Today began with a good bath and smiles. Mom actually looks a lot better this morning - the couple pints of blood seems to have done her good!! She's had a lot of attention this morning. PT brought in the whirlpool and spent awhile with her. It was tough hearing her screams so I had to leave. They decided it was too much for her and won't be back.
Dr. Alexander stopped in and gave her his pep talk. Then Bridget, another PA from Dr. Chan's office was in and looked at her arm when they had it uncovered for the whirlpool therapy.
They are discussing when is the best time to put in the feeding tube. If she continues like she's doing today, it might not be necessary. She ate about 1/2 cup of oatmeal and banana and that's probably the most she's eaten since she's been in here! I'm looking forward to lunch to see how she does. But her nutrition is behind the curve so more than likely they'll put in the tube to bring her up nutritionally to where she needs to be. Until her INR is down to where it should be, Bridget wrote an order for FFP - that's the fresh frozen plasma. She got that when she was up in the cardiac critical care unit and it was the thing that brought her back from the brink of death.
A couple of nurses from case management stopped in to discuss where she will go when she is released to rehab. When she said she would lose medicare benefits after 20 days, I made the statement that if she did, then the hospital should pick up the tab since it was on their watch that she broke her hip. The lady told me to talk to patient relations and let my thoughts be known as they have a system where that information gets processed. So many systems! When Mom goes down for the procedure for her feeding tube, I'll stop in and talk to them. Might get Chip to go with me for that visit as men seem to carry more weight around this place. Seems most doctors are male and it's obviously how the medical culture is. The male viewpoint seems to carry the most clout.
Mom is actually alert enough to ask us to straighten up the little cot I sit on. I use it like a sofa and it was covered in sheets and towels from her bath. So obviously her brain is back in gear today - but like they told me yesterday, each progression is forward and back in gear. But I have to keep in mind this is a long-term journey. She's not going to improve suddenly.
More later on when I have an idea of when they decide to insert the tube.
No comments:
Post a Comment