Updates on the family

So, I realized I haven't updated on how my dad is doing and I'm sure people are curious. So he has been home since Friday August 7th. The trach was taken out on Thursday before he went home. They left the feeding tube in because he wasn't able to eat yet. It has been rough for both my mom and dad since he came home. For the first week, my mom was doing everything: tube feedings, giving meds in the NG tube, changing the dressing on his arm, changing the dressing on the stoma. She got everything down and is managing it very well. On Thursday August 13th, he had a follow-up appointment and they went ahead and took out the feeding tube. I was pretty upset about this, because they didn't even try to have him swallow anything before taking it out. They just said, "Well, it has to come out sometime." So since they took out the tube, he hasn't been able to eat very well. His tongue is very swollen and the stoma isn't closed all the way so he's not able to swallow very well and isn't getting much down each day. He's trying, but it just takes a lot of energy to get those instant breakfasts down. Hopefully it will get better soon, or he's going to lose a lot of weight. The stoma is almost closed now, which might help.

The other stuff that has been going on is that my grandma has been in and out of the hospital numerous times lately. She has been having really bad pain in her back and leg. On Thursday August 13th she had back surgery. They put some screws in her back to try and fix some stuff. When she woke up and they tried to get her up, her other leg was hurting. On Tuesday August 18th, they went back in and tried to fix some other stuff and moved one of the screws around because they thought maybe it was touching a nerve or something. Well, now her leg is still hurting and they have decided that she has an infection. They are treating her with very strong antibiotics and if that doesn't work, they'll have to go back in. I really hope they don't have to do that, because 3 surgeries in such a short amount of time would be rough on anybody, but she's kinda old and I don't think she can take much more.

I would appreciate everyone's continued prayers for my family during this tough and stressful time. Thank you so much!