Tom's Diary

Today’s Activities

• Shower.  DONE.
• Cat duty.  Sister Jojo performing this until I return home.

Log

06:30 AM: I’m up. 

07:45 AM: Leaving now for [Emmy's] nerve test appointment and after that, to visit Mom.  Back later. 

10:00 AM: [Emmy's] nerve test is done.  Now, we’re headed to Mom’s room.

10:15 AM: I’m listening to Internet radio here in Mom’s room at the hospital on my iPod Touch.  It’s cool that they offer free WiFi Internet here.  The signal is strong and the available bandwidth is quite high. 

10:45 AM: Mom’s been sleeping the past half-hour.  So we’re headed to lunch at McDonald’s. 

11:40 AM: We each bought two quarter-pounders at the Oakland McDonald’s.  Total cost: $16.53

01:15 PM: We’re home again.  [Emmy's] nerve tests revealed that she’s still suffering from moderate carpel tunnel in her right hand; though there was some improvement in the readings since the last time she had this test, which was just prior to her surgery in August of 2007.  Her left hand is also still showing mild carpel tunnel which is the same level of severity as before.  This is to be expected, since she’s not had her left hand treated for this yet. 

01:30 PM: Nap time.  Back later.

05:00 PM: We’re back up again, and we’ll head back to the hospital in an hour. 

06:30 PM: Watched some news and are now heading back to the hospital.  See you later.

09:40 PM: We’re back home.  Mom’s doing a little better this evening.

10:00 PM: Now, we’re watching   CNN’s AC 360   news show.

10:15 PM: We tried making a bag of popcorn in  [Emmy's]  new microwave oven.  We cooked it on high power for two minutes.  But it came out a little scorched.  So we’ll try a minute ad forty-five seconds the next time.  Her oven uses 1250 watts of heating power, which must be a bit stronger than the one at my place; which requires two minutes and forty-five seconds to make a bag without scorching.  Interesting how the coot times can be so variable depending on which brand and size of oven you use.  The industry might consider standardizing ovens more across brands to reduce this variability some.  But hey, I don’t mind a little trial and error with a new oven.  It’s a good thing we don’t have to buy new ones too often these days. 

11:00 PM: Bed time.  We’re bushed after two walks to the hospital on this particularly warm day.  More tomorrow.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None today.

Related Posts

• Mom’s Status: 2010-08-11
• Today’s Diet: 2010-08-11
• Weight Loss: 2010

They removed five loose teeth from Mom this morning.  As a result, she’s having pains in the mouth, in addition to the ongoing hurt in her stomach, and legs.  She wants to go home already. She was not a happy camper; highly frustrated that she’s hurting so much without relief.

Here are some of the tid bits I picked up at the hospital today:

• 10:15 AM: We arrived at Mom’s hospital room, but she was still at the dental department.
• The first shift nurse said that earlier this morning, Mom was screaming in pain; saying that she’s been calling out for two hours without anyone coming.  But the nurse said that a nurse had checked in on Mom twenty minutes before.
• 10:40 AM: Two teeth out so far.  Three more to go.
• They’re rotating her pan meds to find an effective combination.
• The nurse said it’s good that her family (me so far) is here.
• 11:00 AM: Mom’s still not back.  So [Emmy] and I are going to lunch and hopefully when we return, Mom will be back in her room.
• 11:45 AM: Well, we’re back from lunch.  But Mom is not back yet.
• 11:47 AM: But we ran into Housekeeping.  The woman was busily mopping Mom’s room and was quite friendly; saying that she hopes Mom gets better soon.
• 11:55 AM: Mom just arrived.  Oh, she doesn’t look too happy.
• I talked a little to her and she said that she doesn’t remember being in more pain than what she is right now. 
• Then, they wheeled her back into her bedroom and transferred her to her bed.  She cried out several times during this process.  But shortly they finished and covered her up.
• Her color looks good to me but I noticed a little blood around her mouth.  There’s a gauze inside.
• Then, I talked to Mom.  She insisted that she fell out of bed last night and had trouble getting help.  But hospital personnel could not confirm this.  They weren’t aware of any problems in her room.  Her door was open all night and her room is not too far from the nursing station. 
• She MAY have either bleeding or blood clots in her legs that are causing her pain there.  But they’ve not fully investigated this issue yet.
• 12:30 PM: They did give her some pain meds just prior to her going to the dentist.  But she says that on a scale of 1 to 10, that the level of pain she’s feeling now is a 7 or 8.
• 12:40 PM: Several surgeons just arrived to ask Mom about her abdominal pains.  They did a CT scan and did see some fluid that was pooling around the muscles there; but no evidence of abscesses or bleeding.
• I asked about her leg pains and this doctor said that she’d been called in just for the stomach issues and that I’d have to talk to the doctors managing her over all care. 
• 12:45 PM: Mom is resting peacefully now.  Maybe she’ll get some much needed sleep this afternoon. 
• 12:50 PM: We’re gong to let her sleep.  We’re leaving now.  I’ll probably visit again this evening. 

During tonight’s visit, I picked up the following:

• 07:15 PM: Mom started crying when she saw me enter her room just now.  She’s lonely and has been feeling alone all afternoon.  But I told her that she’ll be getting more company over the next few days.
• 07:20 PM: Then she settled down and dozed for much of the evening.
• We’re tracking the following issues: The pains in Mom’s legs, her stomach, general pain all over her body, healing progress of her mouth after her tooth extractions, and her heart infection.
• 07:50 PM: I held the cup for her as she drank several swigs of water through a straw.  The nurse advised me later however, that she should not use a straw to avoid opening up her mouth sutures.
• She ate no supper however; though they did offer her Jello with fruit. 
• They gave her oxycodone today for the first time.  This medicine seems to control Mom’s pain better.
• The dentists say that Mom’s mouth looks very good.
• 08:25 PM: Answered numerous questions about Mom’s medical history.
• 08:25 PM: Mom’s right leg is hurting.  They say that this could be small blood clots that have become infected.  They’re treating with antibiotics to correct.  But this could take some time.
• 08:35 PM: Evening nurse arrived to assess Mom’s current condition. At first, Mom declined her evening dose of pain meds even though she had just complained about her right leg.  But then a few minutes later, she changed her mind and accepted the dose.
• Blood pressure: 125 / 58.  Blood sugar: 242.  Body temperature: Normal.
• 08:40 PM: Swelling in the feet is down, and the sore on the bottom of her foot has a scab and appears to be healing. 
• 09:00 PM: Okay, Mom is dozing comfortably again.  So we’re gong home for tonight. 

Tom Hesley

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• Today’s Business: 2010-08-11

I keep this food diary to stay aware of just how many calories I’m eating daily, with the hope that it decreases the likelihood that I’ll overeat.    It seems to work, so here we go with another day…

Today, I consumed the following items:

• Diet pop and herbal tea throughout the day. 0 calories.
• 07:15 AM: 1 bowl of peach-flavored cream cheese Jello.  400 calories.
• 12:15 PM: 2 McDonald’s quarter pounders with cheese. 1020 calories.
• 05:15 AM: 1 bowl of peach-flavored cream cheese Jello.  400 calories.
• 09:45 PM: 2 peaches.  100 calories.
• 10:00 PM: 1 banana.  125 calories.
• 10:10 PM: 1/2 bag of popcorn.  130 calories.

Total calories: 2175.

Tom Hesley

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• Other Food Diary Entries
• Today’s Business: 2010-08-11
• Weight Loss: 2010