Thursday, 7/26

Another rough night for Dee and Mom. I left the hospital around 8:30 exhausted. I'm not even sure how Dee is still functioning at this point. Mom was still pretty out of it, but we tested her a little to see what she remembered and what she didn't. Family names were fine, but she forgot that she left Howard Beach almost 2 years ago. Dee and I asked the nurse about giving her a breathing treatment to loosen up some of the mucus we hear when she coughs. Unfortunately, some nurses are more on top of things than others, and the treatment did not happen.

At around 11pm, they decided Mom needs to get blood transfused. Dee could not get a straight answer on why or what her hemoglobin levels measured when last tested. They started to transfuse and Mom's blood pressure started to drop. Then dropped more and more. Dee called me at about midnight to tell me it went down to 55 over 33. The nurse was not very willing to get the doctor to her room and suggested that she needed more fluids. Dee insisted that she call the doctor immediately so that she could understand who ordered blood and why and what needs to be done next.

The stopped the transfusion and by 1 am, Mom's BP had returned to normal. Dee sent me back to bed with a "no news is good news" plan. I finally nodded off by 1:30 and called her again this morning at 7:40.

Today's chest xray still showed that hazing, but they don't think it's pneumonia. A CAT scan was ordered, but apparently cancelled. We don't know why or by whom, but I don't think Mom could deal with that now anyway. Another x-ray is planned for today. Mom has still had that junky sound in her chest when she coughs, but today's nurse set up the nebulizer as soon as Dee mentioned it. Thank heavens for small gifts.

Mom has been sitting up a lot and trying to get comfortable. The nurse thinks that the mucus feels thick to her and is making her uncomfortable. I'm hoping that the breathing treatments will help loosen it up as it was previously. The nurse is suggesting giving Mom Ativan. She thinks she's feeling anxious, but we don't really want her having that. Dee is not seeing any real signs of anxiety. Last time they gave her Ativan, she was sooooo loopy and hasn't eaten a real meal since.

The port was supposed to make things easier for Mom. If they hadn't screwed things up when putting in the port, I think we'd have a much simpler situation right now.

Thanks for listening.