New Home

I was able to go out and see Howard tonight. He is at the Apache Junction Care Center. It seems very nice. I doesn't smell yucky like a lot of them do. Everyone was very nice they are remodeling as well. He is good one minuet and not so good the next. He really wants to go home but all the doctors have told him that it isn't safe for him to go home. Everyone agrees that it isn't safe for him to be home for him or Shirlee. At this point we don't know if that will ever be an option that is something that we are taking day by day. Please keep him in your prayers that his heart will be soften and that he will realize that this is the best thing for him. Thank you all for everything that you do for him and Shirlee. He doesn't have a phone in his room yet as soon as he has one will let you know.

Here We Go Agian

Howard got out of the nursing home yesterday at 10:30. He was doing good granted he was tired and went back to bed shortly after he got home but we planned on this. He came out for lunch and was talking and everything seemed to be good. He was having fun seeing the boys and the boys where happy that he was home then dinner time came around. Everyone got up to the table and Howard had a very hard time staying awake. We had to keep waking him up and Shirlee ended up having to feed him. After a while he said he was done needed to use the restroom and then go to bed. Shirlee was helping him to the back when he started to say that he was weak and said he was going to fall. Next thing we know my dad is behind him trying to keep him from hitting the floor. It took four of us to get him up and into his walker. The decision was then made to take him to the VA. My dad and Gma took him and when they got there my dad go a wheelchair to put him in and he passed out again. They got him into the ED and they took him right back. After some test they found out that he has a bladder and an UTI infection. He is also dehydrated but that is something we already knew. My dad had to go home today so it is nice that they kept him so that my Grandma didn't have to deal with him on her own. We will find out more tomorrow after they do more tests and we see more doctors.

Okay

Things with Howard are going okay. They have him back on his water pills so that is helping with all the swelling. Still not back down to where he should be but we are getting there. He still doesn't feel well most of the time but he is trying for the most part. He is still doing his physical therapy. He is still at the rehab place over by Superstiton Ranch market so if you want to go and visit him I think his room is 303B.

Moved Agian

Sorry this is a little behind in updating. I took my family to Knotts Berry Farm for Spring break so I am a couple of days behind. The latest Howard was never transferred to Good Sam. Before they took him the doctor wanted to do another CAT scan well that came back normal. It was decided that everything that was gong wrong on that end has to do with his meds being messed up. They kept him in the hospital an extra day due to swelling. Yesterday afternoon (Friday) he was moved back to the rehab nursing home that he was in before. They have him on a tight rehab schedule 7 days a week of therapy so that he can try and get his energy and strength up to go home within the next 2 weeks hopefully. So I guess this all translates into good news. Thanks for everyone's support and prayers.

Transfer

Today we had a good Doctor come in and see Howard. We have all been a little worried that he has blood in his urine. Most of the other Doctors said it is because his Coumidin level is so messed up. Since he was put back into the hospital on Sunday they said that they would have a urologist come and look at him. It is now Wednesday and come to find out there is no urologist on staff at that hospital. They told him that when he got back to the rehab center to have them call for one. The Doctor that came into see him today didn't like that idea and is concerned about this problem. He said he would get a urologist to come and see him at the hospital that he is at now or he would transfer him to a hospital that has one on staff. The nurse said that if this doctor says he is going to do something that it would get done. Huge shock itself. The doc said it could be an hour or the end of the day until I get a solution but I will get one. I just got a call an hour ago saying that they are going to be moving him to Good Samaritan this afternoon. So hospital terms good be tonight. We won't have any more info till tomorrow sometime I am sure. For now we are happy that someone is doing something about it. Howard is in good spirits for the most part. He has decided that he wants to go home and therefore he know that he has work to do to get his strength back up. He walked to the end of the hall at the hospital yesterday and that is huge for a guy who has been in bed for the most part of 15 days.

Bad News

So I went to go and visit Howard tonight and he wasn't there. Come to find out he was taken back to the hospital this morning. I talked to his nurse and he said that Howard was having chest pain shortness of breath and then sort of passed out. When Shirlee got to the hospital he had just gotten there and he was incoherent as they got his IV started he started coming around a little more. They ended up admitting him back into the hospital. We don't know much more until the morning after we get some test results back. Will let you know more when we know more.

