A Reprieve of Sorts

Jon has recovered well from his bout of pneumonia. He occasionally coughs and get get up to 1500 on the spirometer- a gadget that measures lung capacity. It can measure up to 2500 but I don't think he has even come close to that.

As a result of police being called to help Jon when he passed out a week ago Jon was cited on two counts: open container and possession. He went to court today and as I gather from the judge's conversation with Jon the police were called as a medical emergency not a traffic violation. Due to a couple of other reasons that I'm not sure I have straight the charges were dropped and only court costs were assessed.

Jon has been busy scouting around for a new place to live. We have checked two places and I think maneuverability of his chair is going to be a big factor. Places with lower rent also seem to be older and have narrower hallways.

During his talk with Brookview last week he adamantly refused drug and alcohol counseling or any other counseling that make him a little easier to deal with. If he has always been a "my way or the highway" kind of guy then either he wasn't around family enough for us to find it as annoying as we do now or he has gotten much worse. He's also bugging me about a van so he can drive again--we won't even go there!

Thanks for checking in.

The Axe has Fallen

Jon came back to Brookview yesterday afternoon. He is still coughing quite a bit but in general feels much better physically. Brookview scheduled a patient care meeting for later in the afternoon and the news was much as I have feared the last few weeks. Jon has continued to come in late and since he doesn’t sign out or in--or have an aide do that in his presence--it cannot be established as to the actual times he comes and goes and whether or not he has been gettingin earlier. Jon threw another monkey wrench into the works when he was carrying around an empty beer bottle when he passed out from his coughing spell. We have since found that the official blood alcohol reading was .03 which is relatively low.

In essence he is “grounded” since he cannot leave the facility without a member of the staff or his mother. He has a 30 day notice and must find another place to live. While it doesn’t surprise me it means a good deal of scrambling to come up with acceptable housing since he is adamant about not living in another facility. This may be a quite difficult feat to accomplish, considering many of the programs that might be of assistance require that he be homebound and unable to get out and about except for doctor’s appointments and such. Both the Social Security Office and Jobs and Family Services were closed today so making appointments to get info and help from them will have to wait until Monday.

Brookview just called as I was refining this post to say that Jon does have pneumonia and will be receiving zosyn intravenously every 6 hours.

Your continued support and prayers are appreciated. Thanks for checking in!
 

And We're Off to St. Vincent's in Toledo

I got a call this evening from Brookview about 6:15 with the news that Jon had been taken to the emergency room at Mercy Hospital here in Defiance. Seems he had passed out and was unresponsive. Someone had called the police who called the emergency squad. They had to "bag" him--give him a hefty dose of oxygen--to get him to come around. By the time I got to the hospital they had already done a chest x-ray which came back clear and a blood alcohol test which had a zero score...thank goodness! Shortly after I arrived they did a quick EKG test. I was doing something for him-can't remember what and she was done and had all the "spots" off before I knew she had even started a reading! Didn't hear anything back on that test and I think probably it was okay.

They did another round of blood draws--3 vials divided among 6 bottles with each vial taken from a different part of his body. These were to determine if he has any kind of bacterial infection but the cultures take from 48 to 72 hours to "breed and read." (My terminology-not theirs!) They did start him on a course of antibiotics through an IV -rocephin. The phlegm that he had been coughing up was, in the current vernacular, "nasty looking" so something is going on for certain. There was one time when it contained what looked like an anemic square of tomato and he said he had eaten mexican for supper so it may be that he had aspirated and didn't realize it or thought he had it all coughed up. He had an oxygen mask on and I had a hard time understanding him.

I had thought to bring my health power of attorney papers but not his medicaid card so I headed home for that and his glasses which were still at the fire station. Before I left he asked me to empty his foley bag but the nurses had already done that. I was a little concerned that in 2 hours he only had about 25 ccs. When I came back in less than an hour it was up to 75 ccs so I was feeling a little better.

Jon's regular doctor is on vacation, of course, and the doctor covering for him was concerned that if Jon took a turn for the worse and needed more intensive treatment neither of the 2 hospitals here would be able to take care of him...so at 10:10 he was loaded into an ambulance and taken to St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo which does have an ICU. Just before leaving he had a second breathing treatment which should have broken things up more.

