Since I didn’t have time to leave a detailed entry on Thursday or Friday, now that we’re more settled, I thought I would share information for both days.
My Mom spent the night with Teresa on Wednesday into Thursday. Thursday morning she told me that T was doing well. They both got several hours of sleep in between the nurses and PCTs checking in. T coughed way less. For her breakfast, she ordered Cheerios (which she never ended up eating), bacon, toast, and grape juice.
Dr. Vance came by around 6:15am. He said he would pass the word on that she was ready to be discharged and would like to get on the road before holiday traffic, either early Thursday or early Friday. He told them that pathology planned to send off some of her slides for someone else to look at. I was glad to hear this because I hoped to get a second opinion.
Her potassium went up to 3.4. Normal is 3.5, so they gave her some pills instead of a drip, but she only had to take it once. No more magnesium drip – that’s all done.
Her hemoglobin was 8.8; a little lower than yesterday, but we figure it fluctuates (especially since they keep taking samples for testing 1-2 times a day!).
Thursday morning she was able to pull herself up to go to the bathroom without any help, including washing her hands instead of just using one of the hospital wipes. (And now we know why the hospital sink is so high up! The lower sinks at home are more painful to use.) She did her breathing excercise but couldn’t get it past 1000.
One of the nurses said T had a pleural effusion (about 2 soda cans worth) and that this could be making it difficult to do the breathing exercise. T is not having shortness of breath otherwise, though. Also, Angie (nurse) said that if she gets up to do her walking, it should completely, or mostly, reabsorb on its own so that she won’t need it taken out with a needle. (Pretty sure T has had enough needles for awhile, so that would be great!)
PT visited her that afternoon, and she walked 2 hallways, and did 24 stairs. PT was pretty impressed from what I heard!
While some of this was going on, my Mom and I went up to Abingdon to pickup the cats. I’d been able to secure emergency boarding for them at our vet. They’ll be there for about a week (give or take). We will be bringing then up to Roanoke, but I had figured that we’d probably be in the apartment at least one night, and we couldn’t risk them jumping on T’s abdomen!
We got them settled at the vet, took care of a few other errands, and headed back to the hospital.
Jeremy Perkins and Sally Blackburn got a chance to visit before she left the hospital, which was great! Really appreciated!
T did get her discharge papers for Thursday, and we got her all packed up in pretty record time.
We went to our apartment in Abingdon, VA. This was me, Teresa, and my Mom. My Dad had already gone back to Roanoke.
Mom and I got everything unpacked from the car and inside (much easier without having to worry about tripping over the kitties!) and into the living room so I could sort it that evening. We got Teresa settled and we all had dinner.
T cannot eat a lot yet, but she is having good food each meal time.
We knew there was a lot of rain coming the next day, so T and I (especially T) monitored the forecast carefully to make the best decision on when to leave.
Early Friday, I ran some errands in town to get a few things we needed. Came back, had breakfast, and then started repacking the car. We were very glad that I’d packed up most everything the night before, as Teresa had determined by this point that we had about an hour to get packed and on the road in order to stay ahead of the rain.
We missed it by a little bit, but did eventually drive out of it. Most of the trip was pretty clear, and we only ran into heavy traffic 3 miles from our exit! We got to my parents’ house about 4:30p.
Everything T needs is set-up and ready to go at my parents’ house. Dad made steak and baked potatoes. We’ll be working on not only getting her protein levels up, but also working on getting her foods to help her hemoglobin go back up.
Her color still looks good, and Teresa said she looks normal/like herself when she looks in the mirror!
Although we have a walker on hand, which we would take if Teresa decided she really needs a day out of the house, she does NOT need to use it in the house. Sometimes she needs me to help her get up. Sometimes she does it on her own.
Tonight, Teresa was able to get the incentive spirometer up to 1250! She also feels like she understands how it works better now too, which has made it easier. (They taught her how to use it while she was still on dilaudid!)
She can’t stand up straight all of the time from the pain, some of which she thinks may be from the staples (she counted 46!), but she is able to stand up straight for short periods. This, of course, will help her heal better. She will get her staples out soon. She has an appointment tentatively scheduled for this coming Wednesday, but Dr. Greene could decide to wait a few more days.
Thank you so much to those of you who have already sent cards. If you’ve sent one within the last 1-2 days, she’ll probably get it when we go down for her staple removal appointment. A good friend is taking in our mail for us.