Rehab Center

Howard was moved to a rehab nursing home last night. He is at the East Mesa Care Facility (I think that is what it's called) It is the one next to Superstition Ranch Market. He is doing a little better at least compared to some of the people in there. He is still having some problems that they are trying to figure out. They are planning on doing a lot of therapy starting on Monday to help get some strength back. Since he is out of the hospital I was able to take my boys to see him. Cameron has seen his Papa at least once a week since he was born so these last 12 days have been really long for him. Cameron and Howard have a very special relationship. Cameron loves his papa and whenever he goes over there he goes and finds his papa before even talking to gma. The boys took him some balloons to decorate his room.

Pacemaker

Forgot sorry Howard got a Pacemaker yesterday (Thursday) morning. The surgery went well he was pretty tired all day he did by last night eat a little the Doctors where very happy with the way everything went. We will see how things go over the next few day.
I am not sure of the make of the nursing home that he was sent to tonight so I will find out and post tomorrow.

Good News

Finally some good news to report. The Doctors came in today and said that Howard would be moved to a rehab nursing facility. He was suppose to go around 2:30 this afternoon but due to some miscommunication it didn't happen till 7ish this evening. He was in better spirits today and was eating. He was tired by the time that he got to his new home so it is good that it is bed time. They told Shirlee to bring shoes for him tomorrow because they are going to start working him. I am sure he will love that. This next step really depends on him. He has to build up his strength if he ever wants to go home. I will go see him tomorrow. We are all hoping that they will let the boys go and see him because they keep asking for Gpa. We are just happy for the good news. Thank you for your prayers they are working so please keep them coming.

Surgery Is A Go For Now

Supposedly tomorrow at 7am Howard will go into surgery for his Pacemaker. Things change with him so fast that is why I will believe it when it happens. He had an okay day today. He ate a little this morning was up in a chair for a couple of hours and was actually awake. This afternoon was a different story. He was having more pain in his abdomen so the Doctor ordered a CAT Scan. That came back normal so they can't figure out why that is happening. He is pretty swollen tonight we can't figure that our since they took him off his IV yesterday. (that also doesn't make since since they wanted to do surgery and since they will have to re-do it for surgery and since he isn't drinking like he is suppose to doesn't make sense at all.) Howard is a hard stick but we aren't the Doctors right. He wasn't in the mood to eat tonight the food they brought him was to spicy and then I went and got him food and he said it was still spicy(KFC = not spicy) plus he said it was to hard to chew. Having a rough evening I think he is frustrated since things are not getting much better. We are hopefully that this Pacemaker will really do everything that they said it will. We should know that in the next 48 hours. I will post tomorrow when we know more.

Still waiting

Not much new to report. Monday was a really really bad day for Gpa and no one knows why. Yesterday (Tuesday) was better they still haven't done the pacemaker because his blood it to thin. Today we are still waiting on blood work to get back to see what today holds. They keep telling him how great he will feel when he gets the pacemaker and then the pacemaker never comes. So needless to say he is feeling a little discouraged as I think I would in his place. Please continue to keep him in your prayers.

Pacemaker

WHAT IS A PACEMAKER

A pacemaker is a small device that's placed in the chest or abdomen to help control abnormal heart rhythms. This device uses electrical pulses to prompt the heart to beat at a normal rate.
Pacemakers are used to treat arrhythmias (ah-RITH-me-ahs). Arrhythmias are problems with the rate or rhythm of the heartbeat. During an arrhythmia, the heart can beat too fast, too slow, or with an irregular rhythm.
A heartbeat that's too fast is called tachycardia (TAK-ih-KAR-de-ah). A heartbeat that's too slow is called bradycardia (bray-de-KAR-de-ah).
During an arrhythmia, the heart may not be able to pump enough blood to the body. This may cause symptoms such as fatigue (tiredness), shortness of breath, or fainting. Severe arrhythmias can damage the body's vital organs and may even cause loss of consciousness or death.
A pacemaker can relieve some arrhythmia symptoms, such as fatigue and fainting. A pacemaker also can help a person who has abnormal heart rhythms resume a more active lifestyle.

