Dad returned home Friday, leaving South Salem Rehabilitation after an extended stay. He’s done well, and he’s now strong enough to walk short distances without assistance. He’ll need to continue his improvement in building back his muscles, but he’s doing very well on that account, and we’re thrilled with the progress he’s making.
He’s also working diligently to monitor and control his blood sugar level. He was borderline diabetic before his recent health episode, but now he’s fully-fledged. So far he’s done a great job with the insulin and testing, and I expect this will become an even easier process once he’s done a few dozen times by himself.
Anyway, the point is that he’s home, and he’s off to a good start. I got what I wanted for my birthday.
Unfortunately, Mom has gotten sick in the last week. As many of you know, she had a liver transplant some 18 years ago at Baylor Medical. She’s done remarkably well over that time and, really, has had no liver-based issues with which we’ve been concerned. Until now.
Last Monday she felt poorly enough to have some blood work done. The results came back on Friday and were not good. Her liver numbers were all elevated. Couple this with just not feel well and looking increasingly jaundiced, and she rightly concluded that she needed to check in to OHSU, which is where her liver transplant doctors are located.
Mom and I spent about 10 hours yesterday getting her all situated at OHSU. ER was very full and very busy, so we hung out together in an ER room for about eight of those hours. She slept a bit; I stared at walls. Finally, around 11 PM they got her admitted and found a bed for her upstairs. (She’s in a semi-private room on one of the two floors that OHSU rents from the VA Hospital. We crossed the tram at about 10:45 PM and got one of the best views of the Portland cityscape that I’ve ever seen.)
Her X-rays and CT scans came back fine. We won’t know the results of the blood and urine tests they ran until later today. She’s having a liver biopsy this morning. Other than not feeling 100%, she seems in good spirits.
[A quick aside: The new valet parking at OHSU is a sorry joke. It closes after 9 PM, so I had to call Public Safety to get my car. They searched three different offices to find my keys, then drove me around the campus and walked with me through five levels of a parking structure—to which amazingly they did not have vehicular access—before finally locating my car. You know, 40 minutes is a long time to retrieve one’s car, and it really wipes out any benefit that I gained from not having to park it myself. As was, I didn’t get back to my parents’ house until 2 AM.]