October 2nd
What a start! Mom got checked in, switched over, and
bathed by the neurosurgical team! They started her on antibiotics at
5am. Attempted to put a tube down her nose to help with medicine
administration and suck out contents of her stomach. They tried twice
and mom was not having it nor helping with the placement of the tube.
Boy have I had some conversations this morning.
We
are in a really critical place right now. If she doesn't show
improvement that pretty much means she will not recover and then it's
all about comfort.
A real nice doctor came in, first thing, to
get a better understanding of mom and her/our situation. We talked for a
bit in her room then I thought the conversation should be taken out of
ear shot so we went to a conference room on the floor. When we came
back mom was talking to me bit and was responsive-following the doctor
with her head and answered a couple of his questions.
While in
the conference room the doctor and I talked about what care here at the
hospital is to look like. He posed a couple different options. Long
story short I told him I wanted a hybrid of the two situations he
mentioned.
He mentioned....1. Just controlling pain 2. Taking
any means necessary to cure the infection and her possibly not making it
out of the hospital. 3. A combination of both (which gets tricky).
Again
I said I wanted both. I told him I think/thought she can/could fight
this infection. I also said that because I know she doesn't want to end
up on a ventilator as her last time on earth. I told him (as he is well
versed in extremely sick people working in the ICU only) if he sees her
decline to the point of her not getting well (from the antibiotics) we
need to stop treatment and take her home for comfort.
They laid
off the nose tube and gave her water then lactalose orally. We found out
that she is no longer clogged up. She had two solid bowel movements.
They continued her antibiotics, lactalose, and rufaximum, she seemed to
show improvement in both her body and mind.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Back at it again...
Oct 1, 2013
Tough start to the October month, I have to believe it will get easier as the month progresses. We were up at 4 am this morning with a lot of confusion on how to get from the bed to the bedside commode. With help she got to the toilet, but she didn't relieve her bowels. She has been stopped up for days now, maybe since last Wednesday. A male nurse from hospice came out to give her an enema at 6:45 ish. Come to find out the enema route wasn't exactly the route we should have traveled down instead she was/is still a bit impacted. Her poop is there, but so compacted that its extremely difficult to move on its own....supervised extracting with fingers is the easiest removal method. She will mostly take a stool softener from now on just to make sure the impacting doesn't happen again or atleast lesson the chances.
Two cool things learned today....
1 the male nurse said its not uncommon for patients with ovarian cancer to have the actual tumor to obstruct the bowel-not good!
2 the nurse Michelle said the more you poop with lactalose the more ammonia is in the body. Lactalose binds to the ammonia forming soft stool. Most likely if mom doesn't poop as a result of the lactalose she didn't have an ammonia build up in her body.
Michelle the nurse extracted a good amount of poop and said mom might need to have extraction done again as late or around Thursday or Friday. She did poop small chunks on her own at about 5 which us progress.
Fast forward to 8 pm after her lift chair got fixed by husband. I asked her if she wanted to sit in her chair and she was prettying unresponsive. I got pretty worried. Eric and I decided to call hospice for advise on how to proceed. An on-call nurse came out to moms and accessed her-with the fact that I wanted to fix the problem that was/is aligning her, the best solution is/was to take her to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital around 11 we followed the same route as the ambulance. We pulled up right behind her and husband could tell that it was mom lying in the back of the ambulance. They accessed her a bit before we were allowed in the ER room. They listened to our description and her own behaviors or lack of. They deduced her body was becoming sepsis- she was shaking, running a temp, unresponsive, and unable to follow commands. The planned action was to draw blood and cultures, start antibiotics, and get her to ICU. She was headed up to the 9th floor ICU (the neurosurgical floor).
Tough start to the October month, I have to believe it will get easier as the month progresses. We were up at 4 am this morning with a lot of confusion on how to get from the bed to the bedside commode. With help she got to the toilet, but she didn't relieve her bowels. She has been stopped up for days now, maybe since last Wednesday. A male nurse from hospice came out to give her an enema at 6:45 ish. Come to find out the enema route wasn't exactly the route we should have traveled down instead she was/is still a bit impacted. Her poop is there, but so compacted that its extremely difficult to move on its own....supervised extracting with fingers is the easiest removal method. She will mostly take a stool softener from now on just to make sure the impacting doesn't happen again or atleast lesson the chances.
Two cool things learned today....
1 the male nurse said its not uncommon for patients with ovarian cancer to have the actual tumor to obstruct the bowel-not good!
2 the nurse Michelle said the more you poop with lactalose the more ammonia is in the body. Lactalose binds to the ammonia forming soft stool. Most likely if mom doesn't poop as a result of the lactalose she didn't have an ammonia build up in her body.
Michelle the nurse extracted a good amount of poop and said mom might need to have extraction done again as late or around Thursday or Friday. She did poop small chunks on her own at about 5 which us progress.
Fast forward to 8 pm after her lift chair got fixed by husband. I asked her if she wanted to sit in her chair and she was prettying unresponsive. I got pretty worried. Eric and I decided to call hospice for advise on how to proceed. An on-call nurse came out to moms and accessed her-with the fact that I wanted to fix the problem that was/is aligning her, the best solution is/was to take her to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital around 11 we followed the same route as the ambulance. We pulled up right behind her and husband could tell that it was mom lying in the back of the ambulance. They accessed her a bit before we were allowed in the ER room. They listened to our description and her own behaviors or lack of. They deduced her body was becoming sepsis- she was shaking, running a temp, unresponsive, and unable to follow commands. The planned action was to draw blood and cultures, start antibiotics, and get her to ICU. She was headed up to the 9th floor ICU (the neurosurgical floor).
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Good thoughts are working!
Tuesday October 16, 2012
Cardio doctor seems to like what she sees, haven't seen the medical doctor yet today. We are very positive and not only are we on the road to recovery...... we are on the road out of here(hopefully soon)!
We have introduced some new meds (heart and antibiotics) and discontinued others, Mom's body just needs to adjust (so i guess one more day in here). Mom is over being in the hosptial and wants to go home, we will have clear skies as we exit CMC.
Cardio doctor seems to like what she sees, haven't seen the medical doctor yet today. We are very positive and not only are we on the road to recovery...... we are on the road out of here(hopefully soon)!
We have introduced some new meds (heart and antibiotics) and discontinued others, Mom's body just needs to adjust (so i guess one more day in here). Mom is over being in the hosptial and wants to go home, we will have clear skies as we exit CMC.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Labor Day
Mom had a very busy and tiring weekend! Kerstin came in town, she and Mom went shopping. I heard Christopher tried to take Mom to the food store, but she was worn out from her prior shopping and was unable to buy more!
Family is a fantastic thing!
Hospital visit Fall 2012
Well we are trying our best to stay out of the hosptal....we had been doing good for quite awhile. This Saturday (October 2012) Mom's heart rate was pretty high and she came on in to the hospital. We have agreed this is going to be a short visit and she will be back home very soon.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Family!
I love family! Outside a local establishment (John's Country Kitchen) in the Plaza Midwood Area one April day. 2010-2012
5K Pajama Run
Save the date, November 10, 2012
What a great time and a great cause! This picture was from last year...so glad Mom is feeling up to it and will join the festivities this year!
Just think she was released from the hospital the evening of the race November 5th 2011 (last year ...one of the few release dates of that year).
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