Checkout

We picked up my father today from the hospital. It took all morning to check him out. He's doing very well.

I think the doctors have done a great job with his surgery, but I get so mad at the way the system treats patients when it comes to rehabilitation. Ankle fusion surgery takes only a few hours but the full recuperation period is around six months, and there's usually two months of no weight bearing. You would think that doctors provide detailed rehabilitation advice on how to get through daily life, but it's not the case. The best resource I found was message boards and Yahoo Groups of people who've already had the surgery.

It was because of advice from a forum that I rented a roll-walker. That's one of the goofy-looking devices pictured to the above left. My dad would never have thought to get one on his own. Yesterday, I asked the doctor if the cast might cover the knee and interfere with the use of the roll-walker or roll-a-bout. He gave me a funny look and said that my dad was too active to use one of those, they were only for very inactive or obese people, and he might as well just use crutches to get around for two months. I can't even begin to say how bad that advice was. Thank goodness I'd already rented one by then, and the cast isn't too high to interfere with use. My dad has immediately picked up on the walker and loves it. There's no reason at all to use crutches, except for going up or down steps. It looks like he'll be taking the walker into the kitchen soon and cooking a lot of his own meals, which is ideal because he loves to cook.

In Japanese culture, doctors are gods. It's scary seeing my dad, who is a fearless questioner of authority, transform into a timid, apologetic, childlike person when faced with someone in a white coat. I've heard that it used to be common practice in Japan to lie to patients for their own good. "I think Mr. Sato only has a few weeks to live. But I'll go ahead and tell him that his cancer is in remission, so he and his family can really enjoy those few remaining weeks!" That was one of the reasons for pushing for the procedure to be done here in America. It's not that the doctors are better (I think they're very skillful both here and in Japan) but the family is here in America to sit with my dad and ask reasonable questions.

I've also broken down and finally added an "ankle fusion" category to the labels. I've been talking about it so much this month, I might as well.