We're back at the U again, this time on the fourth floor, in Dr. C's service.
dp's legs have been getting more painful, to the point where she couldn't sit up without hurting a lot. She's okay if she just lays in bed, but that leads to a host of other problems, so we decided that we should do something. We left home on an ambulance about 3, and they are still getting her settled in here.
She's got a morphine PCA, which allows her to give herself a dose by pushing a button, and a foley catheter.
We're in the palliative care wing of the oncology ward. I think all the rooms on this end are singles, and they try to keep this area much quieter -- there are reminders to close the door, to try to be quiet, and to feel free to complain if you think other people are being too loud.
Dr. C thought he might be able to move the bone scan up from Wed to tomorrow, but we'll see what happens. In the meantime, dp is comfortable enough, but we're still waiting for the Thicken powder so she can drink some real water.
We spent most of the weekend reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. We're almost done with that, so now I just have to remember where we stashed the rest of them. I do think the weekend at home was good for her -- she sleeps a lot better in her own bed than she does in any hospital room, so while she is pained, she also well-rested.
Marie seems quite chipper -- she's worried about dp, of course, but looking happy and healthy when I check in on her.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Back in the UIHC
I got a call from St. Luke's about 3 -- they think dp's cognitive skills have been going down, so they called UIHC, talked to the (a?) neurosurgeon, and then called me to say they the neurosurgeon wanted her back.
At present, I'm sitting in the ER waiting room, waiting for dp's ambulance. I'm thinking/hoping that it's probably hydrocephalus, which should be repairable with a magnet -- adjust her shunt valve, and that's that... I hope.
St. Luke's has officially discharged her, I guess -- the nurse said they had packed up all her stuff and sent it along on the ambulance.
Time passes...
Sitting in the ER now -- we've been here for a couple hours, while they took labs and x-rays. The neurologist on call says that they don't see anything wrong with her shunt. He's thinking possibly the UTI and/or some of the meds she's on could have been messing with her.
dp was surprised to hear that St. Luke's was worried about her cognitive skills -- they didn't talk to her at all, until they told her they were loading her up on the ambulance. She was a little disoriented about the time of day, but seemed otherwise on top of things.
More time passes...
Here we are, back on 6JCW. The food is better here than UIHC, so dp's chowing down on fish, cheese sticks, a chocolate shake and a banana. They've stopped the new muscle relaxant (skelaxin) St. Luke's gave her, as well as one of the anti-emetics we've been doing for quite a while, and maybe a couple of others. He tripled the antibiotic to go after the UTI. They'll monitor for a couple days, and we'll see what happens next.
There is an advantage to being VRE-colonized -- we get a single room, which is way better than the double (Not any more plush, just quieter).
At present, I'm sitting in the ER waiting room, waiting for dp's ambulance. I'm thinking/hoping that it's probably hydrocephalus, which should be repairable with a magnet -- adjust her shunt valve, and that's that... I hope.
St. Luke's has officially discharged her, I guess -- the nurse said they had packed up all her stuff and sent it along on the ambulance.
Time passes...
Sitting in the ER now -- we've been here for a couple hours, while they took labs and x-rays. The neurologist on call says that they don't see anything wrong with her shunt. He's thinking possibly the UTI and/or some of the meds she's on could have been messing with her.
dp was surprised to hear that St. Luke's was worried about her cognitive skills -- they didn't talk to her at all, until they told her they were loading her up on the ambulance. She was a little disoriented about the time of day, but seemed otherwise on top of things.
More time passes...
Here we are, back on 6JCW. The food is better here than UIHC, so dp's chowing down on fish, cheese sticks, a chocolate shake and a banana. They've stopped the new muscle relaxant (skelaxin) St. Luke's gave her, as well as one of the anti-emetics we've been doing for quite a while, and maybe a couple of others. He tripled the antibiotic to go after the UTI. They'll monitor for a couple days, and we'll see what happens next.
There is an advantage to being VRE-colonized -- we get a single room, which is way better than the double (Not any more plush, just quieter).
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Another Sunday at St. Lukes
As usual, we're playing a game of 'two steps forward, one step back.' Thursday, dp showed a fever in the morning. Tylenol knocked it right down, so they really didn't get around to diagnosing the UTI (that's Urinary Tract Infection, for those of you who don't hang around hospitals or Marie) until yesterday. She's on antibiotics for that. This morning, she was pretty sleepy and some of the numbness was back in her right side, so we went downstairs for a head CT. I haven't heard back on that yet, but I imagine I'll hear something before I'm ready to post this.
Yesterday, Sam and JR came over, and we spent a couple hours cleaning, dusting and vacuuming the downstairs. It looks much better now, although we did transfer a few piles to the dining room and the garage. Still, it's definite progress, and a good time was had by all.
Marie seemed in good spirits this morning. Janet is planning on making ham and sweet potatoes, so they'll have a pretty traditional meal. Lauren is going to take over as her primary doctor, so I can just talk to her doctor again, instead of talking to her RN, who talks to the NP, who talks to the MD.
