Mom’s Status: 2010-08-21
Summary
Mom appears a little better today; a little less pain and a little more alert. Bits of her old self are definitely showing now.
Pending Objectives
- Monitor Mom’s overall pain status. We’re looking to get her pain stopped.
- Track the dissipation of Mom’s pelvic hematoma.
Completed Objectives
- 2010-08-16: Find out if that “flapping object” was present in Mom’s heart in her 2008 echo cardiograms. DONE. It was not present. This is a new development since 2008.
- 2010-08-16: Get council on results of the 2010-08-13 mid section CT scan and arterial doppler study. DONE. Mom’s bleeding has lessened. They plan on doing another CT scan tomorrow to check progress.
- 2010-08-17: Establish physical therapy for Mom; per her cardiologist’s recommendation. DONE. She should have her first session either today or tomorrow.
- 2010-08-18: Seek counsel on results of the 2010-08-17 (yesterday’s) mid section CT scan; once it’s done. DONE. This test revealed a hematoma. See details about this elsewhere in this document.
- 2010-08-20: Find out what the liver doctors think of the spot on Mom’s liver. DONE. Her liver is okay; no obvious recent deterioration.
Log
08:30 AM: Leaving for the hospital. Details of the visit follow:
- 09:35 AM: I arrived. Mom’s awake but drowsy. However, she appears to be experiencing low pain levels this morning.
- She asked what’s wrong with her legs that they hurt so much and are swollen. I explained about the hematoma and the excess blood and (perhaps) bacteria in her legs.
- 10:00 AM: We chit-chatted about this and that, and turned on the television.
- 10:03 AM: Her favorite cardiologist arrived. He thinks that the leg swelling is due to the weakened state of her heart, the infection, her low food intake, and the fact that she’s not exercising much. He’s reinstating her Lasix (water pills) at 40 MG in the morning and 40 MG in the evening. He wants her to eat more protein as well, and to that end, suggested that she drink the health shakes the food service people have been bringing the past few days.
- He says that he’s still leaning toward allowing the antibiotics to run their course and then see how Mom’s heart infection has responded. But the upcoming echo this Monday will tell the story. If it shows changes in the heart for the worse, then she’ll have to have the valve replacement surgery immediately. But if it shows no degradation in heart condition or function, then he supports Mom coming back closer to home to complete the antibiotic regimen.
- 10:06 AM: Her favorite cardiologist left.
- 10:35 AM: The infectious diseases doctor stopped by. He says again that the ultimate treatment for Mom’s heart infection is the valve replacement surgery, and in fact, the doctors on his team as well as that of Mom’s favorite cardiologist, are still debating the merritts of surgery verses the wait-and-see approach. He too is anxious to see the pictures from this Monday’s echo test. They’re all waiting for Monday.
- 10:42 AM: The infectious diseases doctor left.
- 11:00 AM Obtained information from the unit secretary on the costs of hiring a night sitter to be with Mom during third shift.
- 11:05 AM: I’m leaving now. Mom is dozing again.
04:50 PM: Due to predicted bad weather this evening, I’ll not visit Mom tonight. But she’s using her phone more and I gave her number to several close friends and family. So they’ll hopefully keep her from feeling too alone this evening.