A day with Diane

I spent the day with my mother today. She was glad to see me and we talked about many things. I told her some of what I remember from the first two weeks and we semi-celebrated her one-month-from-the-accident day. I shared her lunch, she couldn't eat it all and didn't want her tea. I ate her ice cream. I showed her pictures we took of her from the ICU. I asked her if anyone had told her yet "I told you so", she said, "no", so I said, "I told you so." I can do this because I did tell her so and we talked about our conversation when I did, in fact, tell her so.

She is comfortable in her room (she has a nice inflatable bed) but still adjusting to things. She said the nurses have been very nice but she is concerned that some of them here don't know what she went through before she came here and it seemed that a few had not read her chart and were asking her. She didn't want to have to fill them all in, it should be their job to know. She is so sweet with them, however, even if she is in pain or concerned about something. She is always thanking them and asking them, first off, how they are today. It won't take any of them long to realize that she is a special patient with a special family and will easily get special treatment from all of them. :)

My mom is still mi madre. Last time I was here I couldn't talk to her but now I know that she is here, all of her, and she will be back to her normal life eventually. She still has a good deal of healing ahead of her but has come a long way already. She worries for us that she has put us through too much and continues to be thankful to all for your prayers and she knows that they are what has helped her get to this point. She said there are over 50 patients where she is now and tries to remember all of them in her prayers, to share those she is recieving.

She became distressed today over the odor coming from the back of her head and said they had not cleaned or looked at the back of her head since a while back at UAMS. We had them come and clean it and the doctor looked at it. I had never seen the back of neck since her surgery and was surprised to see that her scar is nearly 9 inches long along her entire neck. It has healed up well but she has a small sore at the top, on the back of her head. The doctor said it was not infected but inflamed. This is mostly due to her laying on her head and not being able to turn from side to side enough. A nurse commented that the C Brace they had her in prior to surgery puts pressure that may have caused it. It will be watched and kept clean from now on. They laid gauze on it and had to put a stretchy cap over her head to keep it in place. It looks retro chic. John took a picture. I'll see if I can put it here.

While he was there, the doctor ordered x-rays of her ribs and neck. They really want to remove that chest tube from her side. It seems to have served it purpose and be uncessary but they want to be sure.

I could see the the giraffes in the zoo from Mom's room window.

Family Reunion

Diane's family arrived for the weekend today, and we're expecting Leslie to fly in from New York. Linda's four children will all be present at once. Time for a group photo?

Mom has been very optimistic, cheerful, and good-humored. She also had an opportunity to sit up in a chair for a while, which made her sleepy enough to need a good nap before the grandkids arrived.

We are happy that her swelling has continued to decrease, a little more so in the right leg than the left. She is amused by her unevenly sized knees!

~Mindy

St. Vincent info.

Some of you didn't catch the fact that I modified the earlier post with the new room #.

Linda's room # at St.Vincent is #6008, 6th floor. She was moved to a different room and has a double room to herself for now.

Also, if you find leaving comments difficult on the blog, always try a couple of times. It sometimes doesn't respond correctly the first time.

She is making adjustments to pain medications, different food, and nutrition supplements at the new hospital. She's sleepier since they switched her medication, and has some breakthrough pain but they have other medicine that she can ask for when that happens. We are told it may take a few days to adjust & the sleepiness may only be temporary. We are also adjusting to the new dietician and new foods. It was surprising that no vegetable at all came with meat, rice, bread, and dessert for dinner tonight! Mom loves veggies!

We met her case manager who asked questions about Linda's home and how manageable the eventual transition will be. We are lucky that Linda's legs were uninjured, except for a cut on her left knee that is still healing. It's just a matter of letting her ribs and arms heal up to give her more freedom of movement and be able to hold the stair rail. She is not anywhere near ready to start getting up and down yet. Because she has lain more still since last week is what has helped her skin graft to do so well. It looks great today. The nurses remarked about how much better it looks than some of the cases they've seen.

I think that once she's free from pain, and free from pain medicine, she'll be more alert and have more energy. Let's continue to pray for healing and no more pain! Her color is remarkably improved and so many little things are looking better, that it won't be long!

Mindy and Diane

Here is a picture of Mindy and Diane for those who may not know us or remember what we look like. This was taken about 14 years ago. ~Diane

Moved

Linda has moved to St. Vincent. The room # is now 6008, 6th floor. Select Specialty Hospital allows visitors at any time, but requests that visits are short and limited to only 1-2 visitors at a time because the room is small. Parking in the deck across from St. Vincent is free.

The new nursing staff meticulously removed each bandage, and photographed each of her wounds upon check-in. They were kind to her and treated her gently. She was feeling okay throughout the transfer from UAMS. She maintains a rather positive attitude considering what she's got on her plate!

We brought Casey the dalmation up to her gurney as she exited the ambulance at St. Vincent's Emergency entrance. Unfortunately, he was so nervous due to a lot of noise in the air that he was really too skittish to pay her much attention, but she was glad to see him and initially he turned his head toward her voice in recognition. We believe his body knew she was there and that she's okay. Casey will be just fine, and so will Mom.

Unfortunately, her lungs have still not been Xrayed, and the chest tube is still in. We will miss the staff at UAMS, but we are already getting to know Mom's new caregivers at Select Specialty hospital. Mom was tapping her feet & singing the Merengue tonight after learning that her LPN is from Trinidad!

There was a slight delay when she asked for her medication before bedtime due to the fact they had to take her blood pressure and the new shift's RN & LPN had to first read Mom's chart. She & I wished we had requested it a bit earlier because it took about 30 minutes and she was tired and having the pain in her broken ribs again. She does so well up until the half hour or so before the dose is due.

