Home!

Very brief update - Mom is home!  After having all IVs removed, down to just pills which she can take at home, and generally feeling back to "normal" Mom was discharged from the hospital and is back home.

Nice safe, cool ride from the stretcher transport service, and she's back home where we all wanted her to be.

Yeah!

Hospital Update

Day 3 in the hospital, several bags of IV antibiotics, oxygen to help with breathing, MRI, CT scan, blood work, etc...  Mom has several new skin tears and bruises from being moved from ambulance to stretcher, from stretcher to bed, and from IV placement and multiple blood draws. The steroids she has been on have made her skin paper thin, and every little bump causes a bruise. And bruises take weeks to heal.

The good thing about the IV is that the antibiotics have done a super job of addressing the infection - wherever the infection was living. Since being on them for 2 full days, Mom's speech is significantly improved, although still not where she wants it to be. Her arm/leg swelling is down, and she can lift her right arm completely above her head. She can feed herself with both hands, and she can even cross her fingers. :) 

That's a trick I haven't seen in a very long time. She and Mary Claire were crossing fingers for health last night.  We have fingers crossed that this hospital stay will be brief and she'll be home and well very soon!

Finding the right fix

Mom has been out of the hospital for several weeks now, but has never really recovered back to her previous state of strength and health. Some days have been better than others but she's not been in her wheelchair for at least a month, and her speech comes and goes.

This past Monday and Tuesday were good days, strength seemed to be on the strong side, spirits were high, and plans were to work towards a wheelchair attempt on Friday with physical therapy. However, this persistent infection she cannot get rid of had other plans. On Wednesday her speech declined significantly, her blood pressure was up, and her right hand wasn't moving well - and she slept almost all day.  Thursday, her speech was 90% garbled, other symptoms worse as well, plus she had a headache and swelling of her right arm, hand and face.  Enough of a decline to require a trip back to the emergency room.

Good people work at St. Paul's and while it's tiring to be in the ER for 6 hours, they take excellent care of mom.  She had an several tests run, and none indicated significant problems.  She was given IV antibiotics which she responded well to, and by the time she was admitted to a room, with Dad on a reclining chair, she was speaking much better and moving her arm a bit.

One bad thing - they can't put an IV in her swollen arm, so it's in her left (stronger) arm, right at the elbow crease, so she can't move that arm either! It might work out well enough because she's very motivated to feed herself, and she tried hard to eat a roll by herself last night.  (It's the tiny little successes that make us all feel better.)   The chicken fried steak, green beans, and potatoes from Texas Roadhouse take out were so appreciated - thank you to Scott and Mary Claire for being the cross-town delivery service.  :)