~6:45AM – I woke up and discovered that Kim had sent a text just after midnight (most likely right after we talked) that said her blood work came back and her potassium was low. They said that afib could be a cause of stroke, so that may have been the cause. I texted Kim and found out that Sue was a pill all night, so I decided to get there as early as possible, but I needed to run a few errands.
~7:45AM – I ran to Walmart to get stress balls for her hand strength and exercise. They didn’t even really have anything there, so she had to settle for a Nerf mini-basketball and a little rubber mummy head.
~8:30AM – I arrived home, grabbed my stuff and Samantha, and let Cyndie and Wade know that I was heading out to the hospital.~9:30AM – Samantha and I arrived at the hospital. We got an update from Kim about the evening. Sue was a pain most of the night. She was restless and fidgety, and acted frustrated and uncomfortable. She pulled all of her tubes and sensors out, so they had to put mittens on her to control her. She managed to get those off and wreak more havoc, so the nurse, Mike, threatened to restrain her with straps. She finally calmed down.
Sue had a bit of a breakdown this morning. She sobbed with big wailing cries, which was terrible to watch but actually very good for her, as Kim pointed out. She was breathing deeply, making good sounds, and swallowing. All things that she needed to be working on anyway.
~10:00AM – Cyndie and Wade arrived. We rode separately because I wanted to give them more time to sleep, but I think breaking the news to them at 8:45AM pretty much had them up and moving regardless.
Sue had another breakdown in front of Cyndie. I think the overwhelming impact of everything was finally starting to sink in, and that this was not going to be a quick recovery. She was very despondent and indicated that she couldn’t move, wouldn’t be able to, and wanted to go home. If she is following the classics stages of grief, then this would clearly be the ‘depression’ stage, which is a good thing, because it means that we are moving on shortly to ‘acceptance’ and perhaps a more positive outlook on the future.
I had a short talk with Sue about the fact that this was going to take a while to fix, but it was fixable. I told her that it takes months – three to six – to even start getting through everything.
~1:00PM – We have been waiting for PT because they have pushed off food until PT comes. (Or because we are supposed to be changing rooms. Either way, we were waiting for someone to come in and do something.) A doctor came in, Dr. Z, and did a quick physical assessment of Sue. She talked to her about the next steps which was good. She told her that they have done most of what that they can do for her and that everything from now on is up to her.
She also told us that the next step in her PT was a series of assessments. If she did well, they would probably recommend her for “acute PT”, which would be three hours a day of physical therapy. If she did not do well, she would probably be put into something else (I can’t remember what it was called), but it was essentially a nursing home for a month with little to no PT and just relying on her to get better and stronger before the real PT started. Clearly we need her to do well and get the acute PT – it is what she will excel at, and the other would do more harm than good in my opinion.
She also mentioned that they need to start working on her mobility, which includes getting her up and around – even with left-side paralysis. She also said that she would recommend (and probably *will* recommend) a feeding tube directly into her stomach (called a PEG tube – big words so I am not going to include them). This would be less intrusive, and it will most likely take her a long time to swallow correctly to be able to eat on her own anyway. She can progress at her own pace with a feeding tube.
~1:30PM – We got moved to a new room. We are still in the ICU, but now in Critical (or Intermediate) Care, and no longer in Intensive Care. The room is pretty sweet. It has a couch, a “bed chair” like in the other room, a bench, a bunch of drawers for all of the stuff that we have been carrying in, and even a pretty large bathroom with a shower. It’s kind of a bitter pill for Kim who hasn’t had any of these creature comforts in the past four days, and now is swapping out with Cyndie who gets this plush place on her first night here. 😃
~2:00PM – Sue finally got food through her NG tube. It always makes her tired, so we are expecting her to sleep a bit now.
~2:30PM – Kim and Sam and I went to the cafeteria. Cyndie and Wade stayed with Sue, and Wade did some PT on Sue’s legs. While we were out, Kim called Gold’s Gym and put Sue’s membership on hold. She also talked to several friends and told them that we are no longer allowing visitors. We have discovered that Sue is still not really in a good place for visitors and that it is extremely taxing on her. She has made it clear that she does not want to see anyone right now either.
~3:00PM – We returned to the room and Cyndie and Wade left to grab some food. Kim worked with Sue on making sounds – vowel sounds and her numbers.
~3:30PM – The respiratory therapist came in and did the breathing thing and the zumba shakey-shakey machine again. She got a lot of fluid up almost immediately.
~4:30PM – Nurse T came in to start Toprol which will help with Sue with her heart rate. Sue just woke up from a nap and is very groggy. Cyndie can’t find Steve Harvey on the TV, so she just settled for Judge Judy. *sigh*
~7:00PM – Kim and I headed home for the night, and both Cyndie and Wade stayed with Sue at the ICU.
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