On Saturday, the doctors were able to get Frank completely off of the blood pressure medication from the IV drip and on to only blood pressure pills. Therefore, they moved him out of the CCU and into a regular room! The doctor stated, as for the tumor on his adrenal gland, it is so small that in cases like that they do not remove it. And it was my misunderstanding that this was the main cause of his high blood pressure. This is something minor and not the main cause. Therefore they do not know what the main source is. And as they were saying the day before, in most cases they do not know what it can be. The plan is to get it under control with medication, and to modify a person's diet. When moved to his new room, he felt good not being hooked up to an IV and a machine!
Saturday night, when the nurse came in to check his blood pressure, it had spiked to around 200/100. She had to call the doctor and was instructed to give him an IV drip of another type of blood pressure medication. She kept asking how he was and he was fine - no dizziness or headache.
Sunday was a pretty calm day. The speech therapist came in for a bit to go through some exercises. The main therapy doctor came in and explained that he spoke with the speech therapists that have been seeing Frank and they stated that to be safe, it would be best after he is discharged from the hospital to be checked in to a rehab facility and to stay there for a couple of days to be assessed. Then from there he can be at home, and go to rehab 3 to 4 days a week. He is VERY anxious to leave the hospital and to get started on his therapy. There is only so much he can do in the hospital with books and worksheets to work his mind.
The only thing keeping him in the hospital is his blood pressure. Since it's still not stable, they do not feel comfortable releasing him. They are estimating though he should be discharged any time between Monday to Wednesday.
Frank is of course getting a little discouraged because things that came so easily before, he has to take his time to think about (i.e. reading a clock, basic subtraction and multiplication). He understands that it won't come back over night and we have a journey ahead of us.
Please pray for his patience and that he gets released soon from the hospital soon!
The mere fact that they are talking discharge from the hospital is wonderful. Frank looked great yesterday and seemed in good spirits. We continue to pray for him during his recovery and for everybody that loves him. He has all the support and love surrounding him that will get him through this!
ReplyDeleteBetsy,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for taking the time to make these blog entries. It is really comforting to his colleagues at work to be able to know and track his progress. Anand should be there to visit again tomorrow.
Best wishes,
Gerard Gatineau