mom update
I'm so beyond overdue on a mom update. The last time I posted about her (or anything, for that matter) was back at the beginning of November.
She was admitted to the hospital on October 23rd, making her hospital stay 122 days, and counting. She started in the ER, spent about a week in the ICU, and moved to the 8th floor (neurological) of Presbyterian. She was there for several weeks, and then moved to Kindred Hospital mid-November. Kindred is a for-profit long term acute care hospital operating in leased space at Presby. She was there for about a month, and then moved back to the 8th floor for more testing. They took her back to Kindred near the beginning of January, and she remained there until Monday. Now she's on the 6th floor of Presby, where they specialize in GI problems.
Her initial illness was bacterial meningitis, complicated by diabetes and other things. They did surgery in early November to drain an infected abscess in her back. She's been on IV antibiotics since then to kill the infection.
Sometime in November, she started having bad nausea. She continues to have this, which is why she's back in Presby. They did a endoscopy on Wednesday, but only found some harmless polyps. The doctors think the nausea may be psychological. The psychiatrist even said that at some point she might have to go through electroshock (!) to treat the depression.
Her blood sugar was 900 when she arrived at the hospital, so they've been treating her as a diabetic. However, she refuses to eat hospital food, so we've been bringing her whatever she wants (with the doctor's permission). This is usually grilled cheese and the occasional milkshake. She usually drinks regular soda. I guess since she so often can't keep the food down, it doesn't matter if she's on a high sugar diet. I hope she likes the food at her next destination (not likely), since constantly getting food gets kind of old (especially for my dad, since he's the one who usually does it).
Next week, she'll be moving to the skilled nursing unit at Walnut Place, a nursing home across the street. Since she can't walk (or really move her legs at all) and can barely feed herself on her own, it's impossible for my dad and I to care for her in their home. This has already been incredibly draining on him - I don't think he could survive if he had to care for her 24/7. He will likely have to sell the house at some point to pay for her continued care. At this point, I don't see her leaving the nursing home, which is incredibly sad. I'm hoping that she'll surprise us all by finding the courage to really work with her physical therapists at Walnut Place and move towards independence.
All that said, life for me feels somewhat normal again. I'm not spending night after night at the hospital (it took my brother's trip home in December to break her off that need). I'm spending (mostly) normal hours at the office. I have some sort of routine. Work, hospital, home/Michael/work. Michael seems to be mostly satisfied with the time we're spending together (which is probably mostly his LOTRO addiction ;-).
I think I'll save my work news for a separate (friend's only) update...
She was admitted to the hospital on October 23rd, making her hospital stay 122 days, and counting. She started in the ER, spent about a week in the ICU, and moved to the 8th floor (neurological) of Presbyterian. She was there for several weeks, and then moved to Kindred Hospital mid-November. Kindred is a for-profit long term acute care hospital operating in leased space at Presby. She was there for about a month, and then moved back to the 8th floor for more testing. They took her back to Kindred near the beginning of January, and she remained there until Monday. Now she's on the 6th floor of Presby, where they specialize in GI problems.
Her initial illness was bacterial meningitis, complicated by diabetes and other things. They did surgery in early November to drain an infected abscess in her back. She's been on IV antibiotics since then to kill the infection.
Sometime in November, she started having bad nausea. She continues to have this, which is why she's back in Presby. They did a endoscopy on Wednesday, but only found some harmless polyps. The doctors think the nausea may be psychological. The psychiatrist even said that at some point she might have to go through electroshock (!) to treat the depression.
Her blood sugar was 900 when she arrived at the hospital, so they've been treating her as a diabetic. However, she refuses to eat hospital food, so we've been bringing her whatever she wants (with the doctor's permission). This is usually grilled cheese and the occasional milkshake. She usually drinks regular soda. I guess since she so often can't keep the food down, it doesn't matter if she's on a high sugar diet. I hope she likes the food at her next destination (not likely), since constantly getting food gets kind of old (especially for my dad, since he's the one who usually does it).
Next week, she'll be moving to the skilled nursing unit at Walnut Place, a nursing home across the street. Since she can't walk (or really move her legs at all) and can barely feed herself on her own, it's impossible for my dad and I to care for her in their home. This has already been incredibly draining on him - I don't think he could survive if he had to care for her 24/7. He will likely have to sell the house at some point to pay for her continued care. At this point, I don't see her leaving the nursing home, which is incredibly sad. I'm hoping that she'll surprise us all by finding the courage to really work with her physical therapists at Walnut Place and move towards independence.
All that said, life for me feels somewhat normal again. I'm not spending night after night at the hospital (it took my brother's trip home in December to break her off that need). I'm spending (mostly) normal hours at the office. I have some sort of routine. Work, hospital, home/Michael/work. Michael seems to be mostly satisfied with the time we're spending together (which is probably mostly his LOTRO addiction ;-).
I think I'll save my work news for a separate (friend's only) update...