Meltdown Day

It’s late and I just got home from the hospital. Dear Bruce spent the night with Mom tonight, but he has church commitments before his 9:00 church schedule, so I want to be back early in the morning to relieve him. I’m writing this blog as I treat myself to a Nestle’s ice cream drumstick...not wise, I know, but I’m trying to be good all day long and although the hospital food is generally very cheap, the ice cream there is $1.65 per scoop. I’m not willing to pay that. So I treat myself the nights that I come home...
Today was an up and down day for Mom... unfortunately for her, more downs than ups. Mom’s creatinine level went up slightly (to 2.6) but her BUN jumped way high from yesterdays 67 to 83. Yikes!! She also remained basically static on her weight, which is okay considering she lost 4 lb. of weight the day before. Since we’ve gone into the weekend, we had the weekend on-call doctor come instead of Dr. Elhaddi...Dr. Massinople is his name (try to remember that one!). He reduced her lasix booster from two doses to one dose per day, since her kidney numbers were rising. However, he did up her lasix...giving her 3 doses of 60 mg per day instead of 2 doses of 80 mg. He is reducing her Metoprolol because her heart rate is going great at 65-75 and moving her digoxin to every other day...
That’s the facts...
Mom asked the doctor when she could go home. Dr. Massinople said that Dr. Elhaddi told him Mom would ask him that question. He told her she could go home when her oxygen needs lower. That means more stints on the spirometer and more exercise.
Finally, tonight, Mom had a meltdown... Why wouldn’t she? She had her heart valve surgery one month ago today, and she is still in the hospital. She discovered how many hospital rooms were empty when she walked around the “loop” and deduced that they could all go home... but still she remains. She began to think it was a conspiracy by the doctors to keep her in the hospital so they could get richer at her expense (literally). I told her it wasn’t the doctors’ money that caused her oxygen saturation to drop like a rock every time she took off her cannula. It wasn’t the doctors’ money that keeps the fluid build-up around her heart, causing her to have problems breathing. She just doesn’t understand why she isn’t getting any better, except she knows that the longer she remains in bed, the weaker she is becoming. Poor Mom!! I try to help her count her blessings and that this experience is all part of a plan, but that’s hard to swallow when you’re facing what she’s facing. She tries valiantly to be her old perky and sassy self with the nurses, the visitors and the doctors. But I can tell it’s also wearing her down...
The real upside was when Liz and her daughter, Chelsea showed up at 9 PM, followed by Bruce. They came right in the middle of watching “Bewitched”. Mom was so excited to see them, and was ESPECIALLY thrilled when Chelsea volunteered to rub her feet and legs. We kept asking if she wanted to move higher in her bed, and she said, “No... I just want Chelsea to rub my legs.” Chelsea figures she could get her Grandma to write her into the will for that! Mom felt like she had feet again. It even gave her courage to walk in the hallway half a loop with Bruce around 10 PM.
Mom got so down, the nurse, Boyd, came in and offered to give her a sleeping pill in addition to her Benadryl. When I asked which sleeping pill and he mentioned Ambien, I said, “No way, Jose! That’s what put her into ICU back on her birthday, December 5th, when they found her passed out on the floor. So she will not be getting that medication again!!
Well, I am falling asleep as I write this last paragraph, so please excuse the writing. Tomorrow is Sunday and will be a better day. They send a daily missionary couples to each LDS patient’s room, and the one today told her that there is a Sacrament meeting at 9:00 downstairs. But they will also be bringing the Sacrament up to her at 10:00, so we will probably stay around for that. After all, I brought my Conference Ensign and Bret left his draft notes for his ward conference meetings tomorrow, so we’ll have plenty of reading material. We can have our own Sac. Meeting per se right in Mom’s room!
Yawn! Off to bed!!