Like prior days, I’ll be updating this single post today if there are updates. So, if you check this post out now, it may change later in the same day. Scroll to the bottom for newer updates throughout the day.
10:20AM
Karen taxed her strength a little last night, so is doing a little extra power-napping between nurse visits. It was very good that Karen taxed her strength, because she’s been losing some strength, and I can see her building that back up, even if it’s just a little at a time. Early in the week she couldn’t sit up, but took a couple short walks yesterday. The hospital brought in a walker to help and worked with her a little. Amazon should have one waiting for us by the time we get home. Positive thoughts about that.
The nurses are all very concerned about what’s best for Karen, so do what they can to schedule around her needs. The docs are the same way. Back home we have Mt. Carmel, which we think is a good hospital, but every time she’s been there she gets one doctor visit, and then it’s just poking and prodding when the chart requires through the rest of the day. Here, we have no less than six doctor visits from the various specialties (floor doc, her oncology docs, palliative med docs, etc.) and if she’s sleeping they actually check back instead of waking her. Everything is around Karen’s needs, and I have a hard time imaging better care anywhere. We won’t see Karen’s primary doc until later and will follow up with any news later tonight.
The biggest news of the morning, is that for the first time since arrival she maintained her hemoglobin through the evening.
No transfusions scheduled today. 🙂
4:00PM
It’s been quite a day for Karen. There hasn’t been any more blood loss, which is fantastic news. The doctor was very encouraged by this and feels that she is out of immediate danger. We spoke for a little while and the next hurdle is keeping her stable for the next few days, and building some of her strength back up enough for travel. We’re meeting again Monday to assess, and to start discussing what life at home would look like.
Unfortunately, it’s going to take a little more time to figure that out. There’s a lot going on right now, so keeping her stable may require regular blood tests and access to medication. Home health can help with these things. She worked on some strength building today with a therapy nurse, and it made her too tired, and made her sick. They are going to leave her alone for the rest of the day and come back tomorrow.
She’s sleeping right now. I’ll get her up for some dinner later and see how it goes from there. I’ll follow up again tonight, but it may not be until late, and may only be a brief check-in.
10:00PM
Today was pretty exhausting for her, and she slept most of the day after her therapy appt. She was up for dinner and a brief visit and then went back to sleep. But even though she’s tired and fatigued, she has not had any more problems with her awareness. The efforts the docs have taken to get her ammonia level down, and her raised hemoglobin levels seem to have helped that.
She has the same array of things tomorrow that she had today. I’ll update when there’s any news.
May God send his loving angels to replenish your faith, strength and hope. Love always and in all ways