Morning:
Mary’s been in St. Vincent’s now since Wednesday, August 20. That morning was her third trip to the ER in less than 2 weeks for severe abdominal pain; they decided to admit her. (I was in Salt Lake City starting Tuesday and she had caregivers 24/7 while I was gone; Mary insisted I didn’t need to fly home early, so I arrived home on Friday, August 22.) One of the complications of ALS is that your abdominal muscles atrophy, which means certain bodily functions start slowing down and it takes a great deal of outside help to make things move the way they should. Overnight last night, things finally started working, and now we are waiting for the doctor to come by and see if it’s good enough to send her home or if they will keep her another night. My younger two kids are flying in this afternoon for their first visit since her diagnosis.
Later that day:
Mary was doing well, and about to start the discharge process today, when there was a slight problem with her pain medications. Best we all can figure out is that the pain medication had been sitting in her stomach from the previous dose when the next dose was administered, followed by finally getting some additional fluid in her stomach and BAM! a bit too much pain medication was activated all at once. Plan B: She’s spending another night in the hospital, back on the tube feeding now that the pain meds have backed off. Fingers crossed she will be discharged in the morning!