ER #6/#16

WARNING: PHOTO OF BLOOD AT END OF THIS BLOG POST.

If you have been reading this blog regularly, you may remember that there was a period in the first half of 2016 where I was going to the emergency room on average once a week for 6 weeks. After I moved in with Mom & Dad, and especially after Mom was diagnosed with acute myelocytic leukemia, I continued to go to the ER so often I should have gotten frequent flyer miles for it! That dropped off dramatically after Mom passed in March. But today I took Dad to the ER; #6 for the year and #16 for the run from 2016.


I didn't see Dad fall and he couldn't figure out why he fell; so there was concern about what he did to himself since he was complaining about pain in his right shoulder and when Dale helped pick him up he complained about pain in his back. He also had trouble getting his legs under him when Dale had him upright. Like Mom, Dad didn't want to go to the ER. But since I was in charge of the transport chair, I wheeled him to the car instead of the back door. It turns out Dad was a little dehydrated and also had a low potassium level, though not as low as in May when he fell twice in 2 days. They gave him a potassium-laden drink and a unit of fluids and told him to eat more bananas, potatoes, and dark green, leafy vegetables. He is to see his primary care physician Dr. Nakano on Tuesday.

It was interesting listening to Dad trying to tell the nurses and doctor why he fell. He was confused as to what he was actually doing. Based on where I knew he was sitting when I went in to the house, where I found him sitting on the grass when I came back out, where his slippers were located, and what he was able to tell us, I think he may have gone to stand up to head back in to the house but couldn't get his legs under himself. That caused him to fall backwards on to the grass, his feet flew up kicking his slippers off in to the places where I found them. Fortunately he fell on the grass and not on the concrete sidewalk or the landscape rocks or planters. And fortunately he has great bone density, he had no fractures. Because of his old war injury his legs are weak & he is unable to stand by himself after he falls. He said he was calling for me, but I was in the computer room, which is the farthest room from where he fell, so I didn't hear him. He then decided to sit in the shade and wait, which is where I found him when I went to call him for lunch; he might have been there for an hour or so. 

Here's where Dad was sitting when I went in the house. He fell off to his left on to the grass.

This is the first time Dad has sat out on the front porch for such a long time. He was out there today because the tree trimmers were here from 8 o'clock making a lot of noise with their chain saw, so he decided to supervise since he couldn't sleep through it. I met with Roberto from Trees of Hawaii about 3 weeks ago to set this up; he and 5 guys showed up around 7:30 this morning and got started.

From 08/10 when Roberto gave us the estimate for the work. It basically looked like this at 8 a.m. today.

8:30 a.m.

9 a.m.

9:30 a.m.

10 a.m..

10:30 a.m.

Basically, the mango and pomelo were reduced in height to make harvesting (and control) easier, branches near the roof were removed to keep rats out of the attic, mango branches near the incoming powerlines were removed, and all branches and debris was swept up and removed. All in about 2&1/2 hours. Here are some close-ups of the areas of concern.

August 10th; easy access for the rats.

September 2nd; no access for rats.

August 10th; very dangerous.

September 2nd; more in compliance with power line safety setbacks.

August 10th; a tangled mess.

September 2nd; more open crown where training can begin to create easier to harvest areas.

New, open configuration of mango tree.

After the ER we went to Zippy's for dinner. It was a little early but we had missed lunch. Dad had the hamburger steak and I had the hot turkey sandwich with mashed potatoes; I gave some of the mashed potatoes to Dad.

Hamburger steak.

Hot Turkey Sandwich with mashed potatoes.

Xander seemed to get the hang of the new setting on the Wireless Whiskers feeder quickly. Previously it was open and would close when the cat reached its daily limit. Now I have it set to "Default Closed", the doors start out closed and will open when the cat's tag is close enough. It looked like Xander figured it out way ahead of Shiro & Chibi. But I found out today that Xander had a slight advantage over them. It turns out Xander's tag has 3 rings on it and Shiro & Chibi only had 2, so his tag would hang closer to the feeder and trigger it to open. Shiro & Chibi, however, would do the same thing but their tag was still too far from the feeder. I have now added another ring to their collars, they should now be able to trigger the feeder to open.

Shiro with the 3 rings on his tag.

WARNING: BLOODY PHOTO AT THE END OF THIS PARAGRAPH.
This morning, while giving Xander his prednisolone, he closed his mouth and turned so quickly I didn't get my finger out of the way in time. He nicked my finger; in a place with very good capillary supply. I washed it with soap & warm water for 3 minutes, while squeezing blood out, rinsed it off with my hydrogen peroxide based contact soaking solution, & put a band aid on it. It looks worse than it is. The most difficult part was taking the photo with my left hand!


Happy Birthday to Dean, Sandra, Steve, & Ian!