Mom’s Status: 2010-08-23
Summary
Another good day seen; although there hasn’t been much improvement over yesterday, except that Mom stayed awake for longer periods. She continued eating well but hadn’t enough coordination to move herself from her bed to a nearby stretch chair. The echo heart test we’ve been awaiting was conducted with good results. So preparations are underway to bring Mom closer to home and family. Yes!
Pending Objectives
- Monitor Mom’s overall pain status. We’re looking to get her pain stopped. IN PROGRESS. Her pain has been steadily decreasing over the past week.
- Track the dissipation of Mom’s pelvic hematoma. IN PROGRESS.
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.
- 2010-08-23: Get results of today’s echo heart pictures test. DONE. Results were very good. So no surgery at this time is required, and Mom will receive antibiotics for the next several weeks to get rid of the rest of the MRSA infection.
Log
08:00 AM: Hospital personnel called to say that they’re taking Mom in for her echo heart test shortly. I’ll visit after lunch, once her sedation wears off, and get the results of this test.
01:30 PM: Heading for the hospital now.
- 01:45 PM: I arrived while Mom received physical therapy. She experienced difficulty getting from her bed to the chair; even with the physical therapist assisting.
- So instead of the chair, they exercised Mom’s legs and arms while she laid in bed.
- They’ll spend the next few days developing Mom’s coordination and strength to stand up on her own. Then, they’ll resume working on her getting to the stretch chair on her own.
- 01:55 PM: Mom ate a hearty lunch.
- 03:15 PM: We’re still awaiting on the results of the echo test.
- 04:05 PM: The nurse practitioner visited; saying that the doctors saw no changes in Mom’s heart from the last echo over a week ago. So the doctors are opting for no heart surgery at this time. This means that Mom can continue her convalescence closer to home; either in Altoona or Tyrone. In short: Surgery, NO. Homeward, YES!
- 04:15 PM: I’m heading back to [Emmy's] now and will return in the morning to learn the details of Mom’s transfer to a closer-to-home long-term care facility.