National Board of Director’s Blog

Dad moved to Joan Glancy Rehabilitation Center this morning. It seems like a very nice facility, and it is much closer to our home and my work. I’m glad to have made my last trip to the city of Atlanta for awhile. Dad’s new address is Glancy Rehab. Center, 3215 McClure Bridge Rd, Duluth, GA 30096. [Please e-mail me if you would like Ralph’s room number and/or phone number.] He seems very upbeat and is starting to get more oriented to the real world. He can’t wait to start his real “work” of getting strong enough to go home to finish waiting for his bones to heal. For those of you local, Joan Glancy is very near downtown Duluth. I know Dad would enjoy a visit, but the facility asks that anyone other than immediate family please visit during the hours of 4:00 and 8:00 in the evening.

Mom still plans to come home on Thursday of this week. I know she is looking forward to this big step. She’ll sleep better there and will enjoy being in her own surroundings. A couple of the neighbors were nice enough to clean the house for her homecoming. It smells lemony fresh. Thanks ladies!! I continue to seek assistance with her care from anyone who has the time and feels the calling. I really don’t think it will be a difficult job, but she really needs someone’s presence 24 hours (or very close to it) in case she needs the bed pan or needs to get out of the house in an emergency. No heavy lifting (other than plates and bed pans) will be required.

Sorry about not getting this up sooner but I’m currently on vacation and didn’t get a change to put it up sooner. If you would like the direct phone number to Ralph’s room please feel free to e-mail me at president@betasigmapsi.org.

Dad was released from ICU yesterday evening. He still has the trach in so needs an attachment to allow him to be heard when he speaks. If he doesn’t answer, it may be because he doesn’t have that attachment on. As long as no complications develop, he should be wearing it most of the daytime hours. He is a little disoriented - probably from his long stay in ICU with no windows. He was convinced he had arranged for himself to be moved home directly from ICU last night. He was quite certain that he just needed the transportation to get him home and was not too happy with me for not coming to get him. He shaved himself - without a mirror. The Occupational Therapist (OT) was a little nervous as he is on blood thinners, but I guess he must have been convincing because she let him do it. The Physical Therapist (PT) and OT helped him use a sliding board to get to the wheelchair. He sat up for an hour today. He was quite worn out from all that sitting. He gets to start eating a “soft mechanical” diet this evening as the Speech Therapist has determined he can swallow OK with the trach. He was to have beef and rice for dinner - more delicious than the “peanut butter” he noted he was getting through his stomach feeding tube. What he referred to as “peanut butter” is probably similar to Ensure given to him in an almost continuous drip to his stomach. We started our visit this afternoon with him asking me to look out his window to help him plan his escape route, but I think by the end of the visit (with the sitting up and plans for dinner), he was starting to realize maybe he wasn’t really ready to go home yet. Dad is determined, so I know he’ll get there soon. Please pray for patience for him and me as we continue to wait for his return home.

Mom gets stronger daily. She can now transfer herself from bed to wheelchair and back. This was quite a hurdle as she only has one of her 4 limbs available for full body weight support. We plan to have her come home the middle of next week - probably Thursday (3/16), but possibly as early as Tuesday. One of the men from church will be constructing a ramp to enable her to get in and out of the house when she arrives. The facility Mom is currently at will arrange for delivery of a hospital bed with trapeze (to pull herself with, not to do acrobats), wheelchair, bedside commode, OT, PT, and nurse visits as needed. Because she will not be able to walk or wheel herself around, Mom will need 24/7 companionship. Duties will include the following:

Being a gopher
Placing the bedpan under her and emptying it when she has done her thing
Putting some food in front of her at the appropriate times and encouraging her to eat it -
lots of local friends have volunteered to bring meals, so cooking will be somewhat optional

Giving her a pain pill when she needs it (typically not often now)
Helping with sponge bathing and dressing
Assisting with transfers between bed and wheelchair - she can move her entire weight but needs someone to place the wheelchair appropriately and to put the sliding board under her so she can move
Any TLC you feel she needs to keep her spirits up as it will be a lot of sitting around
Encouraging her to do her PT and OT tasks on days when she is not visited by these professionals
Keeping me in the loop of how things are going and let me know what I need to do to keep things flowing smoothly until she is up and around on her own

Dad has made big progress in the last few days. The doctors removed him from the ventilator Monday morning, and he was off and running. He still has the trach with a flow of oxygen. This makes it easy to suction out his lungs from time to time. He is off of almost all of his medications - only the antibiotic and pain pills delivered straight to his stomach through the stomach feeding tube. He is very alert, and his brain is active. Today, the speech therapist put a part on his trach tube to allow him to speak. I know he enjoyed talking again - Dad really does love to talk. He seems a bit disoriented and doesn’t really seem to remember a lot right now. I reminded him of the accident and that the doctors had repaired his leg bones and collar bone. I also reminded him of the broken ribs and told him that was why he had made it to the trach. I think he has a bit of ICU Psychosis - something you can get when you are in the ICU for an extended period of time with the 24 hour activity and no windows to “feel” the passage of time. He did know it was March 2006, and he definitely knows his wife is Shirley. They anticipate he will probably leave the hospital toward the end of next week, but don’t hold me to that as they seem to change their minds quite often. He will need sub-acute care similar to what Mom has right now. Overall, he is doing very well, and I’m sure his mental state will come around in short order.

