Catching my breath

I spent the last three days at the hospital with my dad. He is still in the cardiac intensive care unit, and probably will be there until Monday. The surgery went well, but then there was some drama the next day when his external pacemaker shorted out- once very briefly, and the second time big time. Both times I was standing at the bed (maybe I am bad luck?) and saw his eyes roll back and then go unconscious. It was pretty awful. But he was hooked up to a backup pacemaker which they were able to get going pretty quickly.

So far his heart is not beating without the external pacemaker- and it can take 3 days for the swelling from the surgery to go down and know if it is going to come back. But so far it looks like he will need a pacemaker, and they will probably do it Monday. I'll be back at work then.

Today I am just trying to recover and do some things that need doing- like laundry, a haircut, etc. And sleep- I am so tired. Tomorrow I will go to the hospital again. This is my first day home. Wednesday night I spent the night in a hotel in the city with my step mother, and Thursday I stayed in a very cheap hotel by myself so that I could be there early on Friday- and she could do later in the day. And last night I spent at my dad and step mother's. I was too tired by the time I got there to drive home. Today she will go and be with him, and tomorrow I will go so she can have a break.

My dad is just incredibly tired and weak. They didn't want him out of bed yesterday but they wanted him to move- so I tried to get him doing some heel slides and some punches at shoulder level- but he was too tired. I think he is going to need to go to rehab. I know the good acute rehab places around here, but I don't know the good STR places- and I don't know if he can do 3 hours of therapy, plus medicare doesn't consider cardiac to be a rehab diagnosis so it is always hard to get those patients into acute rehab.

I have to find a good STR place for cardiac rehab.