Mr Dancy Update Saturday

Mr Dancy was asleep when i arrived. He got and began his day with his regular morning routine of care. He had breakfast and then fell asleep appeared to be extremely tired today moving around very slowly. He later went outside for a walk and returned inside his room and went to sleep in the chair. Later on i tried on several occasions to get up for lunch and he would not move so i just waited until he was ready which was about 2:00pm. He had lunch and dosed back off to sleep. He was not interested in participated in any game activities i was only able to get him to look through his navy book and after he finished he dosed again. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day for him.

Mr Dancy Update Friday

Upon arrival Mr Dancy was awake and began conversating immediately continued talking while getting his morning care done. He went to the kitchen for breakfast after he was seated, i went to his gather his clothes to wash them and upon returning to kitchen i saw him up walking around without his walker. He walked to the other dining room table i tried assisting him back to the kitchen table and he did not want to sit down continued with talking finally i was able to get him seated after about 5 min. I went into the kitchen to fix his breakfast and while washing my habnds he got up again and began to walk so barb and i had to get him seated again. I returned to kitchen to make his food and he got up again so i had him sit in the chair facing me so he could see me and that worked a little and he got up again right as i finished. He started eating breakfast and got up twice again so i just took him outside for a long walk until he became tired. He returned insdie and rested for about 20 min and then tried to get up again and i began exercises with him with the ball until he became tired again. He rested for about 30 mins and tried getting up again and again but was unable to because he was too tired. He went to sleep and slept for about 2 hours and then i had a hard time getting him up for lunch. Finally after a few tries he responded and was moving a little slower still tired but ate lunch and participated in a card game for maybe 15 mins and did not want to go on another walk. He went to his room and rested the remainder of the day. He also did his leg exercises before getting this morning. He had a very interesting day.

Doctor's visit today

As Lois said, Dad was moving around well today. On the car ride over to the doctor's, he was very observant, pointing out the trees in the median and looking at the fog rising over the ocean.

Dad's weight is up to 160! I think it was 147 in August. I think that's pretty good, but is anyone concerned? Dad's blood pressure was a little high today (on arrival was 162/90, but down to 150/90 after settling down)...still a little high. Doctor said we can look at that again on his 6 month follow up from physical, which will be in February.

Doctor checked the mole on his chest (no longer infected) and removed the 5 stitches from his head. Nurse also cleaned out all the wax from his ears. In general, Dad's hearing was much better today, though you still have to speak a little loudly for him to hear. Dad commented that he didn't think removing the wax made much difference, in fact, when doctor asked him if he was hearing any better, Dad responded, "Well I'm not hearing any worse!" and chuckled quite a bit (as did we all.)

Mr Dancy Update Thursday

When i arrived Mr Dancy was awake and began conversating appeared to be in a great mood. He hadbreakfast and then he went to the doctor. He returned home and had lunch and afterwards participated shortly in a card game and also did leg exercises in bed before getting up. He went to his room and watched a little TV and conversated again and rested the remainder of the day. Moving around great today.

Mr Dancy Update Wednesday

Upon arrival Mr Dancy was awake and rested and ready to get up immediately. He began his day with his regular morning routine of care. He ate breakfast and then participated in a card game and was really into this game for approximately 1hour or longer. He then walked inside the house very short distance both morning and afternoon. He seem much more normal than Monday able to move more quickly and stand up straight very well balanced in walking. Upon entering his room he went into a talking session still talking about this card game and money for about almost one hour continuously. He rested a little and had lunch and rested again and then i exercised his legs again and he rested the remainder or the day.

Mr Dancy Update Tuesday

Upon arrival Mr Dancy was asleep and would not get up. After trying a few times i just decided to wait until he was ready he finally woke up around 9:30am. He got and had his morning care done and then went into the kitchen and had breakfast. After breakfast he still appeared tired and would not participate in any activities. He did seem to move around better and a little more stable after exercising his legs and feet before getting out of bed. He did not eat his lunch was very sleepy. He was taken to the dentist but was not able to receive any treatment due to the tiredness and would not move into the dental chair. He returned home and rested the remainder of the day.

Mr Dancy Update Monday

Upon arrival Mr Dancy was up and awake sitting in Dylans room. I assisted him to his room he seem to have a hard time moving his right leg and was very unstable. I was told that he had a fall over the weekend. He went into the bathroom and received his morning care and was talking a lot and yelling as i tried to assist him. Later on he ate breakfast and then began talking a lot about the stock market for at least 1hr and rested a little then asked for his magazines. I gave them to him and his navy book and he read through both of them for the morning. He ate lunch and then participated in a card game for about 20 mins. I assisted him to the restroom and it was very difficult getting him to stand up straight he leaned back and i had to try to hold him up to keep him from falling. He tried to walk back to his room and his right leg was barely moving so i had to hold him from the back to keep him from falling and had to grab top first chair i saw to get him seated because he started going down on the floor. I am sure that he is very sore from the fall and weak and unstable. Let hope tomorrow will be better.

Dad's fall at Ken's on Sunday Morning

HI everyone,

Ken called me this morning at 6:30am to let me know that Dad had apparently gotten up out of bed and then fallen, and hit his head, which was bleeding. Ken had called 911 and they took him to the hospital. He got some "staple" stitches on the left side of his head above/behind his ear. Ken said they also did a CT Scan and EKG with nothing of concern revealed. THey finally returned home around 11:30am. and Ken said Dad was ready to eat and did fairly well the rest of the afternoon, apparently walking around the house quite a bit. Ken brought Dad back to my place around 5pm. I noticed that Dad definitely seemed like his balance was more out of whack then usual. He also really seemed to be having trouble with his right leg, not moving it much when he was walking. He ate a hearty dinner but the final trip to the bathroom/bedroom was rough for him/us (without his shoes, walking seemed even more difficult for him and he required a lot of support from behind to keep him from falling backwards.) He's also not gauging his position well (next to the bed, or a chair for example) and will attempt to start sitting even though nothing is below him, at which point I have to hold him up to prevent him from falling.

Perhaps this will mean something to Ken, but tonight Dad was talking about "camp," "boy scouts" and "girl scouts." Ryland was working on a jigsaw puzzle at the table while Dad was eating dinner and Dad kept asking him about the "camp." He also asked me how many campers we can hold. He also mentioned someone named "Johnson" that he needed to call to ask him how much it would cost. Later he implied that Johnson was in the navy with him.

Dad has a doctor's appt this Thursday, at which point we will follow up on the stitches. Also, Lois had taken Dad in to the urgent care clinic early last week (doctor was on vacation) to have a look at the large mole on his chest that he had been scratching and had gotten red and filled with pus. The clinic doctor gave Dad antibiotics and cream and it appears to be healing. I will also have the doctor look at Dad's ear wax again. It may or may not be a factor, but Dad really seems to be having problems hearing right now. At our last physical, the doctor saw ear wax but when he tried to remove it, Dad squealed and said it hurt, so the doctor said to use over the counter Debrox. Lois had done it back then, but I will ask her to use it again this week once or twice daily before the appt in hopes that it can help soften it and make it easier for doctor to remove it. Hopefully it will make a difference in the hearing...we'll see.

In closing I just want to reiterate my concern about Dad's (lack of) balance...Even with the walker he seemed to have lost his understanding of leaning forward on the walker and tended to lean back. Perhaps it was just a long day and he will do better in the morning.