September 2, 2018. Sunday mornings at the hospital are usually pretty quiet, especially in the parking lot. On Sunday, I can get a decent parking space, unlike most other days. However, today while I was walking from my car to the hospital, the usual quiet was disrupted by a hospital employee who was chasing and calling after a resident “runner.” During the day, you periodically hear announcements about missing patients who wander away from their rooms, but rarely have the patients left the premises. I tried to imagine the backstory to this event that broke the monotony of the walk into the hospital.

I arrived at Dad’s room at 7:45 A.M. His breakfast tray had arrived and was on his bedside table. He was still sleeping, but I was able to wake him easily. He finished about half of his breakfast before the physical therapist arrived. I never knew if we could expect to see a physical therapist on the weekend and I was pleased that Dad was being seen by a therapist during the holiday weekend. The session got off to a rocky start when the therapist accidentally dumped the contents of Dad’s urine bag on the floor. While she and the nurse cleaned the floor, which took a little over five minutes, Dad was able to sit without assistance on the side of the bed. The therapist was hesitant to have Dad stand up because his blood pressure was a bit low, but eventually, she decided to let him try. After standing, she retook his blood pressure, and it had elevated into the normal range. Because an aide didn’t assist her today, the therapist did not have Dad walk. Instead, she had him sit and stand a couple of times and then do some leg exercises on the bed.

After therapy, Dad was alert enough to swallow his morning pills of Midodrine and aspirin with juice.

This morning, Dad was fixated on dreams from last night about his father’s surgery and “what they’re doing to him at this place.” It was a confusing conversation because his father had died of a pulmonary embolism in 1957. I was able to get him to drink a couple of cups of coffee, hoping that it might help him clear his head and to stay awake.

Unfortunately, the effect of the coffee was short-lived, and Dad fell asleep moments before Stan and Mom arrived. Although he was awake when Dr. Hunt, the attending physician, arrived, he was very groggy. When the doctor questioned Dad about why he was in the hospital, he said that he was in Temple because of a broken leg, which was closer to reality than his answers yesterday.

I, not to mention his night nurse, was concerned that Dad’s biological clock seemed reversed. From what I had heard from the nurses, he was awake most of the night and then slept during the day. When I asked the doctor about what we could do to switch Dad’s inner clock, he said that he would check with neurology. I told the doctor that at home, Dad often took ½ of a Simply Sleep pill (which was ¼ of the recommended dosage), so they should exercise some caution when prescribing sleeping medication. The doctor said that he would check the ingredients in these pills and note on Dad’s chart that they should start Dad on low dosages of any sleeping medication.

Mom and I left for church at 10:20 A.M. After church, Stan told me that Dad had been awake about 75% of the time that we were gone, but that he was still a little confused.

Nephrologists base many of their healthcare decisions on the amount of liquid gold (urine) collected during a 24-hour period. When the nephrologists arrived for their morning rounds, Stan told them about the physical therapist’s mishap with the urine bag. However, they weren’t concerned and said that after taking diuretics yesterday, Dad had voided a liter of urine, so they would not dialize today. Instead, they would check his lab results tomorrow before dialysis to see if his kidneys were removing the toxins and electrolytes in his blood. Because Mom and Dad didn’t like the Scott & White dialysis center, we would need to arrange for Dad to receive dialysis at another location—one that wasn’t conveniently located near their home. This refusal to use the local dialysis center was an inconvenience that they would regret and that I wished that we could avoid. In any event, the nephrology team planned to get Dad started on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule that would continue following his discharge from the hospital.

Following our lunch at home, Stan, Mom, and I returned to the hospital at 2:30 P.M. Dad was sound asleep, but I was able to rouse him for about two seconds. I had been looking forward to this weekend so that Dad and Stan would have time to visit. Dad’s inability to stay awake was torpedoing my plans, and I hoped that the doctor would prescribe something for Dad that would enable him to sleep tonight. Tomorrow was Labor Day, and I wanted the guys to have time to visit and perhaps play cribbage.

At 3:00 P.M., Kayla, Dad’s nurse, set up the creatinine test that had been ordered by the nephrologist. Before she was finished, Maryline, Dad’s aide, entered the room and said that she was going to bathe him. I told her that his toothbrush was in his travel shave kit that was in his closet, so she said that she would also brush his teeth. While Mom and I waited in the 6 North waiting room, Stan drove to Starbucks to get us some coffee. Kayla came and got us at 3:45 P.M. When I went back to Dad’s room, I noticed that his teeth looked shiny and clean.

He slept for most of the afternoon but woke up for dinner, although he was still very confused. He kept saying that something was different. We couldn’t figure out what he was talking about and what was different. I wished that he could have given us some clue as to what he was talking about. After he finished eating, Mom, Stan, and I returned home. I said a quick prayer that Dad would get a good night’s sleep. He seemed to be progressing well, but I wanted him to be more awake during the day.