@TruePisces, can you do a Zoom with the doctor?
Sorry I haven’t updated y’all in a few days. It’s just been a busy weekend.
I still haven’t had a chance to talk to the doctor - they haven’t called despite me sending requests through different places to ask him to do so, as well as my dad asking him to do so. I have, however, talked to the case manager and the PT/Rehab liaison, so I have a bit better idea of what’s going on.
First, Dad is having a catheter put in his stomach for peri-somethingorother dialysis instead of the hemo-dialysis that he’s been having. From what he’s told me, it’s going to take a couple weeks for him to heal and then they’ll show him how to do the dialysis at home. In the meantime, he’ll be going into the rehab facility associated with the hospital. He’ll be there up to 2 weeks and getting 3 hours a day, broken up into smaller increments throughout the day, of PT to help him gain his balance and stamina back. I think this will be the best thing for him, honestly. If he can get that back, it and the change to nicer weather will help him feel independent again. Which is, ultimately, what I want to see for him. Of course, all of this is dependent on him being approved by his insurance but after the last time, I think it shouldn’t be a problem.
Right now, I’m just waiting to hear from the doctor or the case manager so I know what’s the next step. And see what I can do to try to help in anyway that I can.
Thanks again for all your support and advice. I knew there was a reason I missed the Boards.
Sounds encouraging. And, as it’s offering an apparently significant likelihood of his getting back home or at least into relatively independent care, that may also improve his mood.
Peritoneal dialysis is a good choice for a lot of folks. Many find it much less stressful than hemodialysis. I hope it goes well for him, too.
Without a medical background myself, I’m chiming in to say this sounds like a good plan. May it go smoothly.
I know that Dad wants to be as independent as possible and that’s some of why he wants to go home so badly.
That’s what we’re hoping. Though there’s a backlog in getting people started on it because so many have been fitted with the catheter for it. It’ll be a month before he can start that one.
carnut, thanks!
Of course, nothing can ever go smoothly with my family, especially Dad. I got a call from the case manager yesterday to tell me that, even with the medical director fighting for it, insurance won’t cover him going to the rehab facility. They will (hopefully) cover him going to a SNF, but Dad was so fed up that he just wanted to go home. Which means that Dad would end up back in the hospital in less than a week - we’ve done this before, and he wasn’t in as much pain as he is now. He turned his phone off this morning so I couldn’t talk to him about it, and he told the case manager again today that he was just going to walk home (right, ya stubborn old ass!). The doctor came in, though, and managed to get through to him the necessity for this. So now they’re trying to get him to one of the SNF near me. Which, while not as good as the rehab facility, will at least be better than him going home. Now I’m just waiting to hear back from someone over there to find out if he is able to be covered for an SNF and where, or if he’ll be at home where none of us can really help him much.
At least my life is never boring.
I’m so, so, so, so sorry, sweetie!! I’ve been through the loss, so I know the pain you are experiencing. I only wish I could take it away and replace it with peace! 
Sorry for not responding earlier. I just saw (and read) this thread now. HUGS. I lost my Dad about a decade (I think) ago.He had many chronic health issues. But, he’d survived so much that really should have killed him (I remember the time Mom rushed him to the ER and they found the high number on his blood pressure was in the 60’s. The doctors were stunned he was alive and flabbergasted he was conscious and talking) that his death also came as kind of a shock.
Mom has continued to defy the odds, has a more active social life than I do, and turns 80 in July.
I say this seriously- “Mufasa lives in you.” You are the living monument to everything your father was and did. In that sense, he’ll always be with you.
Thanks, Jasmine and Spence. He’s actually, other than the pain, in quite a bit better shape. He still needs to be in a SNF, because he’s NOT stable when walking. But I’m not quite as worried that I’ll lose him right now. Though, knowing Dad, I will always have the concern of him wishing himself gone.
I know, but thanks for the reminder. Did you meet him? I can’t remember if you were at the wedding or not, as that would have probably been the only time you could have.
No, I was not at your wedding. I also missed your husband defending his doctoral thesis.
I don’t think anyone other than me was at his defense. I remember it being in a relatively small room so there wasn’t a lot of room for extra people.
Yeah but I really wanted to be there and then I overslept by at least four hours that day.
You, my friend, have a FAR better memory for things that happened 20 years ago than I do!
I got a call this afternoon, as I was on my way to pick up BtY from school, from the case manager. She wanted to know what facility I wanted Dad to be transferred to. I didn’t lose my cool, as much as I wanted to. After all, I’ve only told 2 other people which facility it was AND where I’m located so if they can’t get him in there, they can find something else close to me. Plus, supposedly this was in the works since around 10am. And I don’t hear from anyone until 1530?
sigh I just have to keep remembering that the important thing is movement, not the speed at which things move.