Trying to stay cool

The weather in the San Francisco Bay Area is pretty temperate.  It’s usually pretty comfortable all year long,  but some days it goes outside the normal temperature. Today was one of them.  It was a steamy day. Here in Oakland it the low 90’s.  Almost no one has air conditioning so you try to stay comfortable as best as you can.

Pauline continues to have non-knee surgery issues which give her pain, dizziness, nausea, and sweats.  Around 4 PM, she decides she wants to take a shower and then tries many times to get up and finally makes it.  She took a short shower, but it wiped her out.  She felt hot and not refreshed, needed assistance getting out of the shower and felt light-headed, almost passing out.  Pauline almost fell over and needed to sit and rest many times.

A few hours after that, I got a call from Rita.  She said that Cindy had taken a shower and didn’t feel well after she was done, saying she was hot.  Cindy had a hard time walking into the living room. Rita helped her sit down and then went into the kitchen.  A few minute later. She heard a loud crash and found Cindy passed out (she’s fine), and some equipment knocked over.

Coincidence?

Watch out for the babysitter!

Yes. Cindy is feeling weak while at home.  That is understandable since she had been in bed for ten days.  She feels that she was not ready to go home, that the doctors released her too soon.  But since there was no medical reason to keep her in the hospital, she had to choose between rehab and home.  The rehab she would go to is not ideal.  Cindy is well enough to walk a bit, so being at home was the better choice. That left me babysitting the baby sister.

Rita and Mary needed to help Rita’s sister and asked me to stay with Cindy for a few hours.  I felt like I was babysitting again.  We sat and watched TV together.   We also talked for a while.   When it was her nap time, I watched her sleep.  Nothing different than when we were kids.  And just like when we were little, I didn’t get paid to keep an eye on her.

My son, Paul, is staying with us for a little while.  This is a great help.  I feel better that someone is with Pauline when I’m not home.  She is not feeling well.  Sometimes her knee hurts, but her pain, nausea, dizziness, and sweats are getting worse.  She even cancelled the physical therapist today.  Pauline talked to her doctor who said that she wanted to check Pauline’s adrenal glands on Monday when Pauline goes to see the surgeon for a checkup on her knee.

Mom’s Home

Cindy got the green light to go home today.  All the critters are thrilled that mom’s home.  The case manager taking care of her discharge made sure that Cindy had everything she needed to continue her recovery at home.  Rita confirmed that all the equipment and supplies were in place.  The only other services that Cindy would require when she returned home would be physical therapy and pulmonary therapy. These treatments would probably start at home for a week or two and then continue on an outpatient basis.

Discharge happened this afternoon.  By the time Cindy got home, she was tired and had a difficult time getting herself situated at home. Spending all that time in the hospital for the past month put a damper on her spirits.  Hopefully getting back into a routine will help.

Pauline continues in her recovery.  Part of her physical therapy is to do more things that she would normally do.  When I got home from visiting with Cindy today, Pauline was sweeping the floor.  I thought that was a good way to spend her exercise time.

Physical therapy for all

There was physical therapy for all today.  Cindy is feeling so much better today and able to get out of bed.   The doctor removed the tube from her chest.  Her lung capacity has increased by 45% after draining 75% of the fluid in her chest.  The surgeon is hoping that the sac does not fill back up and absorbs back into her body.  They will be doing another chest x-ray Tuesday morning to make sure things look right.  They are trying to avoid another surgery.  If it does fill up or doesn’t absorb then, there will be another surgery in a couple of weeks.

The next step for Cindy is to begin physical therapy.  She was able to sit in a chair for about an hour and a half along with her friends Tangy and Blueberry.  If she does well, she should be able to go home soon, probably on Thursday.  If not, she will have to go to a rehab.

Reggie, Pauline’s physical therapist, came to the house for a session.  He said that Pauline was doing very well.  She was able to do all her exercises, walk around the house and doing some minor activities.  He will be back on Thursday.

Another glitch in communication

Sunday night was difficult for Cindy.  The surgeon had changed her diet but didn’t write that in his notes.  That meant that Cindy didn’t get what she wanted.  After spending days in bed pain without being able to move, Cindy got very frustrated and anxious.  Rita went to the hospital that night to be with her and did everything she could to calm her down.  It seems the surgeon wrote the change on the board and not on the computer. The nurses never called or texted him.

This doesn’t seem like a big deal, but for the patient, comfort and dignity are critical to their recovery.  When the hospital admits a patient, they are given (or should be) a Patient’s Bill of Rights.  Use it when necessary.  I remember one time about 15-20 years when Pauline was in agony and I took her to the Emergency Room.   We were in the waiting area.  Pauline was too uncomfortable to sit and needed to lie down.  The security guard came around and said that she couldn’t like down in the waiting area.

