If Bill is transferred to Mercy Hospital tomorrow I will continue to post information each evening. But, there is no internet access at that hospital for the general public. I will have to wait until I am back at the hotel at night in order to post anything.
Monday PM
July 31, 2006 at 9:19 pm (from Thelma)
We have had a long day, but not bad. Bill continues to have coughiing spells much like when he is at the end of a seige of pneumonia. They have discontinued IV antibiotics. No significant fever. It appears we will transfer to Mercy Hospital tomorrow at noon unless the teams here are not satisfied at that time. The ambulance arrangements have been made pending the final OK tomorrow.
I asked for a speech evaluation today and was greeted with surprise by the doctors. They thought he was talking just fine, but with the help of the social worker I was able to articulate fine, but not like before. So, the doc came in to chat and then a speech pathologist came to do a brief eval. Indeed she sees some expressive word finding problems that could straighten out with time, but believes some therapy would be advised while we wait for the healing to occur. If I had not asked for the speech eval, there would not have been any – for sure.
We will probably be looking at rehab – possibly in Burlington – after the stay at Mercy. The social worker here was very helpful. He has tried to get all the information I needed, and tried to pass along all my concerns to the social worker at Mercy. I’ll post tomorrow to let you know for sure we have moved to another hospital. Until then, thanks for all the messages. I still enjoy them.
Monday July 31
July 31, 2006 at 10:04 am (from Thelma)
Bill sat up in the recliner all night after a coughing spell about midnight. The pulmonary unit is not as anxious to get him out as they seemed yesterday, but they will be working on arranging a transfer soon. They will talk to Bill’s doctor at Mercy during the day today. I gave my questions to the social worker who will try to get some information for us. For some reason Bill’s oxygen level is not as good today as it was yesterday, but not an emergency of any kind right now. They are watching it closely though. If there are significant developments during the day I will post them.
I have talked to Dr. Hamarstrom, my boss, and arranged for an additional week off of work. I did not use much of my vacation all last year in case Bill became sick, and am now able to use up what I had saved.
Sunday night
July 30, 2006 at 11:11 pm (from Thelma)
Bill spent the entire day in his recliner instead of in bed. I believe PT will be walking him again tomorrow. They are not available on the weekend. He is still on continuous heart & lung moniters, but doing so well. We would all love to have his blood pressure something over 52. His oxygen level is staying constant at about 95 using the nasal canula set at the same setting we use at home. The respiratory therapists checked to see what we use at home and made an effort today to wean him down to that same level – we are always impressed with the insight and skill the respiratory therapists have had in all the various hospitals we have seen this past year.
Marcia G was here to see me for several hours tonight. She is a social worker who worked in my office years ago. We have kept up a friendship, and is never fails to bring a laugh to the surface. She is a great deal of experience at “hospital sitting” and believes she should publish a cartoon book called, You know you have been in the hospital too long when… She asked for some thoughts and I suggested “when you start to develop close friends in a waiting room”. In thinking back to our November hospitalization I offered “when you arrive in a black cocktail dress with a shawl, and leave wearing a parka from Wal-Mart”. By the way, the waiting room is worse than ever because it is the weekend and nobody has to go to work. It is just unbelievable. Cathryn asked about conditions where we are now. I don’t need the waiting rooms anymore. I can visit Bill all day at my own will, and I have the guest lodging room when I feel Bill needs to nap.
Jean Salisbary and I had a snack tonight after the long day visiting the men in our lives. She is educating me in the ways of hospital life and discharge. She too wants to see the social worker tomorrow and believes he is the best one around. This is LeAnn’s brother-iin-law. So, tomorrow is a busy day.
Sunday
July 30, 2006 at 11:58 am (from Thelma)
More progress. We have talked to the doctors this morning and gotten good information. Bill is doing quite well neurologically and they feel he would be ready for the next step if there were no pulmonary issues. The doc will also ask for a neurological opthamology consultation about his left eye. Pulmonary wants to keep him for a day or two more in order to stay on the moniters, but he is doing well. Then, we will attempt to do what they call an acute care transfer. He would go to the hospital across town to be under the care of his regular pulmonary doctor and where he did his pulmonary rehab program this spring. He could go to another floor here, but the intent would be the same and he might as well be in familiar surroundings with his own doctor. Also, at that hospital respiratory therapists are available 24-7 and here that therapy would be done by the nurses instead. His pulmonologist prefers that the respiratory therapists be doing that care. So, that might happen Tuesday.
I still need to talk to the social worker to make it clear I cannot be responsible for his care when he gets home. Since I am of a certain age, and married to a man who is retired, they are surprised to learn I actually have a job that will need attending to eventually. I cannot have my mind on nursing care and doing my job successfully at the same time. So I will be advocating for a rehab placement or home health care help eventually. At the moment though there are no plans for actual “home”. The social worker will help me sort it all out tomorrow. Another coincidence, the social worker is the brother-in-law of my good friend LeAnn. He is the individual who actually suggested our doctor at Mercy hospital in the first place last November. We have come the complete circle it seems.