Hmmm, forgot something and don't know where to insert it so here it is...it seems that he had a coughing spell on the way home from a buddy's and he leaned way forward to cough better but he couldn't get himself back up to a regular sitting position. This does something for a normal person's ability to breathe and certainly is not good for Jon and that's why he had passed out and was unresponsive when the paramedics arrived. He's missing his tank top so I'm guessing it got cut off--hope it wasn't his birthday shirt I just got him!

Thanks for checking in--the long spells between posts are mostly due to the fact that healthwise he's been doing so well. I've been bragging that he's not had anything major since the second week in January. i get discouraged with his other shenanigans and you probably don't need to hear about all of them anyway. I rented a van last week-end and took him to Columbus for his father's surprise 80th birthday party and he seemed to have a good time.

Thanks for checking in. He shouldn't be there more then 3 days or so but St. Vincent Medical Center's address is 2213 Cherry Street, Toledo, OH 43608-2801. Will keepyou posted.

It's a Start...

Just saw the newly installed lighting system on Jon's chair today and must say it is impressive; lights under the front of the arms, under the foot rest so he can see the street, and flashers. He definitely will be more easily seen. I'm still concerned about the condition of the roads he chooses and the traffic on some of them but then, I'm a mom and mom's worry.

Anybody for a Game of Jeopardy?

Jon had his second appointment with his rehab doctor. We took the dinky list of equipment the physical therapy lab has at Brookview but the doctor seemed to have forgotten that they had suggested coming to Toledo for a couple of weeks of therapy. When I mentioned that he checked Jon's triceps and again found that he has fairly well developed triceps on the left side but is woefully lacking on the right side. . . and the idea seemed to be dropped since again, Jon spent a lot of time talking about an operation at some time in the future. It seems a nurse who goes to the same church he's been attending works at Parkview where he was originally taken a year and a half ago. She told him some neurosurgeons there have been reattaching the spinal cord but he didn't catch their names, or the kind of operation, and the Toledo docs don't seem to keep up on that aspect of treatment--just rehab. Anyway, we came back home with an appointment in the future and no exercises for the hands or the arms. We were both disappointed. Meanwhile, I checked out a fitness center co-sponsored by Defiance College and the local Y. They seemed to think that they had some equipment that would be beneficial and he could work pretty much on his own. There is a trainer available for an extra fee which seemed fairly reasonable to me. Jon assured me he would check it out--sometime.

The rest of us are not too happy with Jon although he seems happy as a lark. He's out everyday by 2 o'clock and getting quite a tan. It seems there's not a friend in town that he can't manage to get to although he's been having some troubles with his battery necessitating someone pushing him up the Northside hill which is pretty steep--cyclists are more apt to walk their bikes than try to peddle up it. He's also gotten hung up on some railroad tracks. Even though they are seldom used it seems like some pretty scary stuff to me, even in the daytime, but these have happened at night. He assures me that the city has put some stone and tar at the crossing making it smoother so he shouldn't get stuck again. He also has taken to coming in rather late at night--Greg took the 2 a.m. call and went out looking for him and I missed a call at 12:30 on my cell phone. Without my hearing aids I can't hear my cell phone even though I keep it about 15 inches from my head!

We went to Walmart today and spent a considerable amount to buy lights, battery and charger, wire, reflectors, etc. which a buddy will use to make his chair more night-worthy. Someone reported that the police had stopped him because he was almost hit by a car but I don't know if this was a daytime incident or night time....I don't always ask for all the particulars! Friends and acquaintances fill us in on events they think we should know about even if there's very little we can do about it. Not sure how to ground a 44 year old man although the thought occurs to me that Brookview could refuse to get him out of bed--mostly I'm being facetious, but then again.....

He's also taken up all his old habits of drinking and smoking which doesn't earn him any Brownie points with us either. His reasoning is that it wasn't his choice to stop and he wants to see if "he can stop on his own." If anyone knows how to successfully explain "addiction" to him we would all be grateful. Our biggest fear is that if, at some point, an operation of some kind is feasible that his lungs would not be up to being exposed to anesthesia for the time period such an operation would require.

My apologies if I sound down and out...it is because I am. All of us put in a lot of time and effort in helping him to recover and we hate to see him seemingly throw it all away. His list of friends who he'll listen to seems to be getting shorter and not all of them are on the same page we are. Unfortunately, Brookview is getting quite perturbed with him and are worrying about their liability in all of this.

We need some magic fairy dust but heartfelt prayers will go a long way, too and we thank you in advance for them!