Out of the Hospital

Well, Dad's out of the hospital, and he's very happy about that. He got out yesterday afternoon and when he got home he just sat outside for a good long time. He never had a room where he could see outside, so the fresh air and the scenery felt good to him. He's extremely weak, but it is my understanding that he's not as weak as he was when he came out while my sister was in town. He had been eating in the hospital this time to keep from backsliding too much. The fluid in his legs is gone, so he no longer has cankles, but his skin was stretched out because of the fluid, so it's saggy. I'll take saggy over waterlogged! It means he can move his feet around better to get some strength, which he is so worried about. He wants so desperately to gain a little strength back. I told him I could help him with that if he'd stay OUT of the hospital long enough for me to get him a regiment. I'm going to get him ankle weights and wrist weights so he can do the physical therapy (which he says does nothing), with a little weight to make it challenging. He wants challenging, I'll give it to him!


I generally don't like it when he comes out of the hospital the first few days because he's been bored out of his mind and has been thinking a lot about things he doesn't bring up until you're around him. So you get lambasted with a barrage of either questions or semi-accusations about things. I'm saying this all with a smile on my face, because in all honesty, what in the world else is he going to think about? I just wish he'd let me know, so that I could research it, come to a conclusion and then actually take part in the debate, instead of looking quite foolish with nothing to say. He doesn't like how my church doesn't have Sunday School. I tried explaining to him that it does in fact have Sunday School, Todd and I just don't go. Probably shouldn't have chosen THOSE words exactly, but again, UNPREPARED! He kind of yelled at me and said, "Shame on you! You weren't brought up that way! You know better!" So I had to BACK UP and retrace my steps and explain that the timing of the Sunday School is a stupid time (yes, I, with the aura of intellect said, "stupid"). It meets after the church service while the teens have their Sunday School. I had the foresight NOT to call it catechism because that would have just been a bad decision on my part. I said that the little kids have Sunday School BEFORE church. I said Todd and I go when the topic interests us enough to have Lew and Audrey along. There is no one to watch children during Adult Sunday School, so that is why we rarely go. Then he said, "Someone needs some leadership there! There's no leadership!" I smiled and said, "Dad, we're too big for our church. This is the ONLY way we can do it until we add on to the existing building because there is just not enough room to house everyone at one time for Sunday School." He said, "I just don't like to see the children suffer because there isn't Sunday School, and I think that's what's happening." I said, "Again, we HAVE Sunday School and Audrey will go next year." It's just different here. I've actually considered NOT sending Audrey to Sunday School, but Todd wants her to go, so that's fine. But she goes to a very good christian school out there and Sunday School is a little overkill. I'd rather have her learning catechism and theology because she's totally into that, as opposed to the Bible stories that I teach her, as well as her school teaches her. BUT I didn't bring that up with my father. Not exactly the time. :) He said, "I know you don't like our Baptist Church now, but your church has some problems too." Funny he should say that because anyone in my small group knows I'm still at times stubbornly Baptist. Yes, I believe different things, but that's why America is so great - I'm allowed to. So that was the barrage I was faced with yesterday, but all is well today! We've been having a great time just relaxing.


The visiting nurse is here now and Dad doesn't really like her. I didn't understand why the last time she was here, but this time she irritated me a little too. She was telling him to use his walker - like he doesn't. And telling him not to lift things, but to place them in the basket on his walker - again, like he's an idiot. Then she finally got to the medication to go over it with my Mom. He's on like 20 different pills, and really that's not an exaggeration, it could be more. Anyway, she finally did something productive, but talked the rest of the time about crap, so I'm in here typing this, otherwise I'd ask her what exactly she does. Why is she even here?


He fell this morning, so that wasn't a great start to the day. He just bent over to try to adjust the scale and just tipped a little too far, so I heard something, not a crash or anything. Not a terrible fall, just a little bump, and then he called for Mom. She then tried to get my brother, who was in the process of leaving, so I ran out of the house just in time to get Bub before he got in his car and told him that Dad had fallen and Mom needed his help. Bub came running in and helped Dad up. That was a shock to get started on, but now the excitement has died down and Mom is going grocery shopping. I think she'll come back.