The lung ailment that followed the fires took its toll on both of us…we’re trying to recover. But the air is clearing and colder, which will help the firefighters. Even our local News station and Dish Network have suspended their contract feud to bring the news channel back on to advise people of evacuations and hazards…kudos to people using their heads and their conscience.
I’m making progress on the book—but some of it consists in sitting and staring while the brain works.
The tank is looking better and testing better, what’s more.
I need a break. But there’s no time to take it. I’d love to take a drive up to Missoula and stay the night. Maybe we could manage one to Pullman, for lunch. Jane and I need to talk over an aspect of the current plot, and a break for lengthy discussion might be good, except the Prius is in recall for a computer issue, and we don’t want to get stranded. *I* need to get my driver’s license renewed. And I stepped on my reading glasses and bent the focus all out of true, while I managed to outright lose my driving glasses…sigh. I need to go to the optometrist and get new ones anyway, because the prescription is changing.
Meh. We might risk a drive to Pullman.
I hope you’re feeling better soon! My mother is now in the ICU for her third day. They had to remove most of her colon due to heavy bleeding and they couldn’t locate the source. She’s on a ventilator, has about 5 different IVs running into her arm, and that damned undignified catheter….
I’ve been camping out in the waiting room most of the past 3 days. At least, the doctor said she seems to be getting better, but time will tell.
Oh, Joe, this sounds like a scary, tense, boring, fraught, worrisome, waiting time for you. I’ve my fingers crossed and wishes directed to you and your Mom.
Oh, my. Good wishes to your mom and you. Responding to the treatment sounds good.
Oh Joe, no, that just isn’t fair. Our best wishes and we hope your mother makes a full recovery.
CJ, Last time we were at your house I noticed a pair of glasses sitting on the windowsill as we were entering your front door. They wouldn’t be visible from your living room because of the drapes. I hope that’s where your driving glasses are. I kept on meaning to mention that they were there but got distracted (too easily).
Joe, I hope your mom continues to improve and gets out of the hospital soon. We went through colon surgery with my dad back in the ’90s, so I’ve been where you are. Sending good vibes your way…
Dear ladies! While there is still time, go ride the merry-go-round, have some ices or roasted nuts and watch the squirrels play. Talk on the way back. Sometimes not thinking about something, often called letting it simmer on the back burner, is the best way to keep an idea from going out under bethunk.
Joe, I hope your mom is doing better; hospital stays always suck, especially when you are plugged in like a Christmas tree.
Tommie, “Practice not-doing and everything will fall into place.” — Lao Tzu
Update: The respiratory doctor ran some tests on her this morning and determined that she’s not ready to come off the ventilator. Maybe tomorrow morning. Her blood pressure, heart rate, kidney functions, and other vitals seem to be all right, and the doctor is pleased with what he’s seeing so far.
I’ve been spending the day in the waiting room with my father, and every so often, going in to see how she’s doing, but pretty much staying away from the room when she’s awake, because she wants us to get the tube out of her throat, and we can’t do that, then she gets upset, and it just makes things worse. Visiting hours are limited, 8:30 AM – 8:30 PM, and only 2 visitors in a room, but her sister feels that rule doesn’t apply to her, and walks in and “takes charge”……she keeps badgering Dad about calling one of my brothers (the one who doesn’t want to hear from us), and lays out platitudes like “you have to forgive…” um, it’s not that we haven’t left the door open, he refuses to talk to us…..and besides, she’s on the outside and has no idea what’s really going on…..but that’s never stopped her before….
Maybe tomorrow morning they’ll get that damned tube out, and she’ll feel better, especially since they have to keep her wrists restrained when nobody is in the room or they’re afraid she’ll put out the tube intentionally or even in her sleep…
“…she wants us to get the tube out of her throat, and we can’t do that, then she gets upset, and it just makes things worse.”
It’s tough when you want to be there for her but can’t. My mom lost her memories bit by bit, most recent then backwards in time. It got to the point she’d see my modern self and be literally terrified about what had happened to me. She was never stolid; less so as she got senile. I had to stop visiting.
The “take charge” type can be great when they’re right. One of those foisted a completely wrong but credible diagnosis of my father on an ER doc. Even though she was just a friend while I was the son with medical power of attorney, and actually understood what was going on because I knew his condition and meds, it took me days to undo the damage. While my father suffered.
So, yeah, life with sick parents isn’t fun. Hang in there.
One might take the non-visiting hours and take your Dad to dinner or breakfast. It is something that will get you both into another atmosphere than the ingrained anxiety of a hospital waiting room, or of the home where she is not. This is extremely hard, but there is no way out, except going through. Humph! Just like the rest of life, come to think of it.
Hoping things are going better. The breakfast-dinner sounds like a good idea.
She’s off sedation, and they’ve reduced the number of things going into the IV. Right now, (1:10PM EDT) they’re doing the breathing test, where they use a Continuous Positive Air Pressure (CPAP) device to see if she can breathe on her own. If she can, then they’ll see about taking out the tube. We thought maybe yesterday would be the day, but it wasn’t to be.
Dad and I go out to lunch away from the hospital, and he can get out of the waiting room, get something to eat, and not have to look at the 4 walls in the waiting room. We usually leave for the day at about 5:00PM, even though visiting hours are from 8:30 – 8:30. After a while, it’s not doing anyone any good to just sit there and wait.
