Tuesday

Day 28
Got to the hospital safely this morning driving in the dark and pouring rain! Buddy Wentworth, a PA who works with Dr. Chan came in and we had a nice, long chat. He totally explained what is going on so that it is understandable to the lay person! Mom's slide into the foggy abyss is fairly common and temporary. He said the brain reacts like this when it is under stress. If the kidneys, the heart and the lungs and the hip and the arm are all under stress, then her brain swells and she has difficulty with her cognitive functions and it just shuts down. He says each day is a new day and this is going to be a long recovery so not to expect anything spectacular any time soon. Just pray no more complications arise.

Here is what today's course of action will be. Her blood is very thin so they are giving her 2 units of blood to get her stronger. They are taking her off the blood thinner too because they are very concerned about her nutrition being behind the curve and he's thinking about putting in a stomach tube - he calls it a peg. They put a light down her throat and shine it out from her belly and insert a peg, which they can use for feeding. She is getting IV nutrition but it is a lot slower process. A belly peg would give her more nutrition faster, but he hasn't talked to Dr. Chan about it.  Buddy wants to know how Chan feels about doing it and whether Mom is up to another procedure. Plus, since she keeps having minor atrial fibrulation, they want to be sure no clotting occurs or a clot could go to the brain and cause a stroke. So that will take 4 to 5 days to determine what to do there.

Day by day they need to watch her kidney function, her hemoglobin, her heart, lungs, arm infection, etc. The whirlpool baths for her arm should start today and that will help tremendously to clean up the dead skin and they can start putting on the soothing gel to get her skin healing. But it will be stressful and probably cause some pain at first.

Each day is a progressive process, slowly and carefully caring for her to ensure she is stable, has no more complications. I did not ask him for a ballpark timeline but told him I'm hoping she will be back to her self by Valentine's Day and he says that sounds good to him. The brain will be the last part that heals so just expect her to be living in a fog for awhile. I heard her talking this morning about her bathroom needing cleaned, the kitchen is a mess, so maybe in her mind she is keeping house and that is what helps her maintain her sanity. Buddy told me to go home and sleep at night and take care of me. And I am even though I hate leaving her alone at night. She has night fears but I need my rest and have to leave her in the nurses' care throughout the night. I can do a little work here in her room so thankfully I have that kind of a job that goes with me.

If anything odd pops up, I'll post again later today. Off to work now!