Mom went to 2 doctors today. All of her bones are healing nicely, and they decided to wait another month or more to determine what should be done with the remaining injured knee with the torn ligaments. It was a very long day for her, journeying downtown, getting poked and prodded, and sitting/laying on a very uncomfortable gurney the entire time. There has been talk from her insurance company that she should go home in the next week or so. I, personally, don’t think she is quite ready for this, although I know she would be more comfortable at home. I am hopeful that she can remain long enough for Dad to join her for a bit. I think they will be beneficial to each other’s recuperation. Her mood fluctuates more now, as I think she has had enough after a month of sitting around. It sounds like she may be sitting around upwards of four months total - a very long time for this very active lady.

Dad had a successful procedure yesterday morning to place a feeding peg in his stomach. Today, he was receiving his first meal to his stomach since his surgery on 2/10. The entire meal is 1200 calories. I’m not sure if he just gets one of those a day or several. The doctor tells me this feeding will help him get stronger so they can be more aggressive in getting him off the ventilator. They tried to place a feeding tube down his 1 1/2 weeks ago, but were unsuccessful due to some previous hernia surgery and scarring. I am hopeful this will speed his recovery, as Dad and I are both tired of the ventilator and the sedation that goes with it. Today, I found Dad sitting in a chair (well, mostly lounging as if it were a recliner). He seemed content and was moving his arms around and even squeezed my hand quite tightly. I talked to him about the plans to get him off the ventilator and the procedure he had to get some nutrition. Hopefully he could understand that he needed to be patient with the ventilator a bit more. The nurses removed all of his staples and sutures from his surgery and from his scalp (due to a laceration). All look well-healed to this point. He continues to fight a bacterial infection (pneumonia) in his lungs. They have him on a sort of quarantine right now - I have to get dressed in a gown and gloves to go see him. I think it is some sort of staph. infection, but the doctors assure me the Vancomyacin (not sure how you spell it) will take care of it.

Mom continues to get stronger in her rehab. facility. The nurses removed all of her staples and sutures from her surgeries as well. All of her wounds have healed nicely. I will go with her to see two doctors next Thursday - one to check on the healing of her left knee (the more severely injured one) and her hip; the other to check on the healing of her wrist and to start to determine what to do with the other knee that has some ligament damage that needs to be repaired. Ultimately, she will have arthroscopic surgery to determine if the knees can be repaired or if she is better off with a knee replacement. She must be feeling better as she wants me to try to get her laptop up and running so she can do some work on it.

This e-mail was sent yesterday by Ralph & Shirley’s daughter.

Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone! My parents spent theirs apart, but Mom sent a message to Dad saying they would celebrate later. Here is a brief update on their conditions:

Mom is improving daily. She sits in a wheelchair at least once a day. Her physical therapist wheeled her down to see Dad for about 30 minutes yesterday. She really enjoyed seeing him - took him a valentine’s card and seemed to have a positive effect on Dad (blood pressure dropped while she was there). The doctor who will repair her less severely injured knee was in this evening. He wants to see her in 2 weeks and plans to due some exploratory surgery to determine if it is better to repair the damage or do a knee replacement.

Dad seems to be taking 2 steps forward and 1 step back. He had his major surgery last Friday. The Ortho. doctor repaired both of his tibia bones at the knee and his collar bone. The surgery only lasted 3 1/2 hours instead of the predicted 6 - 8 hours. The surgery and the extra fluids needed during that time have set him back a bit in the breathing area. His lungs are bruised, and with 14 broken ribs, he was placed on a ventilator after surgery and still remains on it. He battles some fluid around his chest, but the doctors are combating it with diuretics. He is more and more aware every day and does everything his doctors ask him to.

Our hearts and minds are with Ralph, Shirley, & their family in these trying times.

Below is an email from Ralph and Shirley’s daughter concerning their accident and subsequent treatment.

Mom & Dad were involved in a serious auto accident last Thursday night on their way home from their bridge game. It appears the man driving West started to go off the side of the road and overcorrected to end up perpendicular to my dad’s East moving vehicle on a local 2-lane road. Dad says he only had 50 - 75 feet to stop and just couldn’t do it. Neither have head and spine injuries or internal organ injuries. For this, and the sparing of their lives, I am truly grateful. They both have major bone breaks and will be recovering for the better part of the year in some form or fashion.

