We spent much of yesterday at the hospital in Soda Springs with mother and dad. When we got there dad was reasonably alert. Dr. Franson came in to do a check and gave us some update on his status, which he also explained to dad.

His heart is quite enlarged or stretched. That means it doesn’t have a very strong beat to push the blood through his circulatory system. He estimates dad’s heart is now working at between 15% and 20% of normal. As a result, he is accumulating fluid in his body because the blood stream isn’t moving it away to the kidneys for elimination. They gave him a pretty good dose of lasix (diuretics) on Thursday evening and overnight he eliminated about three liters of liquid, which was helping him to feel a bit better. During the day on Friday he eliminated another liter and a half of fluid and the process was slowing down.

Dr. Franson said it was now a duel between the heart and the kidneys. Drinking too much fluids or using too much of a diurectic puts a lot of stress on his kidneys which aren’t functioning well anyway. Otherwise, the body retains fluid which collects around the heart. One or the other will give in first and right now it’s likely the heart.

He has atrial fibrillation (meaning the top and bottom portions of the heart are not working in sync with each other and the upper chambers are not fully emptying) which, at times, gets pretty severe, further weakening the heart muscle.

On the other hand, he’s been functioning with about 25% heart efficiency and with atrial fibrillation for several years. Consequently, he could hang on for quite a while. Dr. Franson felt that “quite a while” was measured in weeks, not months. He further said that we should be prepared for him to go “at any time.”

Some people have asked if they should hurry up and get out here to see dad now. That’s a hard question to answer. I don’t think dad has much longer, but he’s pretty stubborn and that stubborness is probably built into the fiber of his body. But, his body is close to worn out. I’m hoping it won’t be a lingering, downhill slide as his quality of life isn’t great at the present time. He isn’t going to get better and even maintaining what he has is impossible.

The doctor discharged him from the hospital on Friday morning and admitted him into the Caribou Memorial Living Center and their skilled nursing facility. Medicare will pay for the first 20 days of his stay there, as long as he is “making progress”. After that he can stay another 80 days with Medicare paying a portion of the cost.

Mother is holding up pretty well, but her life is very occupied with taking as much care of dad as she can. She’s spending most of her time at the hospital / nursing home. Both her and dad welcome visitors, but there isn’t much capability of housing and feeding visitors at her house (she’s almost never there), so visitors are on their own. Church members and friends are also stopping by regularly.

And that’s the way it is on February 7th, 2009.

This is a remarkable machine. Click on the picture for a bit more information. Suffice it to say that this is how you get to the toilet when you have no strength in your legs.

While in Soda Springs today, mother and I went over to the Ireland Bank to check on some information. While we were waiting for the person to come over to help, I noticed a piece of paper on her desk titled You Know You’re In a Small Town When….

1. The airport runway is terraced.

2. The polka is more popular than disco on Saturday night.

3. Third street is on the edge of town.

4. Every sport is played on dirt.

5. The editor and publisher is also the reporter of the newspaper and carries a camera at all times.

6. You don’t use your turn signal because everyone knows where you are going.

7. You are born on June 13 and your family receives gifts from the local merchants because you are the first baby of the year.

8. You speak to each dog as you pass by name and he wags at you.

9. You dial a wrong number and talk for 15 minutes.

10. You are run off Main Street by a combine.

11. You can’t walk for exercise because every car that passes offers you a ride.

12. You get married and the local paper devotes a quarter page to the story.

13. You drive into a ditch five miles out of town and the word gets back into town before you do.

14. The pickups on Main Street outnumber the cars three to one.

15. You miss a Sunday at Church and receive four get-well cards.

16. Someone asks you how you feel, and then listens to what you say.

17. Everyone knows whose check is good and whose husband isn’t.

This sounds like a pretty good description of Soda Springs, Idaho. I grew up there and was mightly happy to get out of town. However, life was pretty good there and most things there were pretty good. I could never live there, though. It’s just too dang small!

Meanwhile, dad’s status is pretty much the same. He’s got a touch of pneumonia and is getting antibiotics. The nurse said his lungs sounded much better today. His blood sugar is still wacky and every time it gets too high he gets an insulin injection. His physical therapist was there today working with him. He gets along pretty well on his walker once he’s on his feet, but doesn’t have the strength to get himself up from a chair or his bed to his feet. Based on what we’ve seen over the past couple of days, dad might not be a candidate for assisted living and may need to go directly into the nursing home. I’ve started working with mother on the Medicaid application. The application itself can’t be filed until dad is actually admitted somewhere, but we’d like to have it completed and ready to be filed as soon as he’s admitted either to assisted living or to the nursing home.

