Montcare had their first rehab meeting for Ann yesterday. Attending were the OT, PT, Nursing Dept, Ann and myself (by speaker phone). Ann is currently able to walk about 50' with a walker and has no observable issues with blood chemistry or blood pressure. The staff hopes to increase her endurance via PT. Her weight was down to about 122#. ..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Shortly after this meeting, I had PT and was given clearance to drive. My first drive was to Krispy Kreme and I brought a dozen glazed donuts to Ann shortly thereafter. I expect some of the donuts will go to Montcare staff but given her weight I didn't think it would be a problem to supplement her diet with a bit of sugar and fat.
One of the steps (pun intended) in recovering from hip surgery is going from walking with a walker to walking with a cane. This is important if you intend to go somewhere because getting the walker in the car (or a bus or a cab) is quite a bit more difficult than getting a cane in the car. On Friday, 20 Sept. I mostly used my cane and today I didn't use my walker at all. Actually, I can walk without either if it is only a few steps.
..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................When my PT comes Monday, I expect to be able to walk much better and to show him and get his OK to drive.
We have been getting mail for William Howard for twenty plus years, perhaps one to four letters per year. As near as I can tell William Howard has never lived at 8211 Postoak. There is someone by that name a few doors down and across the street. I was intrigued by the odd salutation above the address. It certainly seemed like they wanted to come across as personal and friendly. I could open the letter and, if it has a self addressed letter enclosed, inform they that William Howard doesn't live here. Anyway, one good thing about higher postage is that eventually there will be fewer of these. ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... or I could just throw it out.
This is the main therapy room at Montcare. This is where Ann has been transferred from Suburban Hospital. They are located only a few miles from our house and are within the property of the Potomac Tennis and Fitness Club, a pretty location with lots of big mansions in the neighborhood.
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Montcare has won lots of awards and has lots of glowing testimonials on their website, https://www.mcpotomac.com/
On Thursday evening (12 Sept), Ann was taken to Suburban Hospital (in the image) with extreme weakness and disorientation. I am just getting around to posting it. They did an MRI to check for a stroke and didn't find anything. A blood test didn't show any big issue either but there was a nasty urinary tract infection, UTI. A UTI is a common cause of disorientation and delirium in the elderly. They began treating it and as of yesterday evening (14 Sept), the disorientation was diminishing but not gone. As for the weakness, I have no good information as they haven't really begun to seriously address that other than seeing if treating the UTI helps treat the weakness. Between what the hospital already had from a previous visit and what Ann could remember (even while disoriented), the hospital had a good record of her medications and physicians..
...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................I haven't been able to visit her because of the surgery last week but George has been there twice. More to come on this.
BTW, I have to admire how, with not too much change in the basic Georgian style architexture, the hospital exterior was able to be modernized recently.
In the Babylonia Talmud in tractate Bava Matzia on folio page 86, Rabbi Hama says that the day that God visited Abraham (Gen 18:1) was the third day after the circumcision. Commenters on this said that the 3rd day after an operation has the worse pain. Actually, given my operation was early on 9 Sept. I'm not sure whether 11 or 12 Sept is the 3rd day. Anyway, yesterday was a big increase in pain. So far today, the pain hasn't increased from yesterday. ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... We'll see.
I had the second hip operation today. So far the pain and weakness are considerably less than after the first hip operation. I saw the surgeon on the way out of the hospital and asked if he put in the same parts as in the first one. He said 'yes, same parts, same size'. Maybe the leg was stronger to begin with or maybe the muscles were more easily moved around or maybe the medication was given in a slightly different order. During my recovery room stay (from about 1100am to 500pm, the VP for Operations came by (I think that is what he said he was, I can't find his picture on the Medstar Olney website). He had a notebook with him. He asked for my comments. I said that overall Medstar seems to have done a very good job but there were some items that needed improvement, e.g., the blood type special test noted in the Sept 5 report). I mentioned that one plus the fact that the main entrance (blue lettering in the image) doesn't open until 530am and the directions to patients say to report 2 hours before scheduled operation and mine was at 730am so the instructions on where to report ought to point that out. I mentioned that one of the pre op nurses said that I should have been taking the stool softeners starting two days before the operation but the instructions don't say that. I also noted that the instruction said that post operation all my dental apppointments for the rest of my life would require taking anti bacterial before dental cleaning and my surgeon said that this 'forever' requirement was wrong and would have to be eliminated from the instructions as it only was for the first 30 days after the operation. ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... The idea of making a general 'you are great' start followed by specific weaknesses is one I used many times when doing a compliance review in highway work. The VP for operations seemed to be writing down what I said and thanked me for it (perhaps it makes it seem like he is doing his job well when he reports it to his boss). Regarding the dental instructions, George said (when I told him about this), "wouldn't a normal person hearing this instruction say something like 'this seems pretty harsh, are you sure this is right?". I should also note that I got a ride home with a Charles Karesh, a guy from my Talmud class (a retired medical doctor who used to work at that location when it was Montgomery General). He seemed to enjoy chatting with some of the older staff about 'the old days'. He also expressed astoundment that people now get hip surgery as an outpatient procedure (as I did for the 2nd operation).
Yesterday I got a call from Medstar, the medical center where I had one hip operation and will soon have another. They wanted me to come in and get a blood type analysis. I was ticked off because I know my blood type, I have records of it from both Red Cross and my primary physician's office. Also, I was at Medstar on August 26 for my pre op consult and, if they really needed the blood drawn, that would have been a good time to do it. Finally, they didn't need a blood type analysis for the operation on my left hip, why now for my right hip. The patient coordinator waid it had to do with the various antibodies (A, B and D in the image) and that this information was needed in case I had to have a transfusion like in my left hip operation........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... That also annoyed me since I don't think I had a transfusion in the left hip operation. Anyway, I went in today and got the test done. One person I know said he thought the medical center had simply figured a way to get another couple hundred bucks from the insurance company.
One easy recreational activity is to drive to a local lake and watch it for a while without getting out of the car. In the image is Lake Needwood. We went there yesterday. It is very near the northernmost part of the Rock Creek drainage basin. The southern park of Rock Creek flows through the District of Columbia. It empties into the Potomac River near Constitution Avenue. ..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
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The other lake we sometimes go to is Clopper Lake (above - image taken by Hosannah Jones) in the Seneca Creek State Park. Seneca Creek empties into the Potomac River about 16 miles upstream from the bridge carrying I-495 across the Potomac. Both of these lakes are 10-15 miles away from our house.
In my dream I was at a meeting, apparently of potential investors. A guy was making a pitch for his company which was about to have an initial public offering (IPO). It was all general and I was unable to determine what was the product or service of the company. He slow for a bit and said, "This may be the best IPO of all time, are there any questions?" Nobody said anything for a bit then I said, "So will this cure cancer?" ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... and the pitchman said, "Yeah. That too."
I had a dream in which I was supervising a motor cycle gang banquet. I must have been the mashgiach. Everything was going well until one of the gang members objected to the table settings. Some tables had all blue napkins, some had all pink napkins (must have been a Haredi motorcycle gang, perhaps called 'the Lord's Angels') and the gang member complained to me about that. He apparently wanted mixed female/male seating...
............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... I started to explain that I was only in charge of the food and that the settings were probably done at the order of the person paying for the event. I have been in conversations somewhat similar to this in the past, although never with a motor cycle gang and never with the colors of the napkins.