It seemed that homeless people were coming into the ER and sleeping on the floor, so they “banned” lying on the floor.  I had the Patient’s Bill of Rights in my hand.  I opened the booklet and saw that it said that each patient has the right to be comfortable.  So I found a pillow and blanket and made Pauline as comfortable as possible.  When the security guard came over again, I handed him the pamphlet and pointed out that she had a right to be comfortable and he could either bring over a gurney or leave her alone.  He walked away and never came back.

Things seem to be going well for the patients.  Pauline’s knee is definitely on the mend. She and her walker are getting around really well.  That makes me happy.

Cindy is also on the mend.   She is feeling much better today.  Her surgeon did an x-ray and CT scan yesterday and found that the fluid in the sac in her chest is down 40%.  If things keep going this way, she will not need another surgery.  Then she’ll be ready for physical therapy to get her back on her feet and then out the door.  Hopefully everything wll go as planned and Cindy will be home by the end of next week.

So the only thing not going to plan is my life.  I haven’t done anything about signing up for unemployment, looking into COBRA, figuring out our new budget, updating my LinkedIn profile or writing (except for this blog).  I’m too busy shopping, cooking, doing laundry, miscelaneous errands, and I’m not sure what else.  By the end of the day, I’m exhausted.  I used to go to work all day, come home and possibly shop/cook depending on how Pualine was doing and that was it. I was the Dad guy.  This week, I’ve turned into the Mommy.

I DON’T WANT TO BE THE MOMMY!!!

It’s too hard.

I want to go back to work.

Well, not this type of drain.  Cindy’s surgeon looked at the CAT scan from the previous day and found a sac in her chest that was filled with fluid.  The pressure from the fluid created the problems Cindy suffered this week.  This is not unusual after the type of operation that Cindy had a couple of weeks ago.  Yesterday morning, he removed the fluid by making an incision just below where the sac is and inserted a tube into the incision.  This allowed the fluid to drain.  The process was painful and Cindy was not happy.

It was also time to change Cindy’s trachea.  This is done every few weeks to prevent mucous build-up and to keep the trachea clean.  The doctor waited to until Cindy was feeling better later in the afternoon.

Pauline is doing very well with her knee.  She is doing her exercises and walking pretty well with a walker.   Her doctor emailed her and told her that her lab work was fine (we thought she was anemic).  Unfortunately, Pauline is feeling very tired and she has sent her doctor and email asking why she is fatigued.

That’s it for now!

Another Fuzzie Minion visited Cindy this morning and is staying with her to keep her company during this hospital stay.  He is keeping a close eye on her and making sure she gets the best care.  He listened carefully as the doctors explained to Cindy what is going on.

It looks like they caught the pneumonia early and it has cleared up or there might have been an inflammation of the surgical site that can have the same symptoms.  The surgeon, Dr. Tsai and the pulmonologist, Dr. Ardilles, are in the process of doing a few procedures:

1. Ultrasound – They did an ultrasound of her abdominal area Tuesday afternoon.  This procedures shows the soft tissues and organs.
2. Bronchoscopy – This procedure was done Tuesday evening. Cindy’s doctors want to make sure her airwaves are open and that there are no abnormalities.  It is done by putting a bronchoscope through the nose or mouth.  Cindy had to be slightly sedated.
3. Esophagram (barium swallow) – They will do an Esophgram on Wednesday morning.  This test uses x-rays and a contrast agent.  It will tell the doctors if everything is flowing correctly through her esophagas and stomach.

With all this information, the doctors hope to figure out if there is a problem at the surgery site, her lungs, or any other organ in the area.

As for Pauline, her knee is healing well.  There is still pain at the surgery site, but that is to be expected.  However, she is experiencing a lot of fatigue and discomfort as she did this past weekend.  Her primary doctor asked her to get blood drawn and she did so Tuesday evening.  She should get the results tomorrow.

Hmmmm.  It seems I didn’t publish this post last night (Tuesday night).  Sorry about that.    So now you get the 2-for-1 deal.

As of Wednesday morning, none of Cindy’s tests showed anything.  However, by tonight, the doctors decided that they needed to put a drain in Cindy’s chest to drain fluids that have collected in a cavity where her stomach resided for many years.  The procedure will be done in the OR at 8 AM.

Pauline got the results of her labs.  The only test that came back abnormal was the one showing that she is still anemic.  Surprisingly, her doctor didn’t call her today.  Pauline is beginning to show the same symptoms that she had last Saturday night.  Hopefully, her doctor will contact her tomorrow.

That’s it for now.