Monday, January 11th

Good evening!

Sorry for missing last night's post, but I was busy being the new grandma.  :o)

Dad had his first post-hospital doctor's visit today.  His lungs sounded good, but he is retaining water.  They did a lung X-Ray and bloodwork.  Hopefully the lungs will backup what the doctor heard (or didn't hear, actually)!  Started him on a diuretic and began the process of lowering his steroid dose.

He's had a tough couple of days.  He's worked hard at PT and it may be catching up to him.  He's not eating as well as he should.  He says he doesn't taste his food very well (a side effect of the steroid) and doesn't have much of an appetite.  So, when you're not hungry and can't taste it anyways, you tend to not want to eat.  I wonder if his caloric needs have changed, but his intake hasn't.  When they created his diet, he was sedentary.  Maybe they haven't upped his calories when he upped his physical exercise.   He's eating, but not enough calories.  This is purely speculation on my part, but we're going to check into that.  He's had a bit of reflux, so that doesn't help the eating habit, either.  We've just gotta get the man to eat!  Stubborn ol' codger!

With that said, we are going to ask that for this week, we take some time off from visiting.  He's just exhausted and weak, and it's time to recuperate.  We're asking that just family be the visitors for the next few days.  I know you all understand.  When he's got a little more oomph, you all will be the first to know!  I know Dad enjoys visiting so much -- it's his link with the 'real' world. He is quite the social butterfly!  It's just not in his best interest right now.  Thank you for understanding! 

Let's see...what else?  I think that's about it for tonight.  If any of you have any experience with pancreatic enzyme medicine(s) we'd love to hear from you.  We are learning more and more about things, and this is the one that we don't know too much about.  Our main question is, if you need it and don't receive it, can it cause the lack of appetite and/or reflux?  What are the symptoms of somebody needing it?  You can email us at alivertiblog@hotmail.com.

Thanks and have a great morning/day/night!

Leslie :)