Update on Dad

mom and I went up to the hospital tonight to see Dad after I was off work. I'll tell you this much, he looks sooooo much better. He was very alert and even talking better. It's still very hard to understand him though. He seemed to know who I was and this is something that he doesn't always do. He only has his IV line in right now. He keeps taking out his oxygen nasal canula. Other than being very thin and in a serious need of a haircut, he looks good for what he's been through the last several days. He kept trying to pull away the covers and get out of bed. When I asked him what he was doing he ponted to the clock and said it's 6 o'clock, I want to go down to the room to eat. Now, is he hungry and wants to eat or is it just that he knows the routuine and thinks he's still at the nursing home and wants his wheelchair so he can go sit in the lunch room and wait for his meal. This is something he's been doing since his admition nealy 7 years ago. It's a little like Pavlov's Dog. (6pm mealtime hungry or not) How do you tell at this point in time?
Mom and I stayed for about an hour then it was time to go. When we came back here to my house I recieved a phone call from the hospital asking for my consent to insert a feeding tube. I started to tell her okay since I knew he couldn't swollow and still needed nurishment. She proceeded to let me know that during that type of procedure his DNR (Do Not Resusitate (sp)) would not be in effect. I stopped right there and told her I couldn't make this decision on my own that I needed to contact my sister who is a registered nurse. I finally got ahold of Gloria and she had all the right questions to ask. 1). Why something so permanate so soon? 2). Who ordered this procedure? 3). Would we need a court order for removal later on?

When the Nurse first mentioned the tube to me, I didn't even think of that as life support but it most certainly is. Now I have to talk to Mom again tomorrow and explain this to her. So that's all for now on Dad. Hopefully the doctor will call me in the morning so I'll have more info for you all.