Hopefully she’ll sleep during those hours and you can get some rest. Still sounds like good news.
They took out the tube at 3:00 PM, Friday. Finally!!!! She’s awake, she can talk (a little), and she knows where she is…..
…and is mad as a wet hen?
Hee! No, she’s calmed down, now that she doesn’t have that tube stuck in her throat. They’re giving her liquids, such as broth, tea, and jello, and if she can tolerate those for a day or so, maybe onto more substantial food.
Dad says he feels much better now, and might be able to relax a little. I sure hope so…..he’s been through enough in the past 2 weeks that he really needs a break.
CJ, from the litany of things you describe, it sounds as if you really need a break before more things break. Time spent doing something fun and different can boost the work too.
Mom had a small setback last night. Apparently, they gave her a pain pill and it upset her stomach, and she ended up vomiting. In order to reduce the chance of aspirating stomach fluids into her lungs, they’ve replaced the stomach tube. She’s still OFF the ventilator, thankfully, but she’s probably unhappy about the tube going up through a nostril and down to her stomach.
This is one of the ways they try to reduce the risk of pneumonia, since they usually give patients an acid-reducing medication, which then allows various flora to breed, and if they’re aspirated with the fluids, they can get into the lungs and cause all sorts of nasty bad things.
It’s now Monday and she’s still in the ICU, I spent some time yesterday with her, she’s able to talk, they still have the stomach tube in her, but one of the doctors is going to talk with one of the other doctors and see if they can remove the tube. The fluids that are being aspirated are of a much more normal color, and so that might indicate that the stomach is going to “accept” foods again. She’s been getting her nutrition via IV, in the form of amino acids and dextrose. She can talk, but sometimes, she gets incoherent, or says she’s seeing yellow bugs crawling on the walls, or sees people that aren’t really there. The doctor believes this is a result of being unable to get unbroken sleep due to the number of times they have to check blood pressure. I recall reading that without the brain being able to dream during sleep, that the person is likely to have such hallucinations, be irritable, etc., and can eventually die. Anyway, when I checked in this morning, she was asleep, and I stayed out of the room so she can sleep.
Codeine can do it. My father kept seeing things and deciding he needed to walk over ‘to the next farm.’ My roomie (not Jane) visualized the green stripes on the wallpaper as an endless stream of green lizards going upward. And no sleep doesn’t help, to be sure, but meds are also suspect. Here’s hoping for more progress.
I know that if I’m taking Dilaudid by capsule, I will certainly hallucinate. I did so after my right knee replacement, I thought the staff was out partying when they should have been in the clinic treating the patients…..they WERE in the clinic…. They’ve been giving her Dilaudid via IV for the past 7 days, so I’m not surprised that she’s hallucinating. According to the Mayo Clinic, it’s not uncommon……
I came in this morning (Tuesday) about 9:00, they’ve moved her from the ICU up to the regular ward, removed the stomach tube, and have her sitting up in a chair beside the bed. She’s not happy about doing that, but it’s necessary for her to get better.
Still nothing by mouth, all of her nutrition is coming by way of intravenous fluids, especially the proteins, amino acids, and dextrose.
She still isn’t speaking clearly, her speech is somewhat slurred, although the doctor doesn’t seem concerned, he thinks it is due to the lack of sleep from all of the interruptions for this test, that check, etc.
This is still an improvement!
Big, big improvement. Tell her she’s got a lot of people she never met wishing her well.
Joe, I too am very glad to hear she’s improving.
I do wonder at that hospital, knowing that sleep is necessary for healing, making it impossible with their tests and procedures for the sickest people, in the ICU, to get even just enough sleep to not start hallucinating, let alone to get better! I hope now she’s out of the ICU she’ll be able to rest and start to heal. Best wishes for her recovery, and strength for you and your dad.
I recall, aged 10, being real snarky with a nurse who woke me up from the first sleep I’d had in 48 hours, to take my temperature.
But in their defense—it is a warning of infection; and blood pressure is something they have to take by restricting circulation, which you can’t just leave on. Temperature, however, they could easily get from remote monitoring these days.
It’s Thursday, Sept 24, and I got a call from the surgeon telling me that Mom has a life-threatening condition, something to do with gas collecting in her abdomen. So, she is back in the operating room and this time, they’ll probably remove what’s left of her colon, and she’ll be on a colostomy bag.
She’s been up and down, was on a BIPAP machine this morning because her blood oxygen was low, and she’s been somewhat disoriented. She’s also got a slight case of pneumonia in her right lung, which is being treated by a broad-spectrum antibiotic.
We’re sitting in the waiting room where we were 11 days ago, same chairs, and just about the same time at night, as well…..
All prayers attend, and the Mother and Master of Mercies watch over all concerned.
They got her into surgery around 8:30PM EDT, and the process took about 2 hours, but they did find a leak, and removed about 3,600 milliliters of diarrheic fluid from her abdomen, cleaned her out, and she’s on an ileostomy bag now, and probably will remain on it. The surgery is hard on her heart and kidneys, and he’s reluctant to go back and make any further adjustments if they’re really not necessary. She’s back on the ventilator in the ICU, on massive doses of antibiotics, but hopefully, will be getting better as a result of finding and fixing this problem.
Joe, my very best wishes for your mother’s recovery. So sorry she had to suffer such a setback, and you and your dad such a scare. I hope she gets better soon, with less stress than after the first surgery.