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October 15, 2007
Close to Going Home
So I visited Mom this weekend at the rehabilitation facility. I guess it's still part of Bronson Hospital. Nothing seemed really different about the room--it was still a hospital room, just not in the ICU.
Mom's looking very good. A lot more like her normal self. She still has the trach tube, and that's it. They're talking about taking out the trach this week. All she really need to do is be weened off the oxygen. They took her off the ventilator (she was on it during the night) and they'll see how she does today. (She seemed fine yesterday.) Then, they'll take out the trach tube and give her oxygen through the nasal tube, then see how she does. If she does ok, they'll take her off the oxygen altogether and then go home.
Poor Dad, though. He's been staying with her every night for the last week. He has to get up to help her use the commode to make sure she doesn't fall. And she gets up every hour on the hour, so Dad (and Mom) aren't getting good sleep. But last night, they got a patient sitter to give Dad a break. I had offered the other night, and he was going to take me up on it, but there was confusion with her medication schedule which he wanted to make sure didn't get screwed up again. But I told him that since the hospital offers the patient sitter as one of their (free) services, he should take them up on it and he can get some rest at least till they get home.
She's been talking great, pretty much like normal. Her throat secretions have been decreasing steadily and there's no sign of infection. She's taken some walks as well. Though she has to remember to take it easy and slow. The other day, she did a whole round around the corridor and though asymptomatic, her heart rate increased to about 150. Took a few minutes to calm down, but she said she wasn't winded or dizzy, so that's good. Yesterday, we just went to the elevators and back--just one stretch of hallway, so as not to alarm the nurses.
She's also been getting up and back into bed pretty well. Though the fact that she's very anxious to go home sometimes means she'll take the risk of getting up when there's no help around which scares us because we don't want her to fall. She still needs her walker or something to stabilize her as she stands and that's not necessarily something she can reach right away when she gets out of bed. The "General" came out and had to scold her about that this weekend.
I'm not sure if, when she goes home, whether she'll be at my sister's house or at her home in Bloomfield. I think that depends on Dad's opinion. She may have an in-home physical therapist (not sure what the plan is for that). Though, if she goes to Ippie's house, she'd have a lot of help, but the kids can be noisy and often forget to put their toys away, so I'm afraid of her tripping over something. But if she goes to her own house, it's just Dad and occasionally me after work to help her out. That is, unless we hire someone like a personal care assistant until she gets strong enough not to have one. But that's a later discussion with Dad.
I'm really hoping that when I go to visit her this weekend, it won't be in the hospital, but either at Ippie's house or her house in Bloomfield.
Posted by Amy at October 15, 2007 10:59 AM
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