Finally, Good News!

I'm beginning to think that IV antibiotics can beat the bug even when the immune system is barely functioning. Levaquin must be pretty powerful stuff. Let's just hope it doesn't get overused like all the other antibiotics so it quits working when the critters adapt to it. I've grown up with antibiotics. I like the thought of them continuing to be a presence I can count on when needed.

But enough about that. Daddy's coming home tomorrow!!!!

I got a call from his doctor Tuesday, just after my brother and his wife left to go back to Bemidji and try to cope with 12 inches of new snow they'd just gotten, with the plow driver on vacation and no backup driver for their township road, and with another anticipated 6-8" on the way starting yesterday. They traveled between storms.

His hospital doctor said he was getting well enough to come home Friday, and she was starting physical therapy for him that day, ordering more for after he got home. The Foley had already been removed, and the IV pole was not visible when I'd stopped by that morning before work. (Later in the day I saw it tucked behind the curtain, so they were still giving antibiotics.) When the nurse had been in to check lung noises, she commented she was hearing them on one side but the other side was quiet. I think that meant he was rattling only on one side now, rather than he was breathing on only one side now. Anyway, she made it sound like good news.

He's quit talking about dying, and started talking about the pleasures of coming home. Like having bacon. It's been part of his breakfast for years, but the hospital has him on a cardiac diet and won't permit it. I told him to think of it as a reason to get up and walking when he didn't really feel like it so he could get strong enough to have his bacon again. After all, at 96 and 1/2, his home diet is whatever he wants to eat. Meals on Wheels has him on low salt, but that's as restrictive as it gets. I figure he's not eating to try to live another 50 years, so he may as well enjoy what time he has. Food is one of his few remaining pleasures. He's already had his tripple bypass in the 70's and his pacemaker is good for another year before they will want to replace it. So we introduce him to foreign cuisines which Mom never did, leave cookies out to munch on, and generally try to make food interesting.

He's also talking about listening to his radio again. We discussed finding out whether the Vikings are playing this weekend, so he can sit in his chair a foot from the TV screen to make out what he can of the game until he gets so disgusted with their bad playing that he has us turn it off. Since he can't read, and hasn't the attention span/memory to listen to books on tape anymore, WCCO is what keeps him company through the day while we're at work. Or even while we're home.

Speaking of, we've arranged to have somebody in the house with him 24/7 for the next ten days, partly keeping him company, partly making sure he's walking on his own, and safely.

It's time now to bake a couple pies, clean up, give my fiancee a haircut, rearrange the car for passengers, head to the hospital for a visit, then come back and get ready for the big family Thanksgiving this afternoon/evening. I even get to pick up my granddaughter on the way for a change. Apparently her mom's extended family won't be celebrating on the day itself. Not that she's said that exactly, but it's what I take it she means when she say's she's available to join us this year. (Considering some things that get said in that family, and the fact that she's not living at home, perhaps she's just more comfortable not joining them?) I have to remember to pack my son-in-law's boots which he left at my brother's when he went up deer hunting ( at least he remembered to pack back his deer), my granddaughter's earrings she left on her last visit, pie, turkey stuffing, bread and jelly, the curried broccoli, and the catawba juice, which are our family's contributions to the pot luck feast and general merriment.

Let's see, there's got to be a post-it for a list somewhere....

Oh, and for those who've been paying attention to such things, Rich will be joining us. The judge didn't want to keep him over the holiday. He got picked up and transported all the way to the Dakota County jail for non-payment of child support on Tuesday morning, and I got to add picking him up to my to-do list for yesterday during the snowstorm. Luckily a job popped that took me to the same building, so it wasn't cutting into my work schedule. But he has to go back before the judge in a couple weeks, and that will.