Monday July 28th - Fragile By Carol Buzalsky — 21 minutes ago At 2:30 today we (Dad, Marlene, DeAnn, Nathan, Char and myself) surrounded moms bedside and held moms hands in prayer. It was a very special time. At 3:00 we (Dad, Marlene, DeAnn and I) met with the ICU doctors, infectious disease and the social worker to discuss moms health and what steps to take in the future. Basically, mom is extremely fragile. Due to her weakened condition any little tiny bug can set her back. This is what happened this week. A bug in her lungs such as pneumonia set her body into a tail spin and into septic status including messing up her kidneys and her lungs are so week she cant cough or breath on her own. She is slowly, very slowly recovering from this set back by being on the ventilator and having dialysis. She has about a 50/50 chance of coming off the ventilator in the next few days and breathing on her own. If not the discussion will be a tracheostomy which is more beneficial in the long run compared to the tube down her throat. Ideally would be to have no vent needed. Moms heart is damaged, very fragile and she does need 2 valves replaced. She is not strong enough to undergo surgery at this time. Until she does her heart is at risk as well as continued risks for bleeds and blood clots occurring. Its a catch 22. The group had questions for us such as what moms activity level was prior to this illness and we told them that even with the pain of arthritis and fibromyalgia she was constantly on the go. They asked us if she would want to be on dialysis, be on a vent etc. All of us said yes she is a fighter as long as it relates to the physical. If it were related to her mental status she would not like to live in a state of not knowing who she is etc. A very difficult discussion to hold. The long term plan is to get mom off the ventilator and speaking so that she can express her care wishes as well as measures to take or not take. Assuming mom can keep up this fight and keep recovering from set backs they told us to expect her to be in some sort of care facility for possibly up to another year. Mom was pretty worn out by the large group of us so when the care team was done she was sound asleep. Neurosurgery signed off on moms case today and her neck collar has been removed!! it was amazing to see her neck for the first time in months and see her move her head as she wanted to. As I left her room to head home there was concern as her left pupil was larger than her right so there was discussion occurring as to what was causing that. Hopefully something minor will be discovered instead of something major. Dad had left for home a few minutes before me. DeAnn, Craig, Nathan and Marlene were going to stay and spend some additional time with mom this evening. I guess the future for us is to continue to be on a fragile watch pattern and to continue to pray for no set backs and regaining of strength. It is likely we can expect more ups and downs such as what has occurred this week. An emotional roller coaster.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 22:46:09 +0000
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