Surburban Medical Center

After researching all the Nursing Homes, I was informed the next day by Tri City Medical Center that he's not ready (health wise) to go to a Nursing Home but needed to be transferred to a Long Term Care facility. So with Daves help we put him in a facility called Suburban Medical Center just 15 minutes from where we live.

Dad's been looking better and moving around in the bed more. He's mentally ready to get out of bed and but not physically.... and this is starting to frustrate him.

Below is the new hospital that he is at and the address if you would like to send him a card.

Suburban Medical Center
Patient: Ron Miely Room #313
16453 Colorado Avenue
Paramount, CA 90723-5011

12/8 - Searching for a nursing home

I now know what the most depressing thing is EVER... searching for a nursing home. Dad has finally transferred out of the ICU and into a regular hospital room. Tomorrow he will have a procedure done where they put a feeding tube into his stomach, either temporarily or permanent... depending on how he does with his throat therapy. He currently can't swallow and does not have gag reflexes. His speech is just whispering and not everyone can understand him but I can. His memory is really good and doesn't seem like it was affected by the stroke.

So, today I went to check out about 10 nursing homes in Long Beach. I hope to God that dad does not have to stay in this type of home for long... they are so depressing. The Courtyard Care Center www.courtyardcarecenter.com was the winner for me. They only have about 59 beds (which is low... usually they have around 100) and they have a single room available (which is amazing because all the other ones were 2-3 beds per room). The nursing home was very clean, staff was friendly, they have a large beautiful courtyard in the back (hence the name of the facility) and most importantly I was impressed by their Director of Rehab. She was very knowledgeable.

The hospital should be releasing him any day now. Although he seems to be doing better, the tests are not showing any improvment with his phnamonia, lung infection, bladder infection and still no movement on his left parazied side.

12/3/09

Today was a challenging and emotional day for me. We took the ventilator out. Dad was very responsive and active once we took it out and stopped the sedation. He was writing "massage leg, cell phone, ice cream, water" and was able to mumble words that we could pretty much understand. His memory seems to be good. We started his physical therapy right away and did the basics; stretched his arms and legs. He keeps coughing up quit a bit of blood from the pneumonia and is short of breathe.

We are just taking this day by day. On 12/4 dad couldn't speak as well and he did not pass his speech therapy test. He can't swallow and does not have any gag reflex, so they need to put a feeding tube in through his nose to his stomach. He seemed really tired and was not that responsive today. They will need to keep him in the ICU for a couple more days to keep a close eye on his pneumonia.

Thank you to everyone for all the supportive emails and texts. Sorry I haven't been able to respond to all of them... I have been just super busy. They help me stay positive in this difficult time.

I think the hardest part of this is my dad looks like he is going to pull through but he continues to nod his head "no" every time we mention that he needs to take his high blood pressure medicine to stay alive and not have another stroke. I just hope his mind set changes!

12/1/09

Spoke with the doctor today and he said that dad's heart is weak and only working 27% and his condition has not been improving this week. It is not suggested that he should be on the ventilator for much longer because of infection and the doctor would like to do a tracheostomy (surgical procedures on the neck to open a direct airway through an incision in the trachea) on Thursday.



I know my dad and I know he would not want a hole in his throat.... and so I have decided not do the procedure.