! Mom and Dad remain skeptical -- he really needs to be able to get himself to the bathroom before he could be comfortable at home. But keep your fingers crossed and keep the prayers coming, and maybe it can still happen. I know that sleeping on his OWN bed and eating REAL food for every meal would do him a world of good!