Okay, they say the CT didn't show anything abnormal, but she does seem to be showing some of the hyrocephalus symptoms -- there's some right side numbness, and she's seeing double again. I guess we'll take it up with Dr. D tomorrow...
A Happy First-Sunday-After-The-First-Full-Moon-After-The-Vernal-Equinox to you all.
Yesterday, Sam and JR came over, and we spent a couple hours cleaning, dusting and vacuuming the downstairs. It looks much better now, although we did transfer a few piles to the dining room and the garage. Still, it's definite progress, and a good time was had by all.
Marie seemed in good spirits this morning. Janet is planning on making ham and sweet potatoes, so they'll have a pretty traditional meal. Lauren is going to take over as her primary doctor, so I can just talk to her doctor again, instead of talking to her RN, who talks to the NP, who talks to the MD.
Okay, they say the CT didn't show anything abnormal, but she does seem to be showing some of the hyrocephalus symptoms -- there's some right side numbness, and she's seeing double again. I guess we'll take it up with Dr. D tomorrow...
A Happy First-Sunday-After-The-First-Full-Moon-After-The-Vernal-Equinox to you all.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Moving Along
Marie's cultures came back -- she's got three different bacteria colonizing, and two of them are treatable with the Cipro they're using. We'll keep an eye on the third one, and see what happens. Apparently, she'll always be 'colonized,' so the trick is keep the numbers down to a level her immune system can handle. I don't understand this as well as I should, but I'm sure we'll learn more.
Marie's doctor sent down word that the foley catheter can make matters worse, but we don't like the option of straight-cathing her four times a day either. We talked to the nurse, who talked to the doctor, and they're referring us to urology to re-open the issue of a supra-pubic catheter. It means surgery to put it there, but weighing that against the ongoing issues of the other catheters, we think it makes sense. The nurse thought it was a great idea, so we'll see what the urologists say.
dp continues to work her butt off at St. Lukes. She's pretty sore, but we think that's all from muscles that had gotten used to not doing much. She's still on thick liquids, but they moved her off pureed foods today. Her meat loaf probably looked pretty much the same, but the green beans actually looked like green beans. She has an official discharge date of 3/28, so I guess I've got that long to get the downstairs cleaned up...
Trooley is allowed up in the room, so I've been bringing him up for a short visit each day. The first day had him pretty freaked, but by today (his fourth visit), he seems to be getting the hang of the place. He sitting at my feet next to dp's bed as I write this.
Marie's doctor sent down word that the foley catheter can make matters worse, but we don't like the option of straight-cathing her four times a day either. We talked to the nurse, who talked to the doctor, and they're referring us to urology to re-open the issue of a supra-pubic catheter. It means surgery to put it there, but weighing that against the ongoing issues of the other catheters, we think it makes sense. The nurse thought it was a great idea, so we'll see what the urologists say.
dp continues to work her butt off at St. Lukes. She's pretty sore, but we think that's all from muscles that had gotten used to not doing much. She's still on thick liquids, but they moved her off pureed foods today. Her meat loaf probably looked pretty much the same, but the green beans actually looked like green beans. She has an official discharge date of 3/28, so I guess I've got that long to get the downstairs cleaned up...
Trooley is allowed up in the room, so I've been bringing him up for a short visit each day. The first day had him pretty freaked, but by today (his fourth visit), he seems to be getting the hang of the place. He sitting at my feet next to dp's bed as I write this.
Monday, March 17, 2008
So Far, So Good...
..that's what dp said when I asked her how the first morning went. According to her schedule, I missed ADL (activities of daily living -- aka 'getting dressed'), Rec, occupational therapy and physical therapy. I got here in time to watch speech therapy, more occupational therapy, and more physical therapy. By the time that was done, dp was pooped, and she's napping now while we wait for the food trays.
Food is kind of a pain right now -- she still on thick liquids and pureed foods. The Speech therapist kept saying 'very good' when dp did all of her tests, but marked her down as requiring 'supervised eating' along with the 'thick liquids' and 'pureed foods.' She also requires them to grind up her pills, which we spent the better part of the weekend getting them to stop. Personally, I think she resents the pun dp ran over her head, to the amusement of the student trainee and myself.
Everybody seems pretty pleased with dp's baseline. She walked again with a walker (75 feet at one crack -- the 140 last week was done in three installments), did four stairs this morning, and stood alone to practice balance.
The occupational therapist told her that her left hand is stronger than her right hand. In the next session, the physical therapist told her that her right leg is stronger than her left leg. Go figure... She does have a tendency to lean to the left, and her right eye is droopier than the other.
Meanwhile, the blog was year old yesterday. With this post, I've posted more in March than in January and February combined. I'm not sure what that means, but I'll note it for your collective interpretation. With any luck, we'll make blogging part of dp's activities of daily living, and then it'll be blog therapy...
dp says: "The rooms are nice. Wish you were here!"
Food is kind of a pain right now -- she still on thick liquids and pureed foods. The Speech therapist kept saying 'very good' when dp did all of her tests, but marked her down as requiring 'supervised eating' along with the 'thick liquids' and 'pureed foods.' She also requires them to grind up her pills, which we spent the better part of the weekend getting them to stop. Personally, I think she resents the pun dp ran over her head, to the amusement of the student trainee and myself.
