Day 38

Wow, has it been that long?

MIL has been in the hospital 38 days now. A lot has happened since she was first admitted. We thought we were going to lose her a few times.

I thought I'd give you an update, especially since things have improved greatly. She was moved out of intensive care into a normal room, though on the same wing as the intensive care unit. I supposed that's so they can zip her right back if she takes a downturn. She is off the respirator. She is off critical condition. She is eating, which is fabulous, but unfortunately it isn't enough to keep a bird alive. So far, they still have the feeding tube down her nose. There was talk of removing it and surgically implanting a tube in her side, but they are holding off on that, to give her a chance to eat on her own, which would be preferable. She needs to be eating well on her own, or to have the tube in her side, before she can be released from the hospital. They might remove the nose tube in the next few days, just to see if that increases her appetite. Not sure on that point, though.

She's breathing on her own, though she gets nebulizer treatments every four hours. I'm not sure why this is happening. I'm not sure why she can't breathe well. I know for a while they said that the colitis pushed everything upwards, pushing into her lungs, and that pressure make it hard to breathe. But the colitis is under control now. So why hasn't this greatly improved?

She can only speak in a raspy whisper. That's better than the almost inaudible whisper. I don't understand why this hasn't improved either. I suppose the feeding tube doesn't help. Maybe that will improve as the tube is removed?

She tested negative for c. diff.!! That was great news. They still have us gown up, though. It's a precautionary measure, since her room can still be contaminated. That's okay. It's just good to know she is past that. That is one nasty illness.

They started her again on blood thinners last night. This scares us. She started to bleed the last time they did this, and there is a good chance it could happen again. They are trying a different blood thinner this time. They say they are going to watch her carefully, but we have found that each nurse's caseload is so huge, watching carefully is an impossibility. Frightening. She could bleed out on the blood thinners, and it could kill her. But they need to do this, due to the blood clot in her shoulder. If that isn't dealt with, that could kill her just as easily. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place...

We have made arrangements to have her transfered to a nursing home/rehabilitation facility when she is well enough to leave the hospital. The hospital staff makes it sound like this is in the near future, maybe as soon as next week, but I can't see that happening. She's barely able to eat, and even then, it's such a tiny amount that a baby couldn't survive on that. It's nice to know that they think it could be soon. I just don't see it happening THAT soon.

FIL is making plans for MIL to come home. He wants to have a contractor revamp the bathroom so that it could accomodate a wheelchair, or a walker. Hm. This seems highly optimistic to me. If there isn't some significant improvement soon, I don't see her getting to the point where she can survive outside of a medical facility. She can't take care of herself at all right now, and my FIL isn't able to take care of her like this either. She can't walk, barely talks, can't go to the bathroom on her own, can't bathe herself, can't hardly feed herself. How can she go home?

I know there could be vast improvement in rehab. But realistically, we're probably looking at an assisted living facility, at the very least. I know it could be possible, if she works hard at it, to make it back home again and have in-home assistance. But I don't know if she has that much fight left in her. I'm just not seeing it at the moment.

On the other hand, she has survived, which is far better than the hospital's expectations, so who knows? I guess it's time to grab onto a little faith, and see where it leads us.