Update on Jim & Ruth Ennenga

Good morning,
Forgive me for not writing more quickly, but we have had a busy week. Ibve
been sleeping in dadbs room at the hospital since Monday night.
Mom is doing well. She is scheduled to go home this Thursday if she continues
 to improve. She is in perhaps four different types of therapies, some to
teach  her how to better do chores at home for herself, and others to help her
through  the car accident. She is getting back to her cheerful optimistic
self.
Dadb&for the first time since the accident, I think dad feels HOPE that he
will regain his former life. He had a terrific problem in that he could not
communicate or hear. Both those problems have been corrected.
We have had ups and downs since I last wrote. Last Monday, dadbs trach
either
 fell out or he pulled it out, early in the day. Monday night, my sister and
I  were called to the hospital to calm him downb&he had pulled out his trach
and all  IVbs. I decided to spend the night in his room. Tuesday morning, I
left
for 30  minutes to see mom, and dad pulled out everything, including his
feeding tube.  At that point, I told the nurse to restrain him.
A Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner visited dad at our request. He put dad on
Adovan (spelling?), 1mg twice a day, beginning Tuesday. By Wednesday noon, dad
was almost comatose. The Adovan was discontinued and he slowly began to
improve.  Dad also was loaned a bpocket talkerb, which is a small
amplifier with a
 microphone and ear phones. He can hear adequately when wearing this little
miracle device. Wednesday morning, he also developed pulmonary edema. Thursday
 was spent re-surfacing to the real world, sleeping most of the day. His
second  sputum culture came back okay, so the docs are satisfied with that.
Still
has a  great deal of sputum. Thursday also fitted with a voice valve on the
trach. You  should have seen dadbs eyes light up when he talked! He said,
bI
TALKED!b and  gave me a big smile.
Friday was a good morning. In the afternoon, my youngest sister and I threw
some bhissy fitsb and got a lot accomplished. Dad had been in his back
brace
for  eight days, with no respite. He had not been cleaned under it, nor
checked for  sores. He complained constantly about it, and how it pained him.
Dadbs
doctor  had ordered an Orthopedic consultation (Wednesday) for the brace.
Friday at 1pm,  he said he could not guarantee if the consult would take place
before the  weekend. (This was after my sisters and I had pulled considerable
strings at the  hospital in Roanoke, to get dadbs records to the Knoxville
hospital,  immediately.)
The result of our hissy fit is that dad is out of the brace, unless he sits
up or walks. He had five rather large red areas, which had not yet broken
down.  He still has four sores which have broken down and are being treated.
The
under-garment for the brace was horribly filthy. Last night, dad did not ask
for  any pain medication and rested very peacefully. I was able to hook the
phone up  to his pocket talker and he talked to those daughters who have not
been
here,  and to his grand-daughter in Florida.
I would still call dadbs condition critical. His pulmonary problems
continue,
 and he has quite a bit of sputum which must be manually suctioned off. He is
 beginning to cough and spit some of this himself.  This week, the hospital
will work on dadbs swallowing, physical and occupational therapy, and
improving  his pulmonary.
Ibm not sure if I emailed this, but the hospital in Knoxville has a website
that wishes can be sent directly to mom/dad. Here is the link:
_http://www.covenanthealth.com/features/c_cards/c_cards-home2.cfm?hospital=fs
rmc_
(http://www.covenanthealth.com/features/c_cards/c_cards-home2.cfm?hospital=fs
rmc)

Ruth Ennenga, Room 458, 6913 Chartwell Road, Knoxville, TN 37931
James Ennenga, Room 413, b b b b
He has hope, and our family is very grateful to all of dad and mombs friends
for your thoughts, prayers and best wishes.
Mary Ennenga Richling
P.S. I do not think I will have to spend any more nights at the hospital.
Ib
ll try to stay more in touch. Dad and I will be watching the Nebraska/Texas
football game on tv today. This was to have been our bhockey-footballb
weekend
 in Nebraska, so we will make the best of it.

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