| Ghost_Tracker |
12-14-2007 01:29 AM |
Thanks - some news
Thank you very much everyone. The situation's bad, but it's not as bad as it could be. But please imagine yourself being at home and going through this scenario -
(It turned out that there was a MAJOR screw-up at my Mom's care center where she's recovering from her stroke - somehow they had her down as a "D.N.R." - "Do Not Resuscitate." She's most definitely not - we feel that she has every chance to recover and should receive all the care possible. We had told the hospital a couple of weeks back, during her admission there, that she is not D.N.R.)
So imagine you're sitting at home minding your own business, and you get a phone call. Your Mom has a collapsed lung. There's a VERY serious situation. You need to get to the hospital RIGHT NOW.
I swear, I thought maybe there was a real, actual possibility that she had died.
They wanted us there for other reasons than just paperwork but at least it's not as bad as I was imagining. But it turns out that a large part of the serious situation was that they wanted to clear this up. It's certainly not something one would wish for but at least she's still alive, and she's doing somewhat better now than she was this morning. We talked things over with the Doctors and unfortunately it looks like they're going to have to treat her more aggressively. So she's going back on a respirator. After she had the stroke and the brain surgery to treat it, it had taken a month to wean her off of the respirator. This is definitely a step back. But the Doctors feel that her real problem right now isn't really so much infection, but that she needs to be more alert and awake so that she'll sense that she needs to cough and can get that crap out of there herself. It also can maybe help to physically force things in her lungs to start moving around, and they will be able to put some sort of a tube in, associated with the respirator, which will help them to suction the fluid out. So I guess we're going to take 3 steps back in order to take 5 steps forward. There's also a procedure called a "Third Ventriculostomy" which she might be able to have, which can decrease the pressure in her brain ventricles. That would help her to be much more alert and awake. So once we get her healthy enough for that, she can have that procedure done and can then get and keep her lungs healthier and healthier, by breathing and coughing better. And then she gets better and better, and can start receiving speech therapy again etc. So at least we have a plan of attack now, and the doctors seem to have a better understanding of what's going on and why.
Thanks very much everyone for your continued prayers.
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