And that’s the way it is in southeastern Idaho.

Spring Creek Manor is a for-profit assisted living center. The price of a room depends on the type of room (the one we were looking at is their standard room), and the capability of the resident. There are three levels. 1 = little if any assistance required, 2 = moderate assistance required, and 3 = significant assistance required. Dad would fall somewhere between 2 and 3. In that case, the room would cost about $2,600 dollars a month.

The fee includes three meals and snacks, and assistance as required. Furnishings, bedding, clothing, and personal care items are provided by the resident. Transportation is available, but at an extra cost. He can have a TV (cable … ICSofIdaho.com) and a telephone, paid for by the resident.

Today, however, dad was not doing very well. He is very weak and is running a temperature. They’ve had to give him insulin to get his blood sugar levels down. He’s not fussed at all about getting out of bed but wasn’t all that happy that he hadn’t gotten clean. He couldn’t get out of bed and to the toilet, so they brought in an interesting machine that they strapped him into which then wheeled him into the bathroom, lowered him down onto the toilet, hoisted him back up, and wheeled him back to the bed where they could lower him down onto the bed. I wish I’d taken a picture of the machine!

He’ll transfer from the hospital into skilled nursing on Wednesday. He can stay in skilled nursing up to 20 days, but only if he “cooperates” and “makes progress”. Both are required. If he cannot make progress, then he’ll be discharged from skilled nursing. We’ll have at least three days notice that he’ll be discharged. Depending on the evaluation made while he’s in skilled nursing, from there he’ll either go to the assisted living center, or into the nursing home. If he requires assistance at all facets of life, he’ll go to the nursing home, and in that case, Spring Creek Manor will refund the deposit. If he only needs some assistance, he can go into the assisted living center. In any regard, he’ll not be going back home.

Today we spent some time at the Spring Creek Manor, the assisted living center in Soda Springs, Idaho. If dad is able to be in assisted living, Spring Creek Manor would be the logical choice. We liked what we saw and mother put down a $1,000 deposit on a room that would work well for him. I took several pictures and am using them to describe the room and a bit about the facility. Clicking on the picture will open a full-sized view in a new window or tab.

The room is the first room on the left on the south hallway. The window in the room faces east out across an outside patio (reached through a door in the dining room) and a wetland park. The view is nice.

The entry door is set back from the hallway and behind the wall to the right is the small private bathroom.

The rooms are not large by any stretch of imagination, but definitely sufficient. The room has some furniture in it left over from a previous resident (the resident’s family donated all the furniture to the assisted living center). That furniture will be taken out and we’ll place our own furniture in the room. All room furnishings as well as bedding are provided by the family.

The previous resident had his TV in this corner along with a bookcase. His bed was in the middle of the room about where I’m standing to take this picture. We can put whatever pictures we wish on the walls. After a resident leaves, holes in the wall are filled, the room is repainted, and the carpet thoroughly cleaned (or replaced if needed). The room did not have any kind of an odor in it, nor was there an odor present anywhere in the facility.

The rectangular-shaped room has a kind of an alcove on the south wall that comes to about where Nina is standing. The rest of the wall is taken up by a closet. The alcove, where the dresser stands now, is big enough for a bed to be placed there instead. That might make better use of the space. On my next visit I’m going to bring a tape measure to get more accurate measurements of the floor space.

The closet is fairly large. It has about half the space as their closet in their bedroom at home. Plenty of room for clothes and other stuff in the closet. The items there now are being stored and will be moved out for dad’s stuff.

The small bathroom has a handicapped toilet on one side.

The sink is opposite the commode. There were several drawers below the sink. The resident is responsible for supplying towels and washcloths as well as personal care items. The center will do the laundry, however, as part of their service. Obviously stuff has to be very well marked!!

This is the hallway looking north standing in front of the entryway into dad’s room. The doorway to the right is a community shower and bath room … both are available in the room. Just beyond Nina to the left is the common room and entryway from the outside. You have to have a code to open the door to exit the facility. To the right is the dining area. Down the hallway, about where the other person is standing, on the left side is another community shower and bath room. This bath is a new, walk-in bathtub (as seen in magazines!). The resident can walk in, sit down, close the door, and fill up the tub. It’s quite nice and probably quite popular.At the end of the hallway is a game and recreation room with a small library and places to sit. At the time we were there, they were playing bingo in the game room.

