Tom's Diary

Today’s Activities

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

Log

07:45 AM: I’m up. 

09:30 AM: Heading to the hospital now, to be with Mom.  Back later.

10:30 AM: Sisters Christine and JoJo arrived at the hospital.

03:15 PM: The sisters left at this time, to leave Pittsburgh before rush hour begins.  We had a nice time together; though I wish the gathering had been motivated by more positive circumstances. 

04:45 PM: I’m back at [Emmy's].

07:00 PM: We watched local news on television.  Now we’re heading to Pizza Pronto for some veggie pizza. 

08:00 PM: We’re walking back to Mom’s hospital to see how she’s doing.

10:00 PM: We’re back home again, watching CNN’s   AC 360   news show. 

12:00 PM: After watching the news and talking to two sisters about Mom, I’m heading for bed.  Good night.  Hopefully, Mom will feel better tomorrow.  Take care.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None today.

Related Posts

• Mom’s Status: 2010-08-12
• Today’s Diet: 2010-08-12
• Weight Loss: 2010

08:15 AM: We received no calls overnight.  So Mom must be doing reasonably well.  We’ll visit her later this morning to find out for sure and to get updates as to her condition.

09:30 AM: I’m leaving for the hospital now.  Here are the highlights of this visit:

• 10:15 PM: I arrived at the hospital and stood outside Mom’s door for a minute before entering.  She appeared calm and comfortable.  But when I announced myself, she began crying and moaning loudly; saying that she’d been through a horrific night of pain.  She’s not a happy camper right now.  She said that her right leg was hurting and had me press and pull on it for her.
• In order to address her complaint that the nurses do not hear her when she calls out at night in pain, they’re arranging to move Mom to a room that’s very close to the nurse’s station.  That should happen sometime today or tomorrow. 
• The doctors have scheduled her trans-esophageal echo cardiogram for this morning.  I didn’t think that her mouth would have healed sufficiently for this procedure so soon; what with the extraction of teeth done just 24 hours ago.  But the dentists and medical personnel are confident that she’s ready to be tested.  So they’re coming to pick her up within this hour.
• She says she’s hurting everywhere. 
• 10:50 AM: Pain meds given. She’s still crying out loudly in severe pain it appears.
• 11:15 AM: She tried sitting up but is not strong enough to hold herself up when she gets into the vertical position.
• We noticed scratched on both of Mom’s thighs.  The nurses say that she’s been itching; probably due to the narcotics for pain she’s been taking.
• 11:40 AM: The just took Mom for her heart pictures test.
• 11:50 AM: The sisters, a nephew, and I went to lunch in the hospital cafeteria. 
• 12:35 PM: We’ve finished with lunch, and we’ve returned to the floor where Mom is staying, to wait in the lounge for them to bring her back from the test.  To stay entertained, we watched bits and pieces of   The Young and the Restless   and   The Bold and the Beautiful on TV.  Then, after those were over, I listened to Internet radio on my iPod Touch via the hospital’s free WiFi service. 
• 02:50 PM: They’re bringing Mom back to her room now.  They’ve replaced Mom’s hospital bed with one that sits much lower to the floor, and they’ve also placed pads / mats on each side of the bed on the floor.  Since Mom is a high fall risk, the pads should reduce the risk of her getting hurt should she attempt to get out of bed and then fall. 
• Her cheeks show signs of swelling; probably from the tooth extractions yesterday.
• She’s resting peacefully.  She’s still under sedation from the test.
• 03:00 PM: They say that Mom did well on the heart pictures test.  They got good pictures.  Some doctors will come in to talk to us about the results as soon as they’re available.
• The sisters brought some get-well cards for Mom.  She smiled when she saw them, and they helped her to feel a little better. 
• 03:10 PM Mom’s awake; talking in a subdued way to sister Jojo.
• 03:15 PM: The sisters decide to leave in order to beat the start of the Pittsburgh rush hour.  I’m staying here to get the information from the doctors.  They’ve not yet come in, but the day nurse says that they’ll be coming shortly.
• 03:45 PM: The doctors came and said the following:
  • Her mechanical heart valve is   NOT   infected.
  • But her mitral valve (her own valve) is leaking.  They’ll attempt to minimize this problem by keeping her blood pressure down.
  • They also saw something flapping in her aorta artery.  They think this may have shown up in 2008 and thus, she’s had this for a long time.  They’ll pulling her archived pictures from that time to compare with today’s images.  They’ll talk to us about the results of that comparison tomorrow. 
  • She definitely has a MRSA blood infection.
  • To treat the MRSA, they’re giving her IV antibiotics.  They’ll want to keep her for at least a week to monitor how well the medicine is fighting this infection.
  • They’ll continue checking her blood cultures for progress.
  • Mom has a pace maker and they’re concerned that infection might have been drawn there.  But they found no evidence of this at present.
  • She’s running a low-grade temperature but nothing severe.
  • Her white blood cell count is normal; suggesting that her infection isn’t too severe. 
  • They looked at the CT scan of her legs and could find no definite reason(s) why she’s experiencing such strong pain down there.
  • However, they’re going to do an arterial doppler test that will show blood flow in the legs and perhaps reveal undiscovered blockages. 
• 04:10 PM: The doctors left, and as Mom is currently only partially awake, I’m going to head home for tonight.  I’ll return either tonight or in the morning.

08:05 PM: We decided to visit Mom again tonight.  Here are the details of that trip:

• 08:40 PM: When I arrived, Mom was experiencing severe pain again; screaming and yelling for help.
• Tomorrow, they have a head CT scan planned to rule out possible problems in her brain.
• Mom has not yet been moved to a room closer to the nurse’s station.  They’re waiting on a room over there to clear; a patient in that room is supposed to go home tomorrow, and once he does, Mom can be moved in.
• She repeatedly tried to get out of bed and sit herself up.  We told her how dangerous this would be for her.  But she did not heed our advice to stay in bed.  She continued to struggle to get out for the entire visit tonight.
• Her nurse quizzed her to gauge her mental awareness.  She remembered her birthday but did not know the name of the president. 
• 08:50 PM: She kept screaming and yelling, “God, help me!” and “What am I going to do?” 
• 09:00 PM: Pain meds given.
• Her entire leg hurts at present.
• She’s asked us to lift her legs and put pillows underneath them.  But when we get her comfortable, she moves and twists around, and then wants us to position the pillows again.
• The pain appears genuine.
• They gave her a relaxant and a med to flush out her kidneys.
• Once they do the head CT, they’ll have a better idea of what pain control options they can safely employ.
• 09:10 PM: Blood sugar: 233.  They covered with 6 units of insulin.
• 09:25 PM: Heading back to [Emmy's] now.  Nothing more to do tonight here.  I’ll head back to the hospital sometime tomorrow morning. 

11:05 PM: Mom’s nurse just called.  They gave her a stronger pain med about ten minutes ago.  She appears to be responding. But she keeps trying to get out of bed.  So they had to restrain her with a vest. Since she’s receiving blood thinners, they can’t have her fall because of the potential consequences. 

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2010-08-12

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.
• 12:20 PM: Chicken, rice, gravy, green beans, and corn bread.  800 calories.
• 05:00 PM: 1 peach.  50 calories.
• 07:45 PM: Veggie pizza.  1200 calories.

Total calories: 2050.

Tom Hesley

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• Other Food Diary Entries
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