OK so I had a nap this afternoon, was totally exhausted. Now I feel better, still tired but had to have a nice hot bath before I can go back to bed. I just get too darn itchy if I don't bath before bed...
Today while on my way to the great TO I called the hospital to confirm my mother's location since they were quite sure they were going to move her to the 7th floor. 7th floor is a step down from ICU ... The levels are sort of like this... In MSICU which is short for MedSurg/ICU they literally have three nurses per two patients, very intense you are never left alone. This was immediately following the surgery. Then you go after a few days in my mom's case but not so fast in others case, to Step Down ICU where you have one or two nurses watching two rooms but not so intense, still a lot of vitals monitoring though... So now this is one and a half weeks and to the astonishment of all the doctors and nurses she is on the 7th floor. It's a very relaxed floor where they really rely on you to use your call button if you need anything since there are a few nurses, I counted three, looking after about 20 beds.
She's got a heart monitor connected to her which wirelessly transmits the data to a small server in turn that is connected to a hayes compatible modem which has a constant phone connection to the network and in turn the cardiac unit gets to monitor her 24/7 Well by now you may have figured out that one of the things they are concerned about is her pre existing Angina which may or may not be a problem but from what the doctors tell me. While doing the surgery to replace the lungs it is inevitable to disturb the heart quite a bit... In fact they actually kinda shove it out of the way while they are doing all the manipulating, putting things into place. This seems to have pissed off her heart and so now every once in a while she experiences a strange rythym for which they are monitoring closely. They keep telling me over and over not to be concerned about this and with any luck she will be home by Monday... OMG to me that just seems entirely too quick but whatever.
I attended "self med" class today, to learn about the three antirejection drugs that she will need to take for the rest of her life. I believe, but at this point i'm not really certain that my mom's age qualifies her for 100 percent coverage of these medications... And believe me this is a sigh of relief because we have a friend (anonymous) who when picking up their first batch of meds on the way home had to pay around 900 dollars out of pocket... OUCH! The whole process of getting her to transplant has been very expensive for us, I plan on breaking it all down and will display it if anything only so I will be prepared at tax time to try to reclaim some of it as a caregiver's expense... Wear and tear on our new car has been around 20 thousand kilometers, this is purely trips to and from the hospital for physio therapy and we still have three months post transplant that are required...
I am glad the transplant is over to say the least... To see her breath effortlessly is something of a mystery to me. Although one of the fascinating things for me to witness is how occasionally she will breath quick and shallow like she did before.. Not because she's in distress but because her mind still thinks she has to breath this way... When reminded that she has a new pair of lungs she takes a deeeeeeep clean breath of air and it is amazing each time...
I think about the donor family often, wonder what they are like, if they live in Toronto, or Ontario, or even Canada for that matter.... I wonder if their grieving is at all comforted knowing they have helped others to live... I wonder now that it's a week and a half if their funeral is over and their lives finding some normality again... I too have seen a lot of death, our family has in the past seen more deaths closely related to us than we would consider normal... I guess people are suppose to experience at least one death every 7 years, statistics that are biased when it comes to reality. We have seen 7 in 7 years, but not one per year so there is certainly no justice in it.
Please don't confuse my need to record it all as complaining... I am merely reflecting, making sense of it all so that I can continue on... I am not a miserable person as my texts may sometimes portrait... In fact, anyone who knows me knows that I am happy most of the time, or at least have the outward appearance that I am... I enjoy the company of family and friends, but have never really gotten over my awkward social ineptitude.
I have moved on, and so should you...
I am looking forward to the doctors promise of removing the last two chest tubes from my mother, and then as a result of that the cathader will also be removed giving her ultimate freedom. She will then be free to roam the hospital with me, possibly go get a timmies coffee with me for the first time in several weeks... Ohhhhh the timmies Coffee.. I plan on blogging all about that soon, just with the silly heart monitor tying up the phone line I was unable to dial out with my laptop... I guess I'll give priority to her heart monitor over my internet connection, but just for this one time... hahahaha
All in all, things are good... I see a glimmer of spring being just around the corner, and I look daily at the area beside my house where I hope to run a rototiller in preparation for the garden I so badly want to start this year...
That's all for now, I will blog soon about my Son's sucesses in the hospital day program he's been attending for the past three weeks... I think he has one more week of it, and Jody and I have another family meeting to learn how to deal with his conditions... Diagnosed finally after 11 years of seeking we finally have a base line to deal with the strange inner workings of his mind...
Whew, just in time as I am falling asleep at the wheel!
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