The dining room was quite bright on the far wall, so the picture came out dark. There are several tables on both sides and the kitchen is off to the left. Breakfast is kind of buffet style with all sorts of breakfast foods. Pancakes are on the menu once a week and by special order. Lunch is served at 1 p.m and dinner at 5:30 p.m. and those two meals are a fixed menu which is published weekly. At the far end of the dining room are some tables with puzzles set up.

This morning started out as a pretty normal Sunday for us. I had Church meetings at my assigned Ward at 7:15 a.m. and Nina went off to her normal meetings at the Pocatello Women’s Correctional Center that started at 8 a.m. A little after 9:30 while I was teaching a Priesthood Lesson, Nina came to the classroom door and told me that, while it was not yet life threatening, dad was in the emergency room and we needed to leave to drive over to Soda Springs to help mother.

We arrived there about 10:45 a.m. with dad in the emergency room where he was being prepped to have a CT scan taken of his head. Mother was there along with a very good neighbor and friend who had come with her to the hospital.

This morning dad felt very strongly (perhaps “insisted” is a better word) that he have a shower and get cleaned up. After finishing with the shower (which he takes sitting down on a chair made for that purpose), he didn’t have enough strength to stand up and get out of the shower.

Mother wrestled him out of the shower and onto the toilet but couldn’t get him any further. She called a neighbor who came over and helped dad get back to bed. Dad complained that he was cold, got quite pale, and started shaking almost like convulsions, mother said. That was followed by dry heaves. She got quite frightened and called another couple in their Ward and neighborhood who came immediately over. They called 911 and the ambulance took him to the hospital.

Then, of course, the fun began tracking Nina and me down. Mother quickly reached both of my sisters in Utah who began making preparations to come up. After some serious persistence, they were able to actually talk to someone at the prison who was able to notify Nina of the problem. She then drove down to the building where I was in meetings and we left to go to Soda Springs.

The emergency room doctor was very thorough. He ordered up a full set of blood work, which told him that dad was quite dehydrated. They started an IV to get him hydrated again. His blood sugar has been swinging up and down and the tests indicated that his diabetes is acting up. His kidney function was not up to par, probably because he’s dehydrated.

The CT scan didn’t reveal any new trauma, but did show the area in his brain that has been affected by previous strokes (plural!) and some noticeable scarring in that area which is inhibiting blood and oxygen flows in that part of the brain. His difficulty with maintaining balance probably stems from these problems, the doctor told us. He also said this was a chronic problem and was only going to get worse over time.

The doctor admitted him into the hospital and where they continued to monitor his situation. His blood pressure was OK, but somewhat elevated from normal. That may be because he didn’t have any of his morning medications. His pulse was (and still is) high … between 90 and 115. So the activity tonight will be to get him back to a reasonably stable situation.

The doctor talked to us about what the right course of action for the future should be. Dad can’t go back home in his current situation where he’s falling down often and will likely do some serious damage to himself on one of these falls. His recommendation, which we agreed to, was that they keep dad in the hospital for three days to get him as stable as possible. He can then transfer into the hospital-associated skilled nursing facility for another 20 days. Medicare will pay for the three days plus the 20 days. At the end of the stay in the skilled nursing facility, he’ll then need to transfer into either an assisted living situation or into the nursing home (the non-skilled facility). The doctor felt that dad is a good candidate for assisted living.

So, last night was probably the last time that dad will have slept in his own bed in his own house. Nina and I will go tomorrow to the Spring Creek Assisted Living Center in Soda Springs to begin the process of having him admitted there. When he finishes his stay in the skilled nursing facility, that will most likely be his next stop.

His life has taken a dramatic change today and I’m sure he won’t be very happy with the turn of events. I know would not be looking forward to being moved into an assisted living facility! As we learn more about how all this works, I’ll post the information here.

Today, after spending most of the day in Soda Springs helping out mother and dad, I was cold. I needed to warm up my bones! My first choice would be somewhere on the Caribbean, like my favorite brother and his wife who are currently sound asleep in their huge rental waterbed. A somewhat reasonable substitute is our hot tub in the back yard.

