Dad's First Day

Last night Nurse Rio said it usually takes people 4 or 5 days to settle in to a move to a nursing home or rehab center. When we arrived today at Maunalani Nursing & Rehabilitation Center (MNRC or Maunalani) we walked in to Dad's room and found ... an empty bed! Which totally surprised us, we thought it would take forever to get him out of bed. It turns out, they changed Dad's regular mattress to a Prime-Aire air-filled mattress to make it more comfortable for him and minimize his chances of getting bedsores since he has been staying in bed so much over the last 2 weeks. In order to do so, they had to get him completely out of bed. They used a MaxiMove patient lift to get him out of bed and put him in sort of a wheeled bed; we found him in the Castle Living Room, which is basically the activities room. But he wasn't too happy about that. We convinced him to sit in the activities room and eat his lunch; Curtis & Brent sat with him while I went to another room with Nurse Daisy and answered more questions for Dad's treatment plans.

The controls for the air-filled therapy mattress.

After lunch, we explained to CNA Silvestre that the issue with Dad was if his legs were hanging it put a strain on his hips causing a lot of pain; he didn't need to be reclining all the time. We have found that if Dad's feet are supported there is less pain in his hips so he doesn't need to always be in a supine position. CNA Silveste and CNA Jose put Dad back in to a regular wheelchair for now; it put Dad in a lot of pain to do so. They are looking for a reclining wheelchair that has leg rests that can be raised and a back support that can be partially reclined.

Dad in the MaxiMove patient lift, being placed in a regular wheelchair.

Dad wanted to go from the wheeled bed straight back to the real bed. We convinced him to spend a little more time in the wheelchair so he could try the massage that would be starting in about 30 minutes. In the meanwhile, we sat outside on the lanai and enjoyed the view and the good weather.

L to R: Brent, Curtis, & Dad on the lanai, looking for a good photo op location.

Nice background! Bad portrait lighting.

It turns out the massage students from Kapi'olani Community College were only working on arms today; the announcement didn't say anything about that limitation. When I was in massage school they didn't send us out to work on the general public, especially medically fragile patients, until we had learned how to work with all the different body parts; I assumed this would be the same. Due to the PICC line in Dad's right arm and recent IV lines in his left arm it really wasn't a good idea for his arms to be massaged. I took Dad back to his room and CNA Silvestre & CNA Tawny moved him back to his bed. While Dad napped, I waited for Nurse Daisy to finalize the treatment plans for my signature.

I think Nurse Daisy and I covered everything we need for Dad's treatment plans at this time. We had to redo some of the paperwork that CNA Silvestre had filled out with Dad prior to our arrival yesterday; Dad's dementia prevented him from being able to appropriately respond to the questions. We covered pain management, daily medication schedules, personal hygiene, sleep management, nutrition & meal service, physical & occupational therapy, and activities. As Dad's ability to do things changes, we will adjust the treatment plans. One of the things that Maunalani helps with is making transportation arrangements when Dad needs to go to appointments. This afternoon Anna made all the arrangements for Dad to go to his follow-up appointment at Kaiser next week; I will be able to ride along in the transport van.

Happy Birthday to Walt, Dennis, Jed, Uncle Pat, Kerrie, Joani, Sally, & Ashton!