And the Beat go on! August 20, 2008

After four days in the hospital, Arden has been moved to Maryville Nursing Home for skilled nursing and rehabilitation.  Of course he hates it.  The first night he had the night nurse call us to come get him.!  We drove down and tried to reassure him.  The ongoing mantra is, “I need to get out of here.  Bring my $30.00 so we can go buy beer.”  I am so amazed at how obsessed he is about drinking when he hasn’t had a drink is almost 2 years.  It is always on his mind.  He even dreams about it, when he is not dreaming about amazing feats he accomplishes, like being the superintendent of Vancouver Schools!

Yesterday, his first full day at Maryville (yes, there is no “S” in the name even though people often mispronounce it Marysville.)  he was still in his hospital gown even though we had brought clothes for him.  Hopefully they will get him up and going today.  I will go by and see him when I take the boys,  Alex and Jacob Castillo, to the Nike Employee store to shop!

The boys arrived yesterday–great comic relief.  They are great, funny and smart.  Alex is taller than I am!  He is a good athlete and enjoys running Evan ragged in the backyard playing soccer.  Jacob is his own person so he jumps on the trampoline while Evan and Alex play soccer.  Yesterday We took them to the Oregon Zoo.  It was a perfect day for it because it was cool and lots of the animals were visible.  

Oh, and we watched Happy Gilmore last night!  Tonight it is Napoleon Dynamite!  Yes, great comic relief!

Love to all,  Sue

Arden to a Nursing Home August 19, 2008

Today we moved G’Pa to Mayrville Nursing Home today.  Of course, he hates it and wants to come home to our house.  we have told him repeatedly that he can come back here when he can do all of the things the physical therapist wants him to do, like transfer from the bed to the wheelchair, feed himself, brush his teeth, feed himself, and develop his strength on the left side.  We are going to take a few days for him to adjust to the new environment.  Fortunately Jacob and Alec (Susan’s boys) will arrive tomorrow.  That will give us an excuse for not being around.  I will keep you posted

 

Suzeej

Arden Update August 16, 2008

As you may know, Arden suffered a stroke Thursday (8/14/08) morning.  When I went into his room he was partially sitting up.  I asked what he was doing and he just muttered and then laid back down.  When I tried to change him, he wouldn’t respond to my requests and couldn’t look at me.  He just babbled.  I asked if he wanted to sleep some more and again he babbled so I left him a lone and kept checking on him.  Finally after about 15 minutes, I assessed the situation and determined that something was wrong and so I called 911.  They took him to Tuality Hospital in Hillsboro where he still is.  The MRI showed that he had suffered a stroke on the right side, affecting his left side.  While there is no paralysis, his left side is definitely weaker and requires much more thought for him to move his limbs.  He has been assessed by a speech therapist who determined that he needs to have pureed food (applesauce, mashed potatoes, squash) and needs to be fed.  The physical therapist determined that he needs PT to get him back to his prior functioning and therefore needs to be in a skilled nursing/rehabilitation facility.  Medicare will pay for the first 30 days but he can stay at the facility indefinitely.  We will have to see how it goes.  If he does not regain his ability to roll from side to side, feed himself, and sit up on his own, he will probably stay.  If he regains his abilities, we will have him come back here.  

I spent most of the day at the hospital yesterday and today.  He is much better than when he first got to the hospital but hasn’t gained much since yesterday (Thursday) evening.  Today he was pretty much the same–sleeping a lot, facial drooping on the left side, and having difficulty following simple requests.  

 

He will stay at the hospital until Monday at which time he will have to be moved into the skilled nursing facility.  evan and I went to one that has a great reputation in Beaverton.  They will have a bed available but they have to review his report to see if he is appropriate for their facility.  I will go look at two others tomorrow.  

I will blog tomorrow night.  They don’t have wi-fi at the hospital and I don’t have a laptop.

Suzeej

June 6th August 16, 2008

Yesterday would have been Sally’s 67th birthday.  G’Pa and I talked about her for a while last night.  He was emotional about it and really didn’t want to talk about it.

I decided that the “E Weekend”/Baby Shower will be a tribute to out mothers and to motherhood.  I will be asking all seven of us, that is including Magalie, to write things about their mothers to share when we are all together.