So, I turned it up to 105°, waited for it to get to temperature, and Nina and I spent some quality time getting watching the stars and getting toasty warm. That’s the fun part!

The other part is getting out in 25° temps in the snow, putting the top down and securing it, followed by a dash to the house. As I was gingerly walking on the snow drifted up alongside the hot tub, I thought of the lyrics to a song from my early teen years: Ooh-ee-ooh-ah-ah, ting-tang-walla-walla-bing-bang (repeated). Then I had to think about where the words came from.

The first thought was Sheb Wooley’s fun song: Purple People Eater (hence the title of this post). However, after getting dry and dressed and searching out the lyrics on the Internet, I found to my dismay that those words are not any part of Sheb Wooley’s song. Further searching found the lyrics were to David Seville’s Witch Doctor, of Alvin and the Chipmunks fame. A little snow = a quick trip down a faulty memory lane. Thank goodness for the Internet!

Sail safe and fun, Perry and Chris!

I signed up for Facebook almost two years ago just because I could. I sent a few friend requests to some people I knew and accepted a couple of others. I configured it so that my blog would also post to Facebook and that my Twitter stream would update my Facebook status. I’d check Facebook every once in a while, but there was very little going on. I’d tell people about Facebook, but that was about it, until a couple of weeks ago.

Now Facebook has become a happening place. My brother and one of my sisters has a Facebook page. Quite a few nephews and nieces are on there as well. A couple of my children and their spouses have Facebook pages. I’m enjoying the connection. In fact Facebook is getting enough of a play in our family that my mother now has a Facebook page. She doesn’t know what to do with it, yet, but that’s coming soon. Facebook has finally become fun.

This week was another smooth transition of the President of the United States. It seems that a transition of power in most countries doesn’t go well. They seem to be accompanied by by violence, assassinations, and military coups, with the citizens always being the ones getting the short shrift. In our case, the past president kind of slips out of town while the new president takes the oath of office and the whole affair being celebrated. I’m very happy to live where we have this blessing.

President Obama takes office with a country holding extraordinarily high expectations of him and what he can do. He’s in the middle of a very serious economic situation that will definitely continue to get worse. Anything that he or his administration can do will take six months to a year before it can have any effect. I’m hoping that Americans will have sufficient patience.

We’re also up to our necks in two wars … Iraq and Afghanistan. The war in Iraq has turned the corner, but President Obama has announced that we’ll pull out within 18 months or thereabouts. Unfortunately, I think that’s too quickly and will leave the job unfinished. That has two problems. First, it reaffirms to our enemies that they can just wait us out. All they need to do is just inflict enough pain so that we get tired and quit. Secondly, unfinished business always comes back, often in horrific ways.

Afghanistan requires direct and massive attention. The problem there is Pakistan which is providing safe haven for the Taleban. The government there is fragile and there is a very restive India on the other side. President Obama has appointed Richard Holbrooke to handle diplomatic relations in that area. He’s a fine statesman and he has my prayers. However, this whole area is a powder keg and has the possibility to blow up, probably on our own soil. The American people won’t have much patience with that, either.

And then there’s the middle east. Israel has just withdrawn from Gaza where they have been waging a war with the militant Palestinian Hamas regime. One big problem is that the Palestinians have been launching Ossam rockets into Israel … thousands of them. When Israel finally had enough of this, they crossed into Gaza to close the tunnels from Egypt being used to supply the arms to Hamas and to stop the rocket launches. However, because Israel hasn’t done a very good job of publicizing the incoming rockets, they get roundly chastised by the international community for invading Gaza. Some of the information about the rockets is making its way to YouTube … here’s an example … watching the kids run to bomb shelters (they’ve 15 seconds to get there) is heart-rending. The middle east will be a serious thorn in the new administration’s side and again, there are no short-term answers.

Although I didn’t vote for our new President, and I’m very concerned about the slippery socialism slope where we seem to be headed, I will pray for him, and support him in all ways possible. He’s also on a honeymoon here with me as he is with the rest of America. God bless him and his staff. He seems to have put some good people into place (as well as a few he better keep a close eye on!) to advise him and run the various departments.

The blog software we’re using (WordPress) has a new release of software available. I’ve installed it on my blogs as well as on my favorite brother’s blog (perry.rnsmith.com). The look is different, but I’m liking the new interface. It seems to be quite a bit faster, as well. Next week I’ll roll it out to the rest of the blogs that I support.