I'm bored and still in the hospital with mom. So, I thought I'd blog about her whole terrible ongoing ordeal.

December 4:
Mom had extreme hip pain. It took her 45 minutes to walk 10 feet to the bathroom. Dad called the ambulance because there is no way she could have made it to the car. Ling Hospital sent her home with no pain medication and an obvious diagnosis of "Hmm...you have arthritis in your hip. Arthritis can cause pain, ya know!" Genius's. Ling hospital is the epicenter of brilliance.

Friday, December 5:
Turlach and I come home to find mom in horrible pain. She can't stand. She can't even scootch up in her chair to stand. She has urinated and deficated in her chair because she could not move. We called 911 again to get her to Ling Hospital. she was admitted and put on some IV stuff, but I don't know or remember what.

Saturday, December 6:
On my way to Ling Hospital I get a frantic call from Turlach saying that Ling H called them and that mom was having difficulty breathing, was agitated and confused. I got there and she looked scared out of her mind. Her heart beat was 130. Her respitory rate was 34 (normal is 16). They ran some blood tests to see if she's had a stroke, a heart attack, or whatever. The blood tests showed that she had a heart attack. She's moved to the critical care unit. Her vitals are much lower in the evening than in the morning. Just below normal, actually.

Sunday, December 7:
her vital signs drop. Blood pressure is 80/30, pulse is still 130 and respitory rate is still high. Kidneys are slowing down. She's transferred to Son Center where they discover she's in septic shock and dying. She's in the cardiac care unit. The cardiologist asks one of us to stay the night with her because he wasn't sure what would happen. I've been here ever since.

Monday, December 8:
Little improvement. Her heart rate and breating are under control, but her bp is still low. She has a staph infection in her blood which is what caused the sepsis, septic shock and heart attack. In the afternoon she's more alert, but still not really talking or making sense. She's sent for a ct scan of her hip to see if the staph infection is in her hip since that's where her pain is. After the scan, she's moved from cardiac care to intensive care.

Tuesday, December 9:
In the morning, she's much more alert and her vitals are crawling back up. In the afternoon, though, her vitals drop again and she's not really conscious, but not unconscious if that makes sense.

Wednesda, Dec 10:
The dr's decide that they need to operate on her hip to irrigate infection out. After surgery she is so much better! She has color in her face, she's talking and joking.

Thu Dec 11:
Her vitals drop again, but not as low as before. She's still just this side of kidney failure because of the sepsis and staph infection. Her BP is up and down throughout the day from 220/180 to 60/20.

Dec 12-14:
She makes improvements. She receives some physical therapy for her hip. She can sit in a chair comfortably. She can stand. Her kidneys improve and her bp stabelizes.

Mon, Dec 15:
Another hip surgery. This time is a partial replacement with antibiotic filled temporary cement fictures (ball and spacer). She spends 5 hours in recovery in extreme pain and confusion. She had no clue where she was and apparently there was yelling and screaming. i'm thankful I didn't have to hear that. Once she's back in her room she's doped up, but stable.

Wed, Dec 17:
She was transferred from ICU to Ortho.

Sat, December 20:
Her infection is improving. She's much more herself, but she's unable to move much because of the pain. The dr doesn't want her to bear any weight on her right leg, so she's mostly bed bound. In the evening, we notice that her urine is very dark and gets darker when she has a bowel movement. They send her urine in for testing.

Sun, Dec 21
When I wake up, she's in isolation. She has VRE (Vancomiacin Resistant Ecchsomething) which is typically caught by patients on antibiotics in an ICU environment. Her urine color doesn't improve.

Wed Dec 24
She is sent to have a barium enema test to see if she has a fistula - an abnormal connection and opening between the rectum and bladder - she does.

Christmas Day
Depressing, but we made the best of it. Dr's stopped in to say that they plan to do surgery to fix the fistula. We're not excited about that at all. Merry Christmas Mrs Dwyer - I'm going to cut your gut open.

Yesterday and today were very similar. She's doing alright. She's mostly herself, which is great. She's even bitchy and that's awesome. I was really getting sick of her being so polite. When she doesn't feel good, she gets over polite with the please and thank yous and oh my god what would I do without yous. And that's to strangers!! We're frustrated about surgery, but it'll really help her in the end. They can't do a full hip replacement (OH yeah...they are planning a full hip replacement once the staph infection is gone) until the VRE is under control. They can't get the VRE under control until the Fistula is gone. When they do the fistula they'll also repare her cystocele and rectocele. It'll be a big surgery, but she'll be so much better when she comes out of this.

She still has a very long frustrating road ahead of her. We're all exhausted. I get really tired and weepy sometimes but mostly I'm doing better than people give me credit for. People tell me I need to go home. I have no intention of going home! As long as I can stay here, I plan to do so. I'm not uncomfortable. it sucks wondering when the next shower will be, but I manage just fine. I'm not looking foward to going back to work next week. The thought of it stresses me out completely. But I can't stay up here forever. I just want mom to get into an extended care facility closer to Bally. Ideally she can get into one before Jan 5th, but ideal isn't real. So...we'll wait and see. She'll be fine!

She's seen 23 doctors so far and has had over 30 nurses care for her. Everyone here has been so completely wonderful! We couldn't ask for better care unless they had a magic wand that would make her instantly better!