This is Gretchen:
We are still in ICU. I took over for Adrienne around 1:00. The nurse asked that I move our set up to the other side of the room. I moved the chairs around but many people know that I suck at arranging the furniture. I did create a cooler in a wash basin so we can keep her drinks (OJ, V8, milk, ensure) ice cold. She ate a little bit of banana pudding earlier and the dinner they brought was still full liquid. She is now on soft foods, her nurse had told her there was always extra trays and to let her know when the tray came and she would get one with mashed potatoes. Mom was really looking forward to those mashed potatoes. Of course, today there were no extra trays. So I went down to the cafeteria (I think it may technically be in another county) and got some mashed potatoes, good thing today's dinner was meatloaf. Now that I came back with the potatoes she is asleep for the first time since I've been here. I'm not waking her up.
On the medical side she had all of her tests today, I'm not sure of the others but the White Blood Count scan was very painful for her, they had to roll her on her sides and got her foot stuck between tables. I spoke with the cardiologist who said that they believe her elevated heart rate is from electrolyte imbalance. They are hoping that regulating these will bring her heartrate back to normal. She is pretty steady at normal now but they still have her on the cardizem IV. They will be puttinng her on cardizem orally once the pharmacy fills the order The echocardiogram showed that her heart was strong, They finally changed the original wound that they had placed a wound vac in when they reopened it, the vac had not been working since they put a brand new one on yesterday. I'll fill Adrienne in on the gory details but it was very interesting to watch.
Her spirits have improved tremendously and she is completely coherent. She is tired of hearng "I'm sorry" everytime someone hurts her, whether it be accidently putting things down on her feet or intentionally rolliing her on her side. "Put your sorries in a sack" has been heard more than once today. She would also like to know why they always put the a"stuff" so far away. Someone will come in and start something only to have to go get "stuff", this always takes much longer than the second they said they would be gone.
When being assessed by her new nurse prior to transport for her test she was asked most of the usual questions including "why are you here?" she replied that originally she had surgery on her back, when asked why she was here this time she said "because everything hurts and nothing works" we're working on reversing that.
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3 comments:
Sounds like she has an attitude, which is a good sign.
I am so glad you girls are there to keep all of us informed, play by play discription. It's almost like being there.
She will be up and out of there in no time, thanks to the last half of the Hail Marys.
Aunt Pat
A positive attitute can't be beat. I'm so happy that she is feeling well enough to cuss them out when they deserve it (taking sooo long to come back to a promised relief method of whatever), and expressing gratitude when she is able to feel better. My prayers are continuing. I will be away beginning tomorrow at Kim's for family Christmas gathering and will be returning on Dec 26. I'll sure be wondering what's going on. No access to a computer over there. Kim & John each have one at work, and John has a laptop but he takes (and sometimes leaves) it at work. So I plan to call Rita now and then while I'm away so that I can get some of the great updates that you girls do so well.
Oh, there's something that I wanted to share with all of you that I learned on Dr. Phil yesterday: "Life is not about learning to adjust to adversity.
It is about learning to dance in the rain." And you girl have done just that. Kudos to all of you.
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