Tuesday - part dieux

Busy day for Mom! Lots of doctors and therapists working with her today - PT brought in a portable whirlpool and Mom was in terrible pain while they did the water therapy on her arm. They gave her about 10 minutes of the whirlpool action while she sat in the chair dangling her arm; a lot of the dead skin was sloughed off, leaving lots of young pink skin in its wake. It actually looked better after they did that than it has in a week!

Regular PT came by and got her on her feet, did some exercises with her. He gave me some ideas of things she can do while sitting in the chair to strengthen her hip. Mostly she is suffering fear that she will fall and so she tenses up and her muscles are very tight. But she is able to bear weight on the hip and walk in very small steps.

They wanted to cross match her blood to get her a couple of units of the FFP today but her PIC line wasn't working to let them draw, so they took her downstairs and got a new one put in. When we got back to her room, they drew blood and sent that down to the lab and so we are waiting for the bags of blood to come up.

Also, Dr. Chan came by - he told me he got my email about her arm and wanted to see it for himself. So of course the nurses had to unwrap the dressing and that causes her so much pain. At first he thought perhaps he might consult the plastic surgeons but after looking at it, he says it is just surface and it will heal. He feels right now there are two areas we need to focus on. Her mind is wacked out and that's from being here so long and so he wants to get her to rehab as soon as possible. A change of scenery, fewer interruptions at night, a sense of getting some control back into her life, physical therapy, etc. will all do wonders for her mind. But in order to get to that point of releasing her, he wants to build her up nutritionally. So he is all for putting in the peg to get her gut fed and get her bowels moving regularly again. She did actually have a small move today. Sorry for having to mention these things but it is a part of real life and Dr. Chan laughs about it. If you can pee and poop, you're alive!

 So that is the status report for the day! She is taking a late afternoon nap and she's wiped out! It was a busy and hectic day for her. She is snoring like a bear and I feel we are going in the right direction at last. Barring any further complications and God willing, she's on the right track again.