BTW anyone reading this blog

BTW anyone reading this blog who hasn't quit smoking yet should have their head examined!

added a Fentanyl patch today

added a Fentanyl patch today but still lots of pain. got a new id bracelet to indicate dnr. i guess it wasn't official until today.

not a great day. lots

not a great day. lots of pain. dr. razia told her she's in no shape to go home and will likely be going to a nursing home. more ltr

Saturday Night in the Valley

I'm back in the hotel tonight. I stayed at the hospital until about 8.30 and she got to a point where she finally needed morphine today. She had been going pretty well with hydrocodone today, but she had an incident when we walked Lisa out to her car where she fell out of bed! I guess she called the nurse to get help to go to the bathroom, and couldn't wait any more. She ended up on her rear end, and didn't appear to hurt herself, but she may have had some after effects because she was really having some pain just before I left. The morphine goes right into her blood stream, so that helped right away, and she was resting comfortably when I left.

I guess the next step is to work with the case manager next week to see what we can set up for hospice care. There's really not a lot of room at the homestead, but there seems to be a number of places around that sound like they have the right philosophy.

I'm not really sure what the future holds from here, but I'm going to plan on heading back to Michigan Monday morning as planned, and then we'll just play it by ear from here.

Uncle Bill and Cousin Lisa were here today too!

afternoon update

talked to case manager today but she didn't have much to offer. She said to check back on monday and they should know more. mom's resting now. She's gone back and forth with being "with it" and she's showed signs of her sense of humor.

Mom's having a lot of

Mom's having a lot of pain today. she's likely going to have morphine at 11.30 today. hoping to talk to case mgr today.

Update from Nurse

Just talked to Courtney, Mom's nurse since this morning. She confirmed that the transfer to St. Luke's home had been cancelled, and she wasn't sure what the next step was. She said that Mom is resting comfortably now. She guesses that she got worked up earlier when going down for a test, and got short of breath. Her paid also escalated at that point, but once she got the morphine she felt better. Courtney said that the case manager will be there until noon tomorrow, and that we'll be able to talk to her more then.

No good news to report

Jennifer got Mom's phone charged up, so she was able to text me from the hospital. No big updates regarding hospice or other next steps. Her only immediate report was that she was crying because of how much pain she was in and utlimately got a dose of morphine. She was better once she had that.

Have I mentioned lately how much this SUCKS! I just hope she's able to manage the pain. I hate to think of her having to endure pain while having to comprehend what's to come..........

Rehab is a no go

Well, I was wondering about this whole rehab thing, but it seemed like the signs pointed in a positive direction, but I guess within the last couple of days, the progress was temporary. As of last night, Mom is getting a higher level of oxygen than was previously necessary, and now we're starting to talk about hospice care rather than rehab.

I've already spoken with Dr. Hunsicker and Jennifer today, and they'll be looking more into this option later today. It just sounds like the only things left would be under the category of "heroic efforts" and Mom made it clear to me last year that she wanted to fight the good fight, but not be resussitated, on the vent, etc. I'm sure they'll be more news later today..........

Ugly Betty

That's nothing against Mom, it's just what she was watching tonight on TV! It's hard to come up with snappy titles for these posts, so I do what I can..............

I talked to her for a few minutes, but I didn't catch her at a good time. She was not in a good position to talk and tried to get repositioned and couldn't catch her breath. She told me to call back in ten minutes, and I did, but she didn't sound a whole lot better. I talked to her for a few minutes more, but she was tired and let me go. She knows there's talk of transferring to the rehab, and I tried to reassure her that it would be good, and that if anything went wrong, they could get her back to the hospital ASAP. We'll see how she's doing this weekend, but my guess is that they won't try to move her until next week anyway.

Rehab

Bill called me last night after arriving home, and he said that Mom had another decent day. She slept quite a bit, but was comfortable and able to manage pain well. She's not strong enough to be discharged, but she's at a point where the care of the hospital is really more than necessary, so Dr. Hunsicker is talking about having her go to a rehab facility for a while.

The case manager is going to be checking on available bed status today, and will be contacting my Mom's insurance carrier to see what's covered. I'm guessing that even if her medical insurance doesn't cover it, the cancer insurance she purchased from AFLAC might, so we'll have to check into all the angles. Speaking of which, if you ever have the opportunity to sign up for cancer insurance at work, do it. Mom paid just a couple dollars per pay for it, and it's paid out thousands already. It's a good thing that little voice told her to go for it because I'm sure this experience would have been much different without it.

Update from Bill

As I mentioned previously, Mom's brother Bill and his wife Kathryn made the trip up to the valley yesterday. They'll be spending more time with Mom today before heading back down, and Bill said that he may try to make it back up to the valley this weekend.

He was able to get a wealth of information from the surgeon that placed the chest tube and the nurses on duty. The surgeon actually came to remove the chest tube from her right side. He said that the Pleurodesis seemed to do its job, and the amount of fluid being drained was minimal. He explained to Bill that there were two "pockets" of fluid that had collected, and they were evidently not connected which is why the chest tube had to be moved initially. (Still seems a little funny to me, but you can only know so much without performing some kind of invasive surgery........)

There is still some talk of putting the chest tube on the right side, but the amount of fluid there isn't at a dangerous level, so he's going to let her go without for a few days and re-evaluate the situation then.

The nurses communicated to Bill that Mom had been using morphine less and less frequently. She didn't need it at all yesterday, opting for a more moderate pain reliever. (Still more than the Excedrin in my desk drawer, but not like morphine.)

Bill said that she seemed very lucid and was able to have a substantial conversation. He said that there were quite the antics going on in the next bed, but Mom seemed to sleep through it anyway. I guess they had an overabundance of visitors, and even had a birthday party for a five year old girl in there! (Hello? These rooms are about 12' x 20' with two hospital beds and all the equipment around them.) Bill said that he avoided the confrontation and bit his tongue because it didn't seem to phase Mom.

There's evidently been some talk of moving Mom to the physical therapy center behind the hospital, but that wouldn't happen until they get the whole chest tube situation under control. The surgeon confirmed for Bill that they're not just going to kick Mom to the curb at some point if she's unable to care for herself at home, and if there's not some type of medical assistance available. I guess we'll find out more in the coming days, but for now, she still requires a substantial amount of care, and isn't going anywhere.

No Update from Last Night

Well, I called the nurse's desk last night, but she was tied up with a patient and asked me to call back. It was getting pretty late, so I figured with Bill driving up today that he would likely get the latest on Mom's condition and call me later tonight or tomorrow.

Sunday Night Call

I called and talked to Mom last night. I think I woke her up, but she went ahead and talked to me for a few minutes anyway. She remembered that I was supposed to call at 8 "yesterday" and I reminded her that it was Friday, and that I had called but she was probably asleep. I was just glad that she recalled it at all and was half right!

Other than that she actually sounded stronger than she had in previous phone calls, so that was a positive sign. She wasn't clear on what was happening with the chest tube, so I think we need to primarily rely on the nurses and doctors for any official information at this point. I haven't bugged the nurses in a while, so I'll plan on checking in with them this evening to see what I can find out.

Mom's brother Bill is travelling up to the valley tomorrow with his wife, Kathryn. I'm sure we'll get some more news from that visit. Jennifer continues to visit prior to going to her job in the afternoon, and I'm planning to head out there this coming weekend.