I'm not even sure where to begin. It's been weeks, and so much has happened. I'll try to hit the highlights because, based on all of the comments, I know you care.
Dad was scheduled to be released from KFRC on May 23. Unfortunately, on the night of May 20, his nephrostomy tube (drains urine from the kidney to a bag) came out while he slept. He still had the stent/tube for draining the waste that accumulated from the kidney rupture.
I drove up the morning of the 21, and Lisa joined me after work. The doctors tried to reinsert it, but were unsuccessful. They were going to need to transport him back to Kaiser Walnut Creek to perform a new insertion. This resulted in a flurry of discussions with the doctors about the need to take him off the blood thinners again. We did NOT want to put him in a situation to have yet another stroke. It was determined to put him on a blood thinner drip, which would be removed pre-surgery and reinserted an hour or two post-surgery, at which time he would be put back on his blood thinners. A transport ambulance was arranged, and we waited.
After two transport delays and the coming of the night, Lisa headed home to get some sleep. I stayed with Dad. Transport arrived around midnight. We met up at Kaiser WC. After Dad was checked in, I left and got home around 2 AM. The next day, we discovered that Dad had been exposed to COVID whilst at KFRC. For the next 10 days, we had to visit wearing complete COVID gear - masks, gloves, and gowns. It was ridiculously uncomfortable. But the nephrostomy procedure went well.
So I'm tired of trying to recall all of this, and I'm sure you're tired of reading, if you even still are. Dad got discharged home on June 2, and we've had a 24/7 caregiver since. He's doing OK, but still struggles with cognitive skills. He gets confused a lot, never knows the date or day, and still neglects his left side. But he's mobile and eating better, so yay for small wins.
Today we are at Kaiser in Antioch for a procedure and received some good news. They were planning to reposition the waste drain, but the CT showed that most of it was gone, so they were able to remove the stent and tube. So now we just have the nephrostomy to deal with, but hopefully we can move forward with figuring out the uretra blockage and deal with that so the nephrostomy bag can be removed as well. Then we just need to deal with the stroke issues!
ciao.
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