My Dad, the Pirate...

I just got off the phone with Mom and everything is going well. Dad has started chasing the nurses up and down the hallways a few times a day, and the surgery site still looks great - healthy and pink, no signs of infection. I think tomorrow, the dressings will come off to let open air get to it.

Mom paid a surprise visit to each of the rehab centers they've been looking at and toured them. She took a lot of pictures and they both went over the results and her impressions to select one. They picked the Dayton Rehabilitation Institute, located in the old St. Elizabeth hospital in Dayton. The rooms are laid out like hotel rooms, and the occupational therapy area will help Dad relearn how to handle everyday things, like getting out of a regular bed and a recliner, managing washers & dryers, kitchens, that kind of thing. They even have a car so that he can practice getting in and out of it from either the passenger or the driver's side doors. Well, it's half a car - it's been cut in the middle and only the front half is there.








Mom took some pictures of Dad yesterday, too. He looks sooo much better than he did right before the surgery.

See, the mischievous grin is back. :o) Once they totally disconnect him from the IV, Dad can start wearing his own clothes again. The hospital gowns, while functional, are most definitely not flattering, and more than a little breezy in the back. :o)

I'm not sure who sent it, but Dad now has a peg-leg to go with his parrot. He's got both of them hanging from the trapeze bar at the foot of his bed. The hospital staff is now convinced that not only are Dad's friends and family sick, we're also insane. Oh well... He hasn't tried the fake bird dropping yet that I know of.


It isn't the best picture of Dad, but you can see the parrot at the top and the peg-leg hanging at the bottom. It has a threaded post at the top to make attachment easy, a bungee cord on eyebolts for efficient storage, and spare felt pads for the bottom so that Dad doesn't mark up the new hard-wood floors he just put down in the house a few months ago.

Soooo, that's where things are for the moment. Tomorrow will be another day.

Grins,

Lori