Turnaround Day of Sleet
Feb. 8th, 2019 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ismoSuch good news tonight! My mother made a semi-miraculous turnaround last night. She slept well, ate well, drank a lot of water, and in the morning when I arrived for rounds, she was up in a chair, waiting for breakfast. They had to lift her with a sling. She still has not been able to get vertical and put her feet on the ground. That will start when she gets into rehab. Today, she was alert, talkative, and awake for a much bigger portion of the day. She made sense MOST of the time! The trauma team came to check her for signs of concussion (again) and she didn't have any. She was at 88 out of 100 on the cognitive scale, which is pretty good. (She told them we were in Ann Arbor, which was true. After they left, she said to me sotto voce, "You mean we're not in Champaign-Urbana [her childhood home]?" I said, "No, we're not. We're in Ann Arbor." "Well, then it's a good thing I told them that!" she said. So she may not be 100% well-oriented, but she knows how to give a good answer.)
They had taken off the sling on her arm, because it was driving her crazy. As I was feeding her her breakfast oatmeal and fruit, I wondered if she might be able to use her right hand more. I held the plate for her, and she was able to get hold of the English muffin with grape jelly that I had cut into segments, and with some effort, get it into her own mouth. When the Duchess gave her lunch, she reported that Mother was able to manipulate a spoon with her right hand and feed herself most of the turkey and gravy. This is awesome progress on the road back to a little more independence.
The bottom line is that she is scheduled for discharge to skilled nursing/rehab tomorrow at 2 pm! It might even be at 2 pm, since the case manager told me that in ICU, they do try to keep things moving on a schedule, so discharge doesn't usually drag on all day the way it does on an ordinary floor. There is a room for her in the newly rebuilt nursing section of the place where she lives, so it will be familiar territory, and some of the staff who know her will almost certainly come to visit her. The Duchess and I will coordinate accompanying her and meeting the ambulance at the facility to get her settled in. We are so happy and grateful. I don't know if she'll ever get back on her feet, but at least she's out of the hospital now. She has such a will to live that I wouldn't be surprised if she did walk again, one of these days. If she thinks she's walking in Champaign-Urbana, it's fine with me.
Oh, and the power is back on at our house. We've been texting with the next-door neighbor. So when we get to go home, it won't be 16 degrees inside. More good news!
Random things you learn in the trauma/burn unit: don't ever smoke. And if you do, avoid gasoline. I overheard a fairly loud conversation while in the waiting room that started with "a lighter and a gasoline can" and ended up with "and then the whole side of the shed blew out and I ran out there with a fire extinguisher" . . . and then I guess there was an ambulance and the burn unit. Which is a very excellent burn unit, but you don't ever want to go there.
They had taken off the sling on her arm, because it was driving her crazy. As I was feeding her her breakfast oatmeal and fruit, I wondered if she might be able to use her right hand more. I held the plate for her, and she was able to get hold of the English muffin with grape jelly that I had cut into segments, and with some effort, get it into her own mouth. When the Duchess gave her lunch, she reported that Mother was able to manipulate a spoon with her right hand and feed herself most of the turkey and gravy. This is awesome progress on the road back to a little more independence.
The bottom line is that she is scheduled for discharge to skilled nursing/rehab tomorrow at 2 pm! It might even be at 2 pm, since the case manager told me that in ICU, they do try to keep things moving on a schedule, so discharge doesn't usually drag on all day the way it does on an ordinary floor. There is a room for her in the newly rebuilt nursing section of the place where she lives, so it will be familiar territory, and some of the staff who know her will almost certainly come to visit her. The Duchess and I will coordinate accompanying her and meeting the ambulance at the facility to get her settled in. We are so happy and grateful. I don't know if she'll ever get back on her feet, but at least she's out of the hospital now. She has such a will to live that I wouldn't be surprised if she did walk again, one of these days. If she thinks she's walking in Champaign-Urbana, it's fine with me.
Oh, and the power is back on at our house. We've been texting with the next-door neighbor. So when we get to go home, it won't be 16 degrees inside. More good news!
Random things you learn in the trauma/burn unit: don't ever smoke. And if you do, avoid gasoline. I overheard a fairly loud conversation while in the waiting room that started with "a lighter and a gasoline can" and ended up with "and then the whole side of the shed blew out and I ran out there with a fire extinguisher" . . . and then I guess there was an ambulance and the burn unit. Which is a very excellent burn unit, but you don't ever want to go there.
