Fill-in author!

Hey guys, this is Trevor. I've pirated my mom's blog about my dad because she's tired. Actually, I'm tired too, so I guess that isn't really the point.

So today was a particularly grueling day, and I'm gonna go ahead and recount it for you as best I can. Here's everything that happened, to my knowledge (and I fully reserve the right to let Mom come back and correct me later).

So today, Dad was transferred to the King City facility around noon. Mom had gone and cased the joint to make sure it had all the necessary amenities -- big guy bed, appropriate drug regimen, cute nurses, etc. However, this initial scouting mission proved to provide... let's say faulty intel.

Here's the long and the short of it: the place was terrible. Nurses were taking forever to respond to even the most basic requests (pain meds, help using the facilities). This stressed out my parents to no degree, because of course then the concern becomes how they'll respond if something genuinely URGENT comes up.

When it became clear that this wasn't something that was going to be miraculously changing on Dad's behalf, he started requesting to be taken back to Kaiser. The nurses there were attentive and quick to respond to calls, and generally had their finger on the pulse of the situation (both literally and figuratively). But upon calling the hospital, we were met with the delightful news that it wasn't 'medically necessary' for Dad to be returned to the hospital. The King City facility (or King Facili-city, if you will) ostensibly had all the necessary requirements to care for Dad, and the doctors simply would not re-admit him under any circumstances.

This caused Dad to stress out even further, and understandably so: who wants to be stuck in a situation where they have to be constantly worrying about whether they will get the care they need when they need it?

When it became clear that the hospital wasn't budging, a call was made to the health care provider, who basically stated that they could not/would not override the doctor's decisions. So essentially, Dad was stuck there, and becoming visibly more agitated and upset because of it. Thanks, HMO! Way to look out for the little guy!

Finally, Mom became concerned about his well-being and asked one of the attendants to run a blood pressure check on Dad. When they finally got around to that (I assume it was Bingo hour at the nursing home and well, priorities are priorities), they found that Dad's blood pressure had (without getting into specific numbers that I can't remember) spiked to near-dangerous levels. Clearly, all the stressing about the situation was affecting him physically now. Again, the hospital was called, and again, Dad was denied re-entry.

Another call to the health care provider revealed that while they still couldn't get him re-admitted to the hospital, if Mom or Dad decided to call 9-1-1 of their own volition, that was their decision. And by golly, that's exactly what they did.

Sooo, another ambulance ride for my old man has him back at Kaiser in the E.R. And now we're re-assessing the situation with the goal in mind of getting him back home to Wilsonville right now. Because let me tell you, there's no way we're dumping him back in the old folks' home where they can't even bring him Tylenol in a timely fashion. No way, man.

Mom was by his side basically all day, from when he got to the King Facili-city at noon, to when he was ambulance'd out at seven, until they finally kicked her out of the ER to go home and rest around 1:00 am. She's sleeping, and I'm nodding off myself, having come to Wilsonville straight from work in NE Portland to help Teressa clear a spot in the downstairs living room for a bariatric hospital bed to come live at the house for a while.

We'll have more information in the morning, but that's what happened today. Technically, Mom didn't want me to post this. (She wanted editing rights, like it's her blog or something. But no Mom, this blog belongs to all of us.) Still, I think I kept it G-rated, no big deal. Just don't tell her I did it, okay? It'll be our little secret.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled bloggings.