Dad's Swallow Test

At about 1 pm, Justin from Hawai'i Patient Transport arrived to take Dad to Queen's Medical Center for the swallow test. It was raining; Susie insisted on holding an umbrella in the wind to keep the rain off of Dad.

Susie holds the umbrella while Justin loads Dad into the transport van.

Justin unloads Dad at Queen's Medical Center.

As we signed in I noticed they have cards in different languages so that patients who are not fluent in English can request an interpreter.


When we were in the exam room I asked the imaging technician if I could take photos for the blog; she said photos weren't allowed. She said they had people taking photos of procedures and staff without asking permission to take photos of the people so they instituted the "No Photos" rule. But I think because I asked & I wasn't showing people, they let me take photos, saying, "My back is turned, I didn't see what you did." They were really nice. (But I'm not listing their names so they don't get in to trouble.)

The test materials, L to R: thin, nectar, canned pears, and cracker with soft center.

Screen shot of video of swallowing.

The speech pathologist and I spent a bunch of time talking before the test. I told her we think the problem was the straw because he had fewer problems after we stopped giving him straws, but we decided to go ahead with the swallow test because it took so long for the VA to approve doing the test! Dad passed, but the speech pathologist still gave me a couple of recommendations to make things easier for him. She will be writing up a fuller response for the staff at Maunalani who would then talk with Curtis & me.

While we were leaving Jamie, the return driver, had us wait at the end of the porch while she brought the transport van up. We were standing next to 3 vending machines while we waited and I noticed something unusual in one of the vending machines. They must be having a problem with the vending machines.

Can you spot the unusual item in the machine?

It looks like the infrared motion-activated cameras that we used at our mitigation sites to document wildlife use.

Because of the very gusty winds throughout my morning walk I saw a lot less birds; once again there were no mynas or bulbuls in the African Tulip Tree. A couple of birds that I did see flying were frequently going sideways. The only regular I saw was Kelly driving by. I met Caroline and Olive; they live at the top of Lurline.

Nine minutes before sunrise on Maunalani.

Ten minutes after sunrise on Sierra.

Today was recycle bin pick-up day and it was very windy as well as drizzly. On my morning walk I earned a bunch of karma credit; I closed the lid on 38 blue bins! If it's a sunny day, I don't close bin lids so that they can air out. But if there's precipitation or it's threatening, then I close lids. It was nice to see that the lids were still closed when I drove by later in the morning. If the bins are knocked over, I don't pick them up because the wind will likely blow them over again and besides, less rain will get in them when they are on their sides.

There were so many bins with open tops on my walk today.

There were also a lot of bins blown over by the wind.

During my cool down stretches it was really raining hard! There were also less birds. And the ones that were around were taking shelter.

The gusty winds are blowing the runoff up the driveway!

It was raining so hard, Leahi was not visible.

A pair of Common Mynas took shelter under my car.

Dad was done with breakfast when I arrived. He couldn't remember what he ate or didn't eat. CNA Sharmaine said he only ate a little of the fried egg sandwich & papaya but drank all of his Breeze and Plus supplements.

I took the Subaru in this morning to find out why the Check Engine light was on. Yesterday they had asked me when I filled up gas and I thought it was earlier in the week; it turns out it was on Tuesday after I returned from breakfast with Curtis. I let them know that; it turns out it was the gas cap. Apparently in certain models of Subarus you have to make sure the gas cap is on very tight, otherwise air gets in to the system and creates something like a vapor lock which affects the sensors. (Scott the customer service guy seemed very relieved when I interrupted him as he started to explain what happened, by saying, "You mean like a vapor lock?")

Look! No warning signs!

I passed this on the way to the dealer. I saw this back in October but did not have as good an angle on it so here it is again.

Although I got back from the Subaru dealer with enough time to do my mid-morning walk, it was raining when I got to the parking lot. I waited for about 5 minutes but it didn't show any signs of slowing down or stopping, so I headed in during the rain. It took a while to slow down to a walkable rate, but by then it was too late for me to start, especially since I needed to make sure Dad ate and was ready to go to his appointment.


Lunch today was Pork long squash, Steamed rice, Tossed salad, Sweet corn haupia, and Portuguese bean soup. I have decided to see if I can find recipes to link to the menus, obviously they won't be the menus that the staff at Maunalani uses, but it will give you an idea of the dish. Dad did not eat much of his lunch or supplements.

It continued raining after lunch.

Dad & I got back to Maunalani about 3:45, well after the start time for my walk. But it was raining so I would not have walked anyway. So I just went home, ate dinner, took a shower, and got ready for bed.