Libby and I are here in New Orleans now and were able to speak with Dr. Townsend. He says that he believes Papa would benefit from being moved from ICU to an LTAC facility. He believes that although he still has the issue of dialysis to deal with and the fluctuating white cell count, Papa would benefit from having more physical and occupational therapy. He says that it will be better to do this to "push him along" and help him,not only physically , but also mentally. He does not seemed alarmed about the white cell count, and says that the dialysis can be done on an as needed basis. As of now, he is having dialysis treatments usually every other night for 12 hours at a time. We were afraid that they were trying to rush us out of ICU, and we even talked to him about our concerns. Dr. Townsend reassured us that he understood our concerns, but says he wants to see Papa out of the ICU setting so that he can continue to progress. He believes that Papa is at a point where he doesn't really have new issues , it is just going to take time for the problems that he does have to heal . His lung looks good, no more pnuemothorax. His drains will all remain in place until each one is no longer producing. The section of his stomach where the bypass was performed is a concern because he would like for the gastric secretions to empty less from the G-tube coming from the stomach, and more to dump into his intestines (from the bypass). This is not a huge issue right now, but in the future if it doesn't improve, there will be the possibility of another small surgery to fix it...but it would be many months before resorting to that. Still having an issue with his blood pressure dropping during physical therapy, but it should get better as he begins to move around more.
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