Saturday evening
July 29, 2006 at 8:39 pm (Uncategorized)
Home from the hospital. Life is so much easier now that Bill is in a room with more open visiting hours and I have a place to go when not visiting him during the day. I find that my luck came about when a group was evicted from the guest lodging for bringing alcohol into the residence. Their mistake, my good fortune. Last night, in the upstairs lounge where I had been waiting, the chaos continued. Because it was warm up there the men began a no shirt, no shoes event. Eventually there was a fight and three security guards had to be called. And the weekend is only half over.
Bill is about the same. He cannot really concentrate on the TV right now since the sound from the TV on the other side of the room is very distracting. He doesn’t seem to care. He is happy just to sit. Liz and Joe are here to take me to a movie. More tomorrow.
And now there are six…
July 29, 2006 at 3:10 pm (Uncategorized)
Liz and Joe are here this afternoon along with a friend of theirs. So, now there are six psychologists. Perhaps we should open a child development clinic here. There are some kids in the lounge upstairs that need I-plans.
Bill is doing well. He gets quite tired after about a half hour visitamd then his speech becomes more labored. But, that is improving every day. His handwriting looks like somebody else wrote it, but it is legible. I’m sure he will be working on that. He has always been quite proud of his handwriting, and suggested one time I could practice mine a little.
So, the plan now is to continue to improve his pulmonary functioning to where he was when he came to the hospital or as close as possible. Pneumonia seems to be held at bay. They are trying to get his therapy on the same schedule we use at home. He needs to be independent in walking, etc. Neurology has dismissed him. We will confer with them I hope before we actually go home. If there are no plans to confer, I will get the social worker to get information to me. I think they mention physical therapy to Bill, but it is hard to be sure.
Note to JPW – Saturday AM
July 29, 2006 at 5:42 am (from Thelma)
John – I have no idea how early you check your email. Call my cell phone when you are up.
Four psychs at the IPCU
July 28, 2006 at 11:36 pm (from Thelma)
They called me about 2:30 to say Bill had been transferred to his new room. I was sitting with Jan G (psychologist) in my new room enjoying a chair I didn’t have to protect from the huge family encroaching on my space. (The lounge tonight is so crowded there are no chairs and children are using the hallway for a playground. Glad I’m not there.) JG and I hurried to the new room only to be ushered to a small waiting room while they got Bill settled. We were there for about two minutes when LuAnn G walked in. Surprise, surprise. She had tried to find me in the lounge and gave up. Her next step was to go visit Psychologist Don who she knew was still at the hospital in Iowa City. As it turns out Don and Bill have rooms about 50 feet apart, and Jean and I are neighbors in the Rossi House. She has been here the whole time. If we had known I could have been spending time in her room during the day since she only goes there at night. Anyway, we all had a good chat and ice cream at Perkins later. Jean needed to get out of that place, that’s for sure. (For you who do not work with me, Don and I have been collegues for many years. He is a school psychologist and had a very bad accident about Easter time. His recovery is going very slowly.)
Bill is amazing. The new pulmonary doctor said the lungs sounded better, and no fever. He is not coughing. He is carrying on conversation better each day. His bed is state-of-the-art. It folds into a chair when he wants to sit in that position. Since most pulmonary patients do better sitting up rather than flat in bed the beds change into a chair with the push of a button. Bill’s appetite is BIG. He ate the full dinner I ordered for him: meatloaf, mashed potatos, gravy, corn, grapes, chocolate ice cream, angel food cake and 2 cups of coffee. He ate it all. Fifteen minutes later they deliver his snack of half a ham sandwich. He ate it immediately. Holy smokes, can you believe it?
Elizabeth telephoned me at 9:30 to say she had called her Papa on the telephone and had a good conversation. She was very excited. She will be here tomorrow.
It’s time for Jan G to get my wine cooler. It’s good to have a friend here to celebrate and plan the fun. Tomorrow after we visit Bill in the AM we are going SHOPPING for an hour or two. You know we are getting back to normal now. No more limited hours of visitation for Bill.
Don’t stop the praying. We’re not totally out of the woods, but it feels like we have found the path.
Four psychologists = Thelma, Jan, Don & Bill…
The Ragbrai Day
July 28, 2006 at 3:49 pm (from Thelma)
This is definitely a day to remember. Bill’s good progress and move to a better location is remarkable. I don’t think Lance is delivering a yellow jersey, but he’s close enough today. I am now installed in a room at the Rossi guest house lodging. It is quite a luxury. Now I don’t have to drag stuff around with me, my shoulder is already starting to come level with the other one. Jan G and I are in the lounge using the computer without fighting off the two girls who have been endlessly looking at the sex offender website admiring the photos of those who have listed. All this for $30 dollars a day. The room has two twin beds in it and a shower, TV etc. Quite nice. It will be my 8AM to 8PM basecamp in case you are wondering. I still plan to stay at the hotel at night for various reasons. There is even a beauty salon open to the public here for haircut and manicure. Did any of you know that and not tell me????
You would not think I could feel lucky at any point this week. But for the moment, today, it is so.
PS – Bill does not actually see the blog. I have to tell him what is on it. Jan G tells me those who want can email Bill using the hospital website. I will check to see the right address for those of you out of state. It is http://www.uihealthcare.com/. On the lower left part of the page it says For Patients. On the list below that is “email patient.” You need his name William O’Neill.
