Dad Had PT Today

I thought Dad might be spending the whole day in bed today; he refused this morning when CNA Jose & I tried to get him out of bed. So he "ate" breakfast in bed; didn't touch his eggs but drank the Boost supplements. Then Zhanna came by and he readily got in to the wheelchair to go to physical therapy! We have noticed that he is more compliant when the female CNAs ask him to get in to the wheelchair. At the Wellness Center, Dad practiced standing up about 8 or 9 times at the parallel bars with assistance from Zhanna and me; this is about 3 times more than he did the last time I was at PT with him. But he complained of pain in both knees; we'll have to see if that pain persists. (I felt his knees, they were not hot and did not look inflamed. Not sure if it really was in his knees or was being referred from elsewhere.)

Dad getting ready to stand up.

Instead of taking Dad straight back to his room, I took him out to the 2nd Floor Lanai since it was almost lunch time. We were the only ones out there today. He didn't touch his peanut butter and jelly sandwich, only the Boost supplements. Today we were able to get the dronabinol (Marinol) in without him spitting it out.

Dad enjoying the view of Pearl Harbor while eating lunch.

While out on the lanai, I saw a bird come over the top of the building and dive down over the bluff at treetop level in the classic Accipiter spp. flight pattern; it went by so fast I couldn't get a photo. That is also a classic accipiter move, stealthy and fast! I did not know there were any accipiters in Hawai'i, so I researched it. According to a very comprehensive 2017 on-line document by the Bishop Museum, there are 338 species of birds that have been recorded from the entire Hawaiian Island chain; of those 212 still exist but only 82 are not vagrants ("a visitor that does not occur regularly"). I concentrated on the 82 endemic & introduced species. Of the 14 raptors listed, only 5 are not vagrants; the problem is that I am very familiar with all 5 species and I know the bird I saw was not any of them. The only accipiter listed is the Chinese sparrowhawk (Accipiter soloensis) which is a vagrant; so I might have seen a vagrant, which means I probably won't ever see it again.

I saw TheBus going down the other street again, which is called Lurline Drive (where I almost ran in to it). I got a better set of photos than those on Monday, plus I waited for it to turn on to that lower road. I looked at a Google Map that has the bus stops marked on it and it looks like I might be seeing TheBus turning left from Lurline Drive on to Monterey Drive.

TheBus near the top of Lurline Drive,

TheBus further down Lurline Drive.

TheBus turning from Lurline to Monterey Drive.

During my walk to Maunalani Park today I didn't see any new species of bird. I used today to become more familiar with the calls and habits of the Common Waxbills (Estrilda astrild) which seem to really like the park. I also saw the male Saffron Finches (Sicalis flaveola) again, no sign of the female. I found out from the Bishop Museum bird list that the Saffron Finch is actually a type of tanager and not a true finch.

Common Waxbills landing near Saffron Finches.

Among Xander's medications is the appetite stimulant mirtazapine (Remeron); this may sound familiar to you, it's the same appetite stimulant that Dad was originally on! Hopefully this won't make him sleepy like it did to Dad. I left Xander in my bathroom today so I could leave some tuna out for him to eat when he felt like it.

Xander hanging out in the bathroom.

The shaved area on Xander's forearm where the IV was inserted.