More Tests

When I got to Kaiser this morning, Mikah was doing an echocardiogram on Dad. Dr. Eron wanted to check for infection in his heart valves.

Mikah does an echocardiogram of Dad's heart.

I was supposed to originally help out-of-town friends with a walk through with their manager & the contractor for repairs to their condo in Waikiki; but when I went to get the keys this morning I couldn't find them. I called Curtis, he had forgotten to return them. So we had to switch places, he raced back home to get the keys, then race back to Waikiki; I went up to Kaiser Moanalua to help out with Dad. This all happened before breakfast; I had a package of Trader Joe's Simply Almonds, Cashews, & Chocolate Trek Mix for breakfast while sitting in Dad's room.

My breakfast this morning.

Dad's room has a view of the lawn area in front of the entry to the Moanalua facility. When Mom was in this wing last year, the area outside was bare dirt with lots of construction. I would occasionally see feral cats walking through the area. It also has a view of the parking garage & parking guard shack.

In the background is the 5-story parking garage, between there and the lawn is a drop off.

After breakfast, Occupational Therapist Marcia came to work with Dad. At first he wouldn't do it, but she persisted with humor and he finally did his OT.

Marcia leads Dad through his occupational therapy.

When I went to get lunch I decided to get more exercise and use the stairs to go down to the 2nd floor where the Sunrise Cafe is located. (Dad is on the 3rd floor during this hospital stay.) I found that Kaiser has posted inspirational sayings in the stairwell for their Kaiser Thrive program. Unfortunately, my knee is still a little sore so it was hurting by the time I got to the 2nd floor; I took the elevator back up. Speaking of elevators, there are also inspirational sayings on the elevator doors; I'll try to get photos of those tomorrow.

Don't know who the dude is, he thought it was funny that I was taking a photo of the sign.

Kaiser also makes it easy to keep your hands sanitary. There are hand sanitizer dispensers liberally located around the facility; in the patient hospital room areas there is a dispenser just outside every room as well as inside the room. There are also dispensers in the elevator lobbies. For ADA-compliance, places like hospitals need to install door-openers at the restroom doors. Most of the time you need to press the large metal button to open the door, making it a great place for germs to gather; at Kaiser Moanalua they use a switch that responds when you wave your hand in front of it, no touching required!


For lunch I went to the Sunrise Cafe instead of the Farmers Market down in the entry way. I picked up Beef Roast with 'Ulu Mashed Potatoes. It looked really good! When I returned to Dad's room, Wayde the clinical dietician was there. We talked about how well the Boost Breeze and Boost Plus he recommended a year ago worked for Dad. And how Dad started using the Magic Cup on his last hospitalization. Wayde is going to leave notes for Dr. Schwab to have these products added to Dad's approved diet. After he left I remembered what else I was going to ask him when I first saw him: Why is the cafeteria serving an entree with more than 1 portion of protein? The meal I bought looks like it has 3 portions of meat! Nurse Donovan agreed with me; next time I am going to order it in a to-go container so I can eat just 1 portion and take the rest home. By the way, it was good; I will order this again.

Beef Roast with 'Ulu Mashed Potatoes, with 3 servings of protein.

Flo, the Home Health coordinator, also came by. She asked how Dad liked Maunalani; he really liked it and so did we. She said she would have their facility coordinator contact Maunalani and request that they try to hold a bed for Dad for when he gets out of Kaiser. That would be great if he can go back there.

I went to Dad's MRI session and stayed in the waiting area, just in case Dad got upset by the machine. I met a nice couple who were waiting for their 8-year old son who was also in the MRI; they were also there just in case he got upset by the machine. Dad did great! I hope their son did, too.  

The MRI waiting room looks out at the helipad and the Moanalua Golf Course, which is around 3 sides of the hospital.

Dad has been lying on a mat that just looked like it was made with handles to assist with transferring him from the bed to a gurney & back again. It turns out it is more special than that; it's an inflatable transfer mattress with channels that are inflated so there are less sharp bumps during the transfer. It did seem like Dad had less complaints about pain when he was transferred. It is also designed to be for single-patient use for infection control.

L to R: Kevin, Shayna, Dad, & MRI technician getting ready to transfer Dad from the MRI table to the gurney. Kevin is hooking the blower up to inflate the transfer pad.

L to R: Nurse Donovan, Hospital Aide Jorden, Dad, and Shayna finish transferring Dad from the gurney back to bed.

Dad had a lot of doctors visiting him today. Today was the day the doctor in charge for the floor  changes; Dr. Schwab is replacing Dr. Lim for the next week. He came to check in on Dad; we also talked about Dad's problem with passing urine this morning. Nurse Donovan used the ultrasound and found Dad had about 130 ml in his bladder; the protocol at that level is to wait & watch. About an hour later Dad was able to pass the urine, but with a lot of pain. So they will stick to the wait & see protocol.

Later Dr. Baragi & Dr. Perera dropped in to check on Dad (Dr. Eron is off for a few days); they are the infectious disease specialists. They will be checking on how Dad does on the new antibiotic (Daptomycin) and whether the echocardiogram and MRI are able to provide insights in to potential infection sites.

Jodi, the in-patient social worker, also dropped by. She noticed that Dad was back in the hospital. I told her we were very satisfied with all the assistance that Kaiser has been providing to support Dad in his healing process.

After Curtis arrived, I left and on the way home I picked up Dad's things from Maunalani. Well, most of them. They forgot to grab the Purple seat cushion off of the wheelchair, which was not in the corner of the hall where they had been parking it. Nurse Lenie and Community Life Director Czarina will coordinate tomorrow with Geldy the maintenance supervisor to track down the wheelchair and get the Purple cushion back; its a good thing it is so unique because I forgot to mark it.

Here's Xander doing his usual evening activity, snoozing on his PurrPad.


I got a text from Curtis tonight. Its now his turn to be at the ER a lot. They had to take Lori's father in this evening due to a fall, he also has a fever. If he stays overnight in the ER with his father-in-law we might meet for breakfast in the cafeteria tomorrow morning! 

Happy Birthday to Lenny & Jon!