Yep, still in the hospital.
They did manage to find staff for last night to sit in the room and monitor everything. This morning, they did another Arterial Blood Gas test, and the results weren’t as good as we had hoped. They had to change some of the ventilator settings. They repeated the test a couple of hours later, and it was better but still not in the target range. Soooooo we’re stuck here another night. And they are still having to staff a nurse in this room with no other patients. I’m sure the charge nurse isn’t happy, but too bad. I’m not happy either.
They did manage to find staff for last night to sit in the room and monitor everything. This morning, they did another Arterial Blood Gas test, and the results weren’t as good as we had hoped. They had to change some of the ventilator settings. They repeated the test a couple of hours later, and it was better but still not in the target range. Soooooo we’re stuck here another night. And they are still having to staff a nurse in this room with no other patients. I’m sure the charge nurse isn’t happy, but too bad. I’m not happy either.
One positive note: the caregiver who came by yesterday for an in-person interview went well! We are looking forward to having her at the house to start training. I’m waiting to hear back from our other caregiver who just got back from a vacation to let her know what’s been going on and the updated plan.
We invite your prayers and thoughts for a successful ABG and finally a trip home.
We invite your prayers and thoughts for a successful ABG and finally a trip home.
Mary’s ABG numbers were steady Tuesday afternoon, Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning. Although the pH still wasn’t as good as the doctor had hoped, she attributed it to anxiety and went ahead and discharged Mary with instructions to continue to monitor her ventilator readings and call with an update to see if the ventilator settings need to be changed again.
Wednesday afternoon was hectic. The respiratory therapist from the DME beat us to the house with bags and boxes of supplies for the trach and vent care. She made sure everything was working right, and I asked a lot of questions and wrote down a lot of info.
Meanwhile, the phone was ringing off the hook from various home health coordinators trying to restart services.
Judy was gracious enough to pick up Rafi and Mango from the vet (where they were boarding), and 2 weeks’ worth of mail from the post office and deliver it here to the house. That was a HUGE load off of me.
Mary rested most of the evening, but did wake up with anxiety attack around 11:30 pm. By the time we were settled back down it was after 1 am.
Thursday morning I slept until the phone rang at 9:45 with yet another call from home health services. Then I was up doing laundry until the home health nurse arrived at about 12:45. He was here for a couple of hours, by which time Mary was ready for another nap, and I still had several loads of laundry to catch up on.
It is now 6:15 and she is sleeping again. Her anxiety level today has been less, although her breathing is still a little rapid. There have been several more phone calls from home health, emails to the local ALS Association chapter social worker, to a new caregiver, a potential new caregiver, and the DHS worker who has to approve the caregivers.
Thursday morning I slept until the phone rang at 9:45 with yet another call from home health services. Then I was up doing laundry until the home health nurse arrived at about 12:45. He was here for a couple of hours, by which time Mary was ready for another nap, and I still had several loads of laundry to catch up on.
It is now 6:15 and she is sleeping again. Her anxiety level today has been less, although her breathing is still a little rapid. There have been several more phone calls from home health, emails to the local ALS Association chapter social worker, to a new caregiver, a potential new caregiver, and the DHS worker who has to approve the caregivers.
I’m finally fixing something to eat. I did get coffee first thing – I went with the single serve instead of making a pot I knew would get cold before I got to it. I also munched on some pita chips and hummus around 4:30. It’s time for some real food!