Sunday Night Update

Today was a good day for Howard. He had a few visitors from his ward and by the time I got there around 4:00 he was tired but in better spirits and had more energy than I have seen in a week. Shirlee had gone home for a while and of course the Cardiologist came in. She has been trying to track this guy down for a week. So I got her on the phone so that she could get some questions answered. They still think it is important to do the pacemaker. It is a very simple procedure that they don't even knock him out all the way for. Depending on how blood work comes back they said it could happen Monday afternoon but most likely Tuesday sometime.

One of the chambers in his heart isn't sending the correct signals to the other one. They say that if they get that fixed that he could have more energy the dizzy spells and light head should go away. With those two things gone then he should have some energy back.
He has come to terms with the fact that he will most likely be going to a rehab center instead of going right home. It is so nice to say that today was a good day for once. Hopefully will have more news tomorrow.

Update #1

Haven't been posting much because not much has changed. We are still trying to get answers from Doctors but they must not know much since they are not telling us much. Some days are better than others for Howard. He still doesn't have a lot energy. They took both of his tubes out but for some reason the bladder still doesn't seem to be working so they may have to put that one back in as of last night when i left the hospital at 7ish. He is really tired all the time and is hard to understand some of the times. Everyone knows that Howard has a problem keeping his line of thought when he talks and has been like that since his stroke but it seems to be getting a little harder for him.
I was able to have a nice talk with him because he really wants to go home and who can blame him no one likes hospitals but I let him know that a lot of that depends on him. He has to build up his strength. We talked about how most likely he wasn't going to be able to go right home after he gets out of the hospital. We talked about how Shirlee can't take care of him all the time especially since he has lost all of his strength. He seemed to understand for the most part he is doing better but is a little blue on some days. We have been reading the comments that are left and he always perks up with those. Thank you so much for all of your prayers. Will updated again later. Hopefully we can get some more information out of the Doctors tomorrow.

What happend

This all started early Saturday morning. Friday Shirlee went to Utah for her granddaughters wedding and Tiffany went and stayed with Howard to take care of him. Everything was going good till about 4 in the morning when he said he was feeling nauseous. Without getting into a lot of gory details he started vomiting a lot. We where thinking that he caught the same stomach bug that has been going around and the fact that Tiffany's son Cameron had it last week and was taken to the hospital for his extreme vomiting we thought he had gotten that. Called some family who are in the medical field to see if we needed to take Howard to the hospital but everyone thought it was this same virus and that it would pass. Shirlee got home Saturday mid morning and took back the daily duties of taking care of Howard. We had all thought he was starting to get better however early Sunday morning he wasn't doing good. They called the ambulance to take him in. After all day of tests and waiting they decided that Howard had pneumonia and they would admit him to the hospital. Monday was another day of tests and waiting as everyone knows the hospital is not fast.
It is now Thursday and what we know is that for some reason when he swallows liquids it doesn't all go down the right tube. Some of the liquid goes into his lungs. The muscle that we have that would make us choke if we where to have that happen isn't working correctly. We are not 100% sure if that is related to the Parkinson's however it is a good possibility. They have now started giving him stuff that thickens up the liquids so that doesn't happen anymore. He is still on heavy antibiotics for the infection that he has with him being sick it has messed up one of the medications he is on for regulating how thin or thick his blood gets. Since he had a valve in his heart replaced many years ago that is one of the many meds that he is on and they are trying to get that regulated.
There is also talk of possibly installing a pace maker. We are still waiting to talk to the heart Doctor about that to get more information and as soon as we have some we will pass it on to everyone through this blog. For the most part he is in good spirits. Truthfully he is doing better than he was yesterday even though he may not always think so.
We want to thank everyone for there thoughts and prayers on behalf of Howard Shirlee and there family. If you would like to leave any comments for Shirlee or Howard please feel free to do so and Shirlee and I will make sure that Howard gets them. The Doctors remain optimistic however there is a long road ahead to recover. Will update again tomorrow unless we find something else out tonight.