Muddling through, bad news, home for now

Grandpa has spent the last couple days in the hospital here in Decatur. He suffered a minor stroke, a transient ischemic attack (TIA) after his doctor’s appointment on Monday in which he could not speak or swallow. So, the urgent care nurses sent him via ambulance to the hospital. By the time he got to the hospital, he had recovered control of his search and was feeling fine. CAT scans and MRIs revealed no identifiable reasons for the episode, but he was kept for observation Monday night and because of a slight bleeding issue in the upper leg he was kept under observation last night. We are expecting he will be returned to the rehab facility sometime today, but Grandma just got a call that there is an outbreak of COVID at the rehab facility and they recommend that Grandpa not be brought there at this time. Mama is trying to find out what options we have. As a last resort, we will bring him home and do our best to give him as much physical therapy as we can to help him recover.

He has a great spirit and assures us that he feels fine. He is gaining strength in his right leg and has no observable issues using his right hand, so his recovery looks to be progressing well. Better than expected in fact, outside of the little scare he gave us Monday. In his visit with the cardiologist, he was pronounced in excellent health as far as his heart is concerned. He still has issues with atrial fibrillation but is otherwise as well as can be expected. The cardiologist told Grandpa that he could expect ongoing issues with clotting and possible TIAs as he recovers. He may not be able to avoid a second serious episode like the one that put him in the hospital in the first place. He was advised to do what he felt like he could do and make the most of the time he has been given. We hope to help him with that but for now we are muddling through as best we are able.

I am not sure having him closer has saved us any time on the road. Mama seems to be making several trips per day carrying Grandma back and forth to wherever Grandpa is located, and it is stressing her out that Grandma is constantly stressed out about everything. Again, we are muddling through, but circumstances seem to be thwarting our best efforts. At this moment, we are not set up for Grandma and Grandpa to stay here. We have a space for one at a time, but the spare bedroom is not set up in a way that will allow the two of them to share the bed in that room because there still too much stuff in the room for them to safely navigate around. So, we have our work cut out for us to make that suitable for them as we look for an RV to move onto the property.

NOTE: Mama and Grandma were at the hospital this morning sharing the news they had received from the rehab facility and were able to arrange to bring Grandpa home. He will be getting physical therapy twice weekly at home and we will make up the difference in the daily therapy routine. Praise the Lord! From my point of view, it will help to have Grandpa here because he will mitigate the impact Grandma has on our general emotional wellbeing. Plus, we will not be constantly traveling to satisfy Grandma’s insistence on being with Grandpa every waking hour of the day. Whether or not the emotional strain on Mama will be relieved by this new arrangement remains to be seen.

I checked on the hives today. The plan was to fill the syrup feeders on all three hives and check on how they were doing in this unbelievable heat. Turns out that the smaller hive I split out of one of the stronger hives was full of dead bees. The syrup feeder was empty and there were three frames full of honey and brood, but not a live been in the hive. Sad day. The other two hives are doing well even in this heat, so I filled the syrup feeders, checked on the store of pollen substitute I gave them and made sure the bees were eating the pollen patties in the feeder on top of the hive. Everything seemed to be okay, so I closed up each hive in turn and began the cleanup of the abandoned hive. I put the frames filled with honey and brood in a bucket on top of the other hives to let the bees rob what they can from the frames since I cannot harvest the honey from those frames because they contain brood as well as honey. The bucket will suffice to hold the frames until we get our first rain. I have not planned any further ahead than that.

I will be teaching a class tomorrow, but we can assume that Mama will not have to do any running to keep up with Grandpa. It will be his first full day at home with us, so we will be able to get a feel for how well he is progressing in his recovery.

There are still prescriptions to fill, doctor’s appointments to keep and physical therapy sessions to schedule, but doing those things is one of Mama’s strengths.