Dad has a broken collar bone, 14 broken ribs, a partially collapsed lung which they have successfully reinflated, two broken tibia bones at the knee joint, a broken pelvic bone (which should heal on its own), and a quite a few scrapes and bruises. He had one surgery Friday afternoon to stabilize his knees. He will need repairs on both knees and most likely his collar bone. His doctor is tentatively planning this surgery for this Friday. He says he can fix the left knee joint and collar bone with little problem, but the right knee joint will be more of a problem, and Dad will likely face a knee replacement at a later date. His major complaint is the difficulty breathing due to all of the damage to his ribs. He seems to be in pretty good spirits and remains optimistic. He tells me the medical staff wheeled my mom’s bed in for a few minutes when she arrived at his hospital so they could see each other. Dad started in the ER at North Georgia Hospital in Gainesville, and was transferred by long vehicle ride to Atlanta Medical Center in CICU room 278.

Mom began in the ER at North Fulton Hospital in Roswell, had 2 surgeries there and is currently at Atlanta Medical Center in ICU overflow. Mom’s injuries are a badly broken wrist, a broken hip bone at the socket joint on her right side, a dislocated right knee (apparently some torn ligaments and menisci), and a badly broken left femur at the knee joint. Mom had stabilizing surgery for all joints early Friday morning, wrist surgery Sunday morning, and the hip and femur repair on Monday morning. She also had a filter put in to her vena cava to prevent blood clots from reaching the lungs if they should occur. Her orthopedic surgeon said all things went well, and her vital remain good. I talked to her last night and she spoke to me clear as day. Today, however, has been a different story. Evidently, she is wanting to get some extra sleep because she doesn’t want to wake up for anything. They have pulled her off all the pain medication and are monitoring her. Her CAT scan showed no signs of stroke and everyone seems optimistic at this point. Dad tells me she reacts pretty strongly to anesthesia.

Dear Brothers,

This afternoon I received information that Past National President and Lienemann Award winner Ralph Folkerts (Alpha) and his wife Shirley were involved in a serious car accident this past Thursday evening on their way home from playing bridge. As they were driving home an approaching truck veered off the road and hit Ralph and Shirley’s car head on. Both were taken to the hospital in Gainsville, Georgia, and were subsequently transferred to an Atlanta hospital. Ralph has a severe cut on his head but luckily suffered no brain damage. In addition, to the severe cut, Ralph has 14 broken rubs; a broker collarbone; a collapsed lung; a broken pelvis; two broken kneecaps; and his right leg was shattered. His wife, Shirley, has a broken femur; broken wrist; a broken hip at the socket; and 2 dislocated knees.

Both Ralph and Shirley, along with their children Judy, Ron, and Jim need our fervent prayers as there will undoubtedly be numerous surgeries and a long recovery period. Pray that the Lord will give them all strength as they all deal with this tragedy. We have an awesome God who we all know we can call upon and do more than we can ever think or ask.

As I receive more information concerning where Ralph and Shirley are hospitalized and their current condition I will post it on the National website at http://www.betasigmapsi.org/blog, as well as provide updates through Marty’s Boys when it is released.

If you would like to send a card now Ralph and Shirley’s address is 2160 Habershan Trace, Cumming, GA 30041.

I would like to thank Bill Keel for providing the information necessary to sent out this prayer request.

Fraternally,

Chad Pfister

I would venture to say that I could safely say that the large majority of people every year make a New Year’s Resolution that they are going to do some sort of daily devotion every day whether that includes prayer, bible reading or bible studying. I’ll admit that I myself made this same resolution this year, and the year before that and likely the year before that year.

But regardless of how well I start out meeting this resolution, I always tend to fall short for some reason. As Paul says in Romans “For we all sin and fall short of the Glory of God.”

I think this would be a good time for people to share ways that they meet this type of resolution. I myself am curious for some ideas on how I can better meet my resolution.

I’ve said before and I’ll say it again. I am a horrible blogger. Even though I have tons of things that go through my head every day I just never take the time to sit down and put it on the computer. So I’m going to try this whole thing again and hopefully this time I’ll keep up with it.

I’m currently conducting a survey which has nothing to do with Beta Sig but I think is very interesting here it is.

Why is it that anytime you wears dress clothes someone inevitable asks “Why are you all dressed up?” And why is it that if you don’t have any particular reason for wearing dress clothes you inevitable respond with “Getting low on laundry” even though you know darn well that you are good with laundry.

I don’t know why it amazes me all that much but it does. Why doesn’t anyone every ask why you are dressed as a bum if you are wearing sweats and a ratty t-shirt? Why must we explain why people look good? Shouldn’t we be just as concerned about when people look like crap?

Let me know your thoughts on this subject. And even if you don’t have any thoughts comment if you read this.

I realized today that I am doing a poor job of updating my blog. So I apologize to those of you who were expecting a little bit more than every other week out of my blog. I am going to try to work on adding an entry every other day or so. If you have any questions that you would like me to answer in this blog, please feel free to contact me.