I went to the Kindred hospital in Brea (Vern’s new home) hoping to spend a little quality time with him or at least get to see if his physical therapy had begun, but I showed up right when his 3-hour dialysis session had started. So much for watching new progress.  There was certainly a lot of activity around him though:  nurses taking blood, x-rays, bringing me paperwork to sign…and the aforementioned dialysis.

Goodbye, quiet privacy of the Hospital Stroke Unit. Here is a picture of Vernon’s new room. (I have blurred out his elderly room-mate’s face in the background.) If the dialysis machine wasn’t quite so big, the curtain might be drawn. Still, I’m happy to give up privacy in exchange for action and momentum.

As you can see,  there isn’t a lot of wall space here, but I have already started taping photos of the family up in the space we have available. I don’t think they know quite how capable I am of using up tape and space…I’ll do a little at a time as not to alarm the locals that I might be taking over.

I have requested that Vernon’s M-W-F dialysis sessions be moved to the afternoons so that the PT and OT can work with him in the mornings.  I would really like to watch the sessions if I can’t actually be a part of them. At least I will be learning ways to help exercise him on my own as his recovery continues. And I’ll be able to see improvements. Admittedly, it is kind of sad to drive all that way each day and not have anything new to witness.

Everyone there has been very friendly and encouraging so far. From what I can tell, they will try to work with my scheduling requests, especially as he is one of their younger patients —who has a relatively young family desperate to get him home.  (It’s nice to be considered  young again…an unexpected perk in this whole experience!)

My mom and dad visited Vernon yesterday, and my dad wrote about the visit on his own blog this morning.  Please check out BLANK SLATE for this story as well as other wise and well-written musings on life in general.