Everybody seems pretty pleased with dp's baseline. She walked again with a walker (75 feet at one crack -- the 140 last week was done in three installments), did four stairs this morning, and stood alone to practice balance.
The occupational therapist told her that her left hand is stronger than her right hand. In the next session, the physical therapist told her that her right leg is stronger than her left leg. Go figure... She does have a tendency to lean to the left, and her right eye is droopier than the other.
Meanwhile, the blog was year old yesterday. With this post, I've posted more in March than in January and February combined. I'm not sure what that means, but I'll note it for your collective interpretation. With any luck, we'll make blogging part of dp's activities of daily living, and then it'll be blog therapy...
dp says: "The rooms are nice. Wish you were here!"
Saturday, March 15, 2008
The New Digs
I got back to the U a little before 9 this morning. We waited for bloodwork and miscellaneous paperwork, and then I loaded dp into the Baja, and we headed north.
Met the charge nurse, the doctor (Dr. D - we haven't had one of those, right?), a physical therapist and an occupational therapist. I'm not sure why the U did the superbug test, because St. Luke's ordered their own, and we're tentatively quarantined until they return. That means there's a big bag of infection control gowns hanging on her room, and staff is supposed to don those before entering the room.
The physical therapist did some basic assesement -- testing for sensation, strength and balance, and everybody asked what our goals were. We got Diana into bed about 2:30, I think, and she was sawing logs 10 minutes later.
The room is pretty nice -- this whole floor was just remodeled last summer, so everything is pretty new. It's a single room, mostly basic hospital issue. The remote that has the call light and the TV controls also controls the room lights and the curtain, so Diana has a little more control over her environment. There's a not-too-large dining room a couple doors over, and a big honking gym, complete with a mockup kitchen, mockup porch, mockup grocery store and a real car, so you can practice getting into and out of it.
There is a phone -- it's long distance from CR to IC, but tomorrow, I'll bring her cell, so we can talk as much as we want.
They make it sound like the program is pretty intensive -- physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy morning and afternoon, but Saturday afternoons and Sunday are pretty quiet. Visitors are welcome to hang out and observe therapy sessions during the day, but if you want to come and chat, it sounds like you should wait for evenings and weekends.
Take care, and beware the ideas of March... ;)
Met the charge nurse, the doctor (Dr. D - we haven't had one of those, right?), a physical therapist and an occupational therapist. I'm not sure why the U did the superbug test, because St. Luke's ordered their own, and we're tentatively quarantined until they return. That means there's a big bag of infection control gowns hanging on her room, and staff is supposed to don those before entering the room.
The physical therapist did some basic assesement -- testing for sensation, strength and balance, and everybody asked what our goals were. We got Diana into bed about 2:30, I think, and she was sawing logs 10 minutes later.
The room is pretty nice -- this whole floor was just remodeled last summer, so everything is pretty new. It's a single room, mostly basic hospital issue. The remote that has the call light and the TV controls also controls the room lights and the curtain, so Diana has a little more control over her environment. There's a not-too-large dining room a couple doors over, and a big honking gym, complete with a mockup kitchen, mockup porch, mockup grocery store and a real car, so you can practice getting into and out of it.
There is a phone -- it's long distance from CR to IC, but tomorrow, I'll bring her cell, so we can talk as much as we want.
They make it sound like the program is pretty intensive -- physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy morning and afternoon, but Saturday afternoons and Sunday are pretty quiet. Visitors are welcome to hang out and observe therapy sessions during the day, but if you want to come and chat, it sounds like you should wait for evenings and weekends.
Take care, and beware the ideas of March... ;)
Friday, March 14, 2008
The Next Next Step
Okay, 9 am tomorrow, we're outta here, and headed to Cedar Rapids (somewhat-affectionately known as 'The City of Five Smells') for some 'acute rehabilitation.' More on that as it develops.
We did the meeting with the social worker this morning, and an assessment/sales pitch with a St. Luke's woman this afternoon. Dede came over to give a massage at 1, and the PT came back around 3 to work her out (another 120-140 feet with a walker). For some reason, she's tired tonight...
We didn't do the cookie swallow test -- they decided that St Luke's would rather do that themselves. They did take two cultures for 'superbug' infections (St Luke's requires them), and apparently dp passed those tests.
Marie seemed quite chipper today, and everything at da Red House was back to normal this afternoon.
We did the meeting with the social worker this morning, and an assessment/sales pitch with a St. Luke's woman this afternoon. Dede came over to give a massage at 1, and the PT came back around 3 to work her out (another 120-140 feet with a walker). For some reason, she's tired tonight...
We didn't do the cookie swallow test -- they decided that St Luke's would rather do that themselves. They did take two cultures for 'superbug' infections (St Luke's requires them), and apparently dp passed those tests.
Marie seemed quite chipper today, and everything at da Red House was back to normal this afternoon.
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