Summer Blues

It has been a long time since I had time to sit down and write something. Life has been very complicated this year, not that that is unusual in our house, but it has had some different aspects. Primarily, this year it has been my Dad's health that has been the biggest issue, not Himself's, which is a major change.
It started in February or March, and Dad finally had aortic valve replacement June 17th. then there was the very difficult first few days, where his reactions to the medications,surgery and heart/lung machine produced some effects and behaviors that scared him and a couple of family members.
If you ever know someone who goes through heart surgery, or any other that requires a hear/lung machine, be prepared for something called ICU dementia, (or "pump head", depending on the hospital you are in.) Every patient experiences it differently, but you can imagine how that impact, combined with all of the sedatives and other very powerful drugs, can cause some one's mind to be a little off track.
It would have been much easier if my brother hadn't freaked out, since Dad was upset by it already and thought he was losing his mind, and I had to remind everyone (including the nurses) to reassure him that it was temporary.
Reminding me, talk with the nurses a lot. I was dumbfounded to find out that they had Dad noted for difficulty swallowing, which means they really bring awful food and those Glucerna drinks, and the whole problem wasn't that he couldn't swallow, he just wasn't interested in eating anything that came on the tray. Once we figured it out and mom started bringing home canned fruit, sandwiches on their favorite bread and her special cookies, things started to turn around. Not that it's all great yet, those drugs make everything taste weird, and even the old favorites may not be appealing.
Another issue to talk with the nurses about, the Physical Therapist noted that Dad had right side weakness because he couldn't get up when he was working with him. What Dad and I both tried to tell him was the aggressive movement he was using trying to swing Dad out of bed had produced vertigo and that was why Dad couldn't follow through. That guy was really obtuse and I would have told him not to come back, but sometimes Dad is even more stubborn than I.
After spending much less time than we had anticipated in a pretty serious rehab facility Dad went home on July 17th, and is slowly improving. Yesterday he took himself out to the pickle ball court and just walked around there for some exercise. And, a PT person was supposed to visit him today, but I haven't heard what happened with that.
Actually, some of the summer hasn't been blue, but when my car blew up on Monday it kind of leveled the really great weekend I had just had at camp with my youth group. Check my FB for pictures from the event, there aren't enough superlatives for how much I enjoyed the people and activities that I experienced at camp. And, the whole car thing could have been so much worse, but that will be another blog.