Recovery phase

The day after surgery, dad's pain subsided and he could talk in sentences. In fact, he recovered gradually each day.

He still couldn't walk with walker 2 days after surgery, as that was the doctor's expectation, and so he was kept one more day despite dad pressuring him to discharge him that night. He made substantial progress a day later and thus was discharged, with no charge for the extra day (because it was supposed to be counted another day if discharged after 2pm). Also, to our pleasant suprise, the final bill was around RM 39k. Yes, there's actually going to be a small amount of refund. Looks like the doctor followed through with his offer of discount.

At this point, there is already significant improvement over pre-surgery conditions: pain in left leg no longer flares up whenever transition to lazy chair and he no longer has to take Oxynorm. Once a while he takes Norgesic/paracetamol for his back pain while sitting on a chair. Swelling of his legs, due to water retention, is almost gone.

Consequently, medicine he currently takes are:
  • Fentanyl patch
  • Frusemide
  • Lactulose
Don't need Gabapentin since that was specifically for his leg pain, and don't need to rest of the constipation medicine because he poos daily. We definitely need to update PCU and get their latest prescription.

The main issue now is his mobility: it is still improving but as expected, it'll take time and intensive physiotherapy to be much better. Because of this, he can't walk far, with the walker, and thus going to toilet at night is impossible. He has been using diaper but he wants it to be immediately changed after soiled. He even tried to "live with it", after I discussed with him, for a night but his mind wouldn't let him sleep because he was afraid of soiling the diaper. Also, he needs someone strong to lift him up.

CW's service ends this month as he is going off for housemanship and so no help during the day from September onward. It's not feasible for us to be "on-call" every night to help him to change diaper, get food etc. My dad has many needs and want, even in the middle of the night @@. Hence, he agrees to temporarily stay at a nursing home until he regains sufficient mobility to be independent.

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