Family Gathering

Mom came home before noon on Thanksgiving Day. She sat in the living room for a little while and we brought Casey up to her. At first, he seemed confused about her, the unusual cast on her arm and her neck brace, but after several minutes his nose told him that his momma was home. Mom let him sit beside her right side on the sofa and he rolled over snuggling his nose toward her in his lap. This made my mom so happy to finally see her baby. She didn't worry about him hurting her at all, and Casey seemed to understand that she needed tender loving care. He's been very sweet. Mom carefully climbed the stairs and slept the first night in her own bed! John set up a homemade bell for her to call us, using the lid from a saucepan and a carabiner! It works well!

We didn't allow ourselves to feel pressure about preparing our Thanksgiving meal, waiting until Friday to sit down for it. We are very grateful to one of our neighbors who kindly fed Dean, John and me from their magnificent Thanksgiving spread on Thursday, and sent a plate home for Linda--she had a small taste of each thing.

I spent some time organizing the medications that have been prescribed into an Excel spreadsheet that I printed out. This will help us keep up with the time schedule. She's on at least ten medications, which may be changed after her surgery. I can easily make changes and reprint the list as needed. Before I had made the list, we had made a mistake the very first time we gave her a pill! Two medications began with the letters "lev," and we accidentally gave her the wrong one. It was her thyroid medication, and she had already been given it that morning by the nurses at Select. Oops. No harm was done, but it scared us, and made us study the instructions well so that we know what we're doing. I called a nurse to ask several questions too.

We prepared a wonderful feast on Friday with minimal stress, served buffet style, and using the regular china instead of dusting off the fine stuff. Mary provided the turkey, dressing, & gravy. Diane and I cooked side dishes, and Shannon baked the pumpkin pies, and Matthew set the table! Dean washed all of the dishes! It was quite a feast, enjoyed by all. Unfortunately, Mom was only able to nibble a little of it because she has had no appetite for a couple of days, but I'm sure it will return before the leftovers are all gone.

Sunday afternoon, Linda will be checked in to UAMS for orthopedic surgery on Monday, followed by one or two nights at UAMS. Today, a visiting nurse came to give us her orientation and next week, after returning home again, home health nurses and home health aids will begin regular visits to help us at home as needed. John and I can handle most of the hourly duties but bathing and woundcare help will be greatly appreciated for the skill of the professionals. We're just practicing at this.
~Mindy

Note from Linda:

Loving thanks to John, Diane, Mindy, Dean, Shannon, Matthew, and Mary for all your wonderful help. Even though I was upstairs, it was a joy to hear everyone together today in the house, and enjoying a Thanksgiving dinner that you made possible.

Love,
Linda

Surgery scheduled for Monday & A Little Bad News.

She's pretty worn out from the transport to and from UAMS (the ambulance was a little late both ways, so it was the waiting that wore her out). and she was not very hungry even though she had missed lunch. She barely ate supper but hopefully she will rest well. She received a lot of extra pain medicine today in anticipation of a lot of handling of that left arm to determine what will need to be done on Monday.

John picked up her prescriptions in preparation for tomorrow. Dean and I spent the evening with Mom, having a lively discussion with her and her roommate, Ms. Beatrice, a very nice lady who is very pleasant even though she is also in a lot of pain. Ms. Beatrice reminds me a little of my sweet-natured Grandmonie who was suffering from very similar circumstances (congestive heart failure which also led to the amputation of one leg) when I was a senior in high school. Sadly, we can hear patients crying out in other rooms who seem to be in even more pain.

The bad news is that Mom's cast on her right arm will need to stay on about six more weeks due the severity of the break. As you may recall, it had been broken in five places and was like putting a puzzle together. Added to this is the fact that her left arm will also be in a cast following the orthopedic surgery, probably also for twelve weeks. Unfortunately, the orthopedic surgery must compromise some of the skin graft's success.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. Thanks for your prayers and concern.

~Mindy

Rewind; Plan B.

