My Summer Vacation: Happy Birthday, Chibi!

It's Chibi's 11th Birthday! In cat age conversion charts, Chibi is now about the equivalent of a 60-year old human; she goes to the vet next week for her twice yearly senior cat check-up. You can find other age conversion charts on the Internet, I prefer this one because it goes up to 25 years; two others that pop up on Google ended at 14 and 19 years, Shiro & Xander are already older than one of the charts and Shiro seems to be on track to live beyond the other. The chart linked above is for indoor cats, who live longer than outdoor cats. Living outdoors ages a cat more rapidly; for outdoor cats go to this chart.

Birthday Girl lounging in the cat run this evening.

When Physical Therapist Kevin came by today we did not give Dad a chance to say no; Nurse Christy had given him an oxycodone about half an hour earlier so his pain level would be under control. PT Kevin helped Dad get to the edge of the bed. Then he helped Dad get in to a chair next to the bed. PT Kevin asked me to keep Dad in the chair for an hour if he could handle it, then call Nurse Christy to have the Lift Team get him back in bed.

PT Kevin helping Dad get in to the chair.

Dad had been sitting in the chair for about 30 minutes when Occupational Therapist Rae-Ann came by. Since Dad was already sitting in the chair she worked with him, lifting his feet one at a time to put them in to a pair of practice shorts. He did very well even with the pain. OT Rae-Ann then worked with Dad to teach him how to get back in to bed; that was much more painful.

OT Rae-Ann helping Dad practice putting on shorts.

Before I left the hospital I got a return call from Nurse Charmaine who is the nurse for Dad's Tripler Army Medical Center doctor, Dr. Young. I explained Dad's situation and told her we needed to have VA approval for Dad to either go to an assisted living facility or to have in-home care if needed after he got out of rehab in order for the rehab center to allow him to enter the center. She said Dad needed to come in and see Dr. Young; I explained further that, even though we were so close by we could see Tripler right across the valley, Dad was unable to even get himself out of bed on his own to get to Tripler. She said she would talk to Dr. Young to figure out what to do. I told her I had heard it could take some time to get VA approval; she confirmed what I had been told. Auwe!

My travel cup is showing even more signs of a leak; there was tea seeping in to the space between the layers. When I got home I looked through the cabinets and found 3 other travel cups. One is a Jamba Juice cup, its got a closable lid and is insulated but is probably only good for cold drinks. One is insulated metal and while it has a lid it doesn't close completely, so it would spill if I knocked it over. The last is insulated plastic with a fully closable lid; this is the one I'll take with me tomorrow.

L to R: Jamba Juice cup, metal travel cup, & plastic travel cup with fully closable lid.

I did the morning shift with Dad since Curtis had a breakfast with his work buddies; after I left I got 2 calls from Kaiser. The first was from Nurse Jay from the Ambulatory Treatment Center (ATC; where Mom would go for her transfusions). I had actually talked to Nurse Jay yesterday when I ran in to her on one of my Fitbit walks around the floor; the ATC is on the same floor Dad is on. She was calling today to get my approval for them to insert a PIC line in Dad for the daily intravenous antibiotic treatments he will need for the next 6 weeks.

The 2nd call I got was from Home Health Coordinator Flo. She was able to get Dad a bed at Maunalani Nursing & Rehabilitation Center! (Not sure how she made this happen since I had not gotten VA approval today.) MNRC is the place that Dad asked me to check out a few years ago to see if he could get placed there. The plan is for Dad to be transported at 12:30 tomorrow from Kaiser to Maunalani. The short term plan is for Dad to stay there for the 6 weeks of IV antibiotic treatments as well as physical and occupational therapy. During that period they will make an assessment as to whether he can return home. The most important part of that will be how well he does in therapy.

This morning before I left for Kaiser, I checked on the flowers. Now I am sure the new shoot on Mom's last surviving orchid is a flower shoot. The flowers on Mom's last gift orchid are also still looking good.

There were so many photos yesterday, I held off on posting more Kaiser history photos. Now that Dad will be leaving, I am giving you the rest of the photos.