Dad was able to eat a late breakfast yesterday (two pigs in a blanket, a donut, and an Ensure) but then wanted to go back to sleep. At 5:00 p.m. yesterday they got him up to go to supper (enchiladas made especially for his benefit) and he had another stroke. He was taken immediately back to bed and slept all night. This morning he did not become fully alert other than to say "Stop bothering me" to the caregivers in the room. I came in and sat at his bedside for an hour. He didn't wake up so I decided to go look into funeral arrangements. I have decided on a casket and a graveside service with a couple of Dallas businesses. When the time comes, the graveside service will be in Waco, and then we can all go to supper.
I called to see how he was doing in the afternoon. He is non-responsive but he is doing all right. He drank one and a half Ensures. They also got him to take his medicine for the first time in two days.
Later I got a call from his hospice nurse. They are giving him a new bed: a low air loss mattress to help with his bed sores and a cellulitis infection on his arm. He is also going to get antibiotics for this.
On one and a half Ensures per day, I cannot foresee Dad lasting very long. Thanks to hospice and his little group home, I can maintain a normal life. It's a little bit hard to sleep through the night due to my tendency to obsess about Dad's poor health. Tonight I think I'll go ahead and use every trick in the book to get my full eight hours. I'll keep us all in the loop. I'll go see him in the morning.
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