Long awaited outing and Under pressure

Wednesday morning was an adjustment for Mom and Dad. With Dad's back and his slower mobility, he needs help getting dressed and getting washed up. Mom understood this and was trying to get dad up and showered early, since he had an 0830 doctors appointment. No one told dad though.....he was insistent on checking his work email and sending out some emails thinking he had plenty of time to get ready. He is use to jumping in the shower and being ready to go in 15 minutes. Well....it takes a little longer than that now. So they were a little late for the doctors appointment. Everything went well, all of his labs were great and he was moving really well. After this we went to lunch and they went to find a chair like the one that is at the boutique. For a man that was cooped up in a hospital for 2 weeks, this was a long day. Wednesday night was good- just trying to make sure all of his medications are correct and that he is taking them at the same time. He slept really well on Wednesday- Mom and Rocky didn't even wake him when they got up to let Rocky out in the middle of the night.

Thursday morning was a repeat of Wednesday. Dad was once again sending emails, and had delayed getting up and out of bed so long that he didn't have time to eat breakfast before the home health nurse arrived. She was there to get a brief history on Dad and determine what type of physical therapy he would need and how many visits. Everything was going great---he had his medications, his breakfast and was telling her his life story. That is everything was great until she checked his blood pressure. It was LOW, really LOW! So we checked it standing and then immediately called Dr. Kazhdan to tell her. She was so concerned she wanted to call an ambulance to take him to her office. Dad refused this and wasn't thrilled about having to go to the office since he had a work meeting scheduled for that afternoon. So we all piled into the truck and off we went to the boutique. He said he was feeling fine, until they went to sit him down to check his blood pressure. The chair he went to sit in was on wheels and wasn't flush against the wall. When he went to sit back- it moved so he moved a little quicker than he needs to and cause a good amount of pain to shoot through his back. He was really pale and looked as though he was going to faint. So we all wheeled him into the infusion room so that he could get IV fluids. He had to reschedule his meeting and talk with John by phone instead---which he wasn't happy about. We think the reason his blood pressure was so low was because of the new blood pressure medication they added when he was in the hospital. Instead of two meds, one in the morning and one at night, he was now taking 3 meds. So she stopped the new medication and sent him home on his merry way. They had a good dinner and were going to play some cards until he said "I feel groovy." Mom said the same look came on his face as it was when he was about to pass out. She immediately checked his blood pressure and it was low, LOWER thank it was in the morning when he needed IV fluids. She calls me so that I can head over to the house. In the meantime, they are rechecking it and checking their own blood pressures hoping the machine isn't working right. Unfortunately it was. When I got there it wasn't any better. Dad didn't want to call Dr. Kazhdan, since he knew her reaction would be to send him to the ER by ambulance and put him in the hospital. Sure enough, that's what she wanted. Dad was able to convince her though that he was fine, no dizziness, shortness of breath or chest pain. She reluctantly agreed to have him lie down and check his pressure again lying flat. If it was better he could stay home, if not he had to go to the hospital. The good news is that is was better. Mom checked it several times in the middle of the night and it kept getting better. Even though Dr. Kazhdan had stopped one of the medications, his blood pressure was still on the low side of normal. So when he had his evening dose, it got lower. This morning he didn't take any blood pressure medications and they are going to talk with his cardiologist to see what medications he wants him on and what doses. It's possible dad doesn't need this much while he is off steroids and only needs it when the steroids are in his system. Not only do steroids increase your blood sugar, they also increase your blood pressure as well.

So, Dad narrowly avoided another hospitalization and is feeling much better this morning. We all are. Mom's blood pressure is better, and so is mine! We were both up with the anxiety of it all and Dad's is back to normal. Physical therapy is working with him this morning. We'll see how that goes!