Leaving the Room With A View

Paul and his room with a view at nightfall

The hospital lobby at night

Alexander visits his dad's room

Today Paul will be leaving the luxurious hospital/hotel room he's been in for the past 3 days. This place looks like a f'n Hilton. Check out that lobby up there, and a splendid view of the surrounding mountains (and local industrial park). 

Today Paul's sodium levels are nearly normal, 147 (normal range is 135-145) so he will be shipped back to the nursing home from which he came. I'm working on the hospital doctor and staff to make he sure he gets sent to the rehabilitation side of the nursing home (Aviara Health Care) and not the side he normally lives on (Long term chronic care-everyone is Medi-Cal).

 Since Paul was in the hospital for more than 3 days his Medicare Insurance allows him time in a rehabilitation center. I think he needs the time to get his physical strength back and also, the nursing home can get used to the idea of overseeing his fluids. The staff on the rehab side is consistently good, with more nurses on staff and CNA's (certified nurses assistants) that seem to stick around for awhile and get to know the patients names.

The latest word from the hospital doc about the possibility of an underlying condition,  Diabetes Insipidus http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001415/ ...is that Paul's urine output in the past 15 hours has been in the normal range, so it doesn't look like that was the cause. We'll know for sure after he consults with the specialist today. 

So that brings it down to this: the nursing home was not overseeing his care properly, was not monitoring what he was drinking, and they let him drift into a life threatening, critical dehydration.   

Now, what to do....