Moving to Selectcare at St. Vincent tomorrow

Linda will be promoted to Select Specialty Hospital, on the 6th floor, at St. Vincent tomorrow, where she will have nursing care and the potential for therapy, but the emphasis is on wound care and healing, projected to take about three weeks. Afterwards, she'll either be ready for home (with physical therapists and occupational therapists making house calls) or transfer to a live-in rehab. center.

We are hoping to bring Casey to St. Vincent so they can see each other briefly as they transfer from the ambulance into her new residence. Casey will finally know where Linda is! We hope to get a photograph.

She still has the lung tube, and they say they will Xray the lungs/ribs area early tomorrow morning before transporting her to St. Vincent. She will also have daily changing of her skin graft dressing at the new place. Today, they fitted her with a special removable splint to replace the need to recast her left arm daily with each dressing change. No more metal staples are in her skin graft--they were so painful to remove.

The skin graft team remarked that they were amazed at how much better her elbow is healing. Great progress, great relief! Glad they won't have to try again and that it is taking well.

Revelations & Coincidences

We are revelling in relief that something troubling Linda has been revealed. So many of her doctors and the social worker who acts as a liason between the various medical teams and the patient had been telling her about getting her ready to transfer her to rehab., which will be live-in with nursing care to attend to her healing broken places while she pursues physical and occupational therapy. The rehab. may last about 3 weeks, after which she may still move onto regular rehab. if needed before going home. Now, John & I have understood this and assumed it was clear to Linda for several days. Mom seemed fearful of this transition and had been expressing a lot of worry about the possibility of leaving UAMS because she doesn't feel ready and already has such confidence in UAMS staff. However, we finally realized why she was so scared. She had it her mind that she would have to go home so soon and be an outpatient at the rehabilitation facility! She felt rushed to do things like negotiate the stairs at home before she's ready! Once she understood, she sighed with great relief! So did we!

Also, the orthopedic technician came in to change her right arm's cast to a lighter, lower profile one. He let Mom pick the color, blue, and she now has freer use of her four fingers, plus you can see her thumb poking out but still not usable for grasping. I was impressed that his handling of her bare wrist did not cause severe pain and it appears to be healing right on schedule. This man told three amazing success stories about three women who had traffic accidents with similarly tragic injuries who had also occupied Linda's room 435, and were all three now successfully rehabilitated. That gave us great encouragement, and put a big smile on Linda's face!

More great news: the tube connected to the vacuum has been removed after the most recent redressing of the skin graft, so the only tube remaining (apart from the booties air pump) is the tube inserted in her right lung. As of 7:30pm, noone had come to look at it as we had expected, but maybe tomorrow.

Ginger, the social worker, shared an interesting coincidence. She happened to grab an old copy of Arkansas Times lying around and opened it up to the article that featured Linda & John Fordyce and the Firehouse Hostel & Museum! She recognized Mom as her patient right away!

Also, a person known to John & Linda was in a gun shop in Greer's Ferry. The subject of scooters, then the accident, came up and the individual working in the shop asked when & where and it turns out the shopkeeper was the neighbor of the in-laws of the man driving the truck that ran over Linda and knew all about the accident. We have been so thankful that the driver was so alert and his attempt to avoid hitting Linda may have saved her life. She looks forward to meeting him.

Blogging

I modified this website to make it more user friendly. Posting comments is easier now. I encourage you to do so since Linda loves hearing your messages and isn't yet comfortable with the phone! She frequently asks to hear the latest blog updates. John, Diane, & I really appreciate how this great tool has eased the burden of phone messages. This blog thing is new for many of us, even me, so let me know if I can help. It's good preparation for librarianship for me to help others with information technology and social networking!~Mindy

On Sunday, Linda was baffled by unusually severe pain in her side near the broken ribs and the tube in her lung. It may or may not have been a gas bubble, but it was rather bothersome. She remarked that it doesn't make sense to suffer worse pain from a relatively small problem than the pain she's generally feeling in her major injuries! Dr. Ikard, who was on call, came to check in with her about that pain. He spent a long time just giving her a chance to share her feelings and he is a very kind listener. We sure do appreciate all of the doctors, nurses, and technicians. Today, we are expecting a decision to be made regarding the removal of the lung tube, and her Skin Graft cast & bandaging are to be removed and observed again by Dr. Yuen.

John and Aancha, with Casey along, will be interviewed by Sync magazine today regarding the Firehouse Hostel & Museum.

Cece and Pat Bryles placed a tiara upon Linda's head yesterday to celebrate the 47 year anniversary since she was Homecoming Queen at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Thanks for boosting her spirit! Dr. Ikard said, "once a queen, always a queen!"

Casey visits a familiar place

Casey went to the River Market Sat. morning. He recognized the downtown area, whining and crying anxiously. As soon as I opened the door, he dragged me straight to Linda's usual spot where she & Casey spent most Saturday mornings since summer selling T-shirts and promoting the Firehouse Hostel & Museum. Casey enjoyed seeing his friends Judd, Becky, Scott and other vendors whose names I don't know. He looked everywhere for his mama and jumped up, placing his paws on my arms, looking at me emploringly as if to say, "Aren't you going to help me find her? Where could she be?" One of the vendors suggested that we disguise him as a seeing-eye dog to sneak him into UAMS, but they are taking such good care of her that we don't want anyone at the hospital to have a reason for resentment! It will be a great day when Casey's mama gets to come home. (Mom said "just do it" but wise John said, "No.")

I went to the early chapel service, then joined Mom & John's sunday school class at FUMC this morning. They are glad to receive the news that she is steadily improving. They are a warm, generous, deeply spiritual and loving group.