RENAISSANCE - Post Brain Haemorrhage

Although our father could swallow food in small quantities, he was mainly fed through the ryles tube.  With repeated episodes of him yanking it out due to discomfort and given his chronic cold, we were advised to have a PEG tube inserted in his stomach.    Apparently ryles tube is a temporary solution, not recommended for more than couple of months, if even that.   So we decided to have the PEG in place.  It's a fairly simple procedure, does not take more than 20 minutes.    There was a gastroenterologist in our hospital, whom I will hence forth refer to as Dr. G.  He seemed friendly and we zeroed on him to perform the procedure.  Dr. G, recommended that we get our father admitted a day before the procedure, then stay for another couple of days to monitor him.   Although the expenses for such a stay at this corporate hospital seemed daunting, we opted for it given it was for the greater good! Incidentally in July 2010 we were admitted at the hospital for Urinary Tract Infecti

This is the second birthday for our father since the stoke.   For the first one we were still at the hospital.  Coincidentally some of his friends showed up the hospital, the staff had arranged for a cake, apart from which I had picked up a cake and some decorations.  So his hospital room was full of nurses, duty doctors, cleaning staff, family, friends and two cakes.   He wasn’t too alert, seemed like he knew something was up, we couldn’t tell for sure if he really understood.  This January 4 th was different.   There was just one cake and the room was decorated by our driver under the supervision of our nurse.  My sister and I put some balloons up and our physiotherapist showed up as we were getting ready to cut the cake.   A dear cousin sent a bouquet of red roses.   Our father looked around the room in amusement, cut the cake with enthusiasm and gave us a piece each.  A Happy birthday indeed.