Instead of being discharged today, they decided to get her to UAMS' Ortho. Clinic and back via ambulance. She will sleep at Select Specialty Hospital one more night, so that all the arrangements can be handled properly, i.e. prescriptions filled, then be discharged on Thanksgiving morning.

She's getting bathed and ready to go now. John and I prepared some clothes for her to wear--I'm sure she's happy to have a change from wearing hospital gowns for seven weeks! She has a 12:15 pm appointment. I hope all goes smoothly. ~Mindy

Left Arm is Broken! Linda To Be Discharged Wednesday!

The results from the Xray of Linda's left arm revealed today that her radius is fractured. It is rotated outward causing a separation from the ulna near the elbow and severe stress near the wrist also. There may be a detached or torn tendon due to the hard, swollen area on the inside of the wrist.

The original Xrays were reviewed also, and it was determined that these breaks were not visible at that time due to the angle of the view and her severe swelling and other injuries (the de-gloved skin that required the skin graft). Anyway, clearly the skin graft and saving her arm were the priority during the initial trauma, and even if they could have known about the break it is unlikely that they would have performed the orthopedic surgery until after the skin graft.

A psychotic patient in the room next door is constantly saying "Hey, hey....hey, hey..." (she builds, getting louder through the night). We think Mom's arm was signaling us with the unusually severe pain she was having, like saying, "hey, hey, you need to Xray me," to get the attention it needed now that the skin graft is safe. Just a couple of days ago, she was allowed to leave her dressings completely off and just let the air hit the area. Everything seems to happen for a reason.

Dr. Yuen and Dr. Holland seemed to work overtime, collaborating to quickly arrange a consultation with the Orthopedic Clinic at UAMS tomorrow. Thus, Mom will be discharged tomorrow morning in order to visit Dr. Gruenwald's team before noon. They want to make sure it's done tomorrow due to the Thanksgiving weekend coming up. They will have to plan extensive orthopedic surgery to repair the damage. We don't expect the surgery to be scheduled until after the holiday, but they will determine that tomorrow.

This news is rather devastating because this means another very serious surgery, but it is still one more step along the road to recovery. No wonder she had such great pain in that arm--it was more than just sore from inactivity and the recent exercise--and now another solution is in sight.

Roommate Blues

Mom's new roommate was not treated very gently by two nurses the other day. Mom and I were witnesses to it; we've told the doctor/director and they are thoroughly investigating the incident. Our neighbor was in a lot of pain, had earlier asked for her pain medicine, but these nurses insisted on bathing and moving her first in such a rough manner that she was bleeding afterward, which required some emergency attention (her leg had been amputated just the other day). It was so sad. Mom asserted herself by asking for a particular nurse who is very gentle and he did an excellent job of soothing the patient and knowing exactly what needed to be done. We 've been around long enough to know which staff members are outstandingly good, but also the ones to watch out for. I hate that any patient is ever treated any differently from any other. This is also causing stress for Mom, but we have been lucky that she had the freedom of a private room for over two weeks until now. She will be free from hospital stress by Thanksgiving, but her neighbor will probably be hospitalized for much longer. Our heart goes out to the other patients, especially those who have few or no family members to advocate for them.

The Xrays are going to be viewed by an orthopedic surgeon--Mom may get to have the cast removed from her right wrist before discharge. On the other hand, literally, she is having some swelling and pain in the left wrist. The doctor says that it is edema caused from her increased activity and should subside as long as she tries to elevate the wrist whenever she is reclining. Her legs cleared up so we believe her wrist will be fine.

Because of her rapid weight loss, Mom's skin had been looking rather loose and without muscle tone, but I am simply amazed at how well her skin's elasticity is returning and her muscles are toning up again, within days after her increased exercise. We are lucky to have such healthy resilience in our family. I've never been very consistent about weightlifting but I have noticed that I easily build muscle. My sisters and I were once asked if we were decathletes when we were teenagers, even though we really weren't very involved with sports besides inheriting natural muscularity. I suppose that we would have done well among the cave dwellers in the past. I was embarassed by my own strength when I was a child, because I thought girls should be feminine and delicate, but I'm grateful for it today.