Linda Update and Hello From Don
This is Jen; the computer Don's been using is acting up, so he asked me to post. I may be getting that nasty flu, Yolanda, but I think I can type for a bit.
Don called tonight, and I was putting kids to bed, so I didn't answer right away, and he was nervous that I was ducking his calls, poor guy. He was feeling disheartened.
Tonight, Linda is back in ICU. After her anasthesia, they gave her pain medications (she said she was having pain), which slowed her breathing dramatically-- to the point where she was taking a breath every ten to twenty seconds. The docs and nurses did not like this at all, and moved her to ICU, so Don had to clean out her room.
When he left tonight, she was much like she was early last week, only looking up and down and largely unresponsive. He felt very morose, but I gave him my, 'It's the drugs," pep talk, and told him to give her a day or two-- she'll come around because now she knows what she was doing before the surgery and she will want to do it again.
He says the memory of what it was like to talk to her before this happened is fading. Those memories are being replaced by these.
Don said he and the speech therapist had the same thought today: I'd hate to lose on a technicality. I guess they almost forgot to ask her about removing the DNR...
Some of the Things You Need In the Hospital If You Decide to Have a Medical Emergency:
Industrial scissors. Sometimes you just feel like cutting things, like the elastic on socks so they aren't too binding.
Cell phones and phone cards are essential until you get to know the nurses well enough to be allowed to use their phones.
He said the fruit baskets people sent were marvelous. He really really appreciated the food people sent.
A durable power of attorney order.
Someone (friend, mother, sister, etc.) who is in the medical profession who can interpret what the doctors tell you and tell you what questions to ask.
Underwear and socks.
You also need to get to know Dorine, the pallative nurse in ICU. What is pallative? End of Life Care. Dorine's patients can visit at any time, so you don't have to wait outside the ICU until 9:00 a.m. Dorine also has volunteers who do:
manicures
massage
healing touch (Karl, maybe you should call Dorine?)
Don tells other families in the ICU that they should get to know Dorine, whether they need pallative care or not.
I have no idea whether that is how you spell pallative or not, by the way. I'm spelling it phonetically, a little trick I learned at Kirksville Junior High last year.
The plan remains to move Linda to Rusk tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. But obviously, we will wait and see.
Don is keeping a journal I made for him (remember: Mary is an archivist. We had to have acid-free paper and the right pens and paper protectors so this will last for Ellie someday). He said right now he is to the point where he was driving down to Columbia that first Saturday. You might as well start at the beginning. He was very sleepy, so he turned on Italian opera to keep himself awake.
Can't you see him? Not too upset, not in a hurry. He was driving Linda's clothes to her. He was driving down to get her, expecting they would be driving together back home, because they thought she had a migraine. He was driving sleepily down to get her, Madame Butterfly carrying him all the way down the highway, in the February sun.
This is Jen; the computer Don's been using is acting up, so he asked me to post. I may be getting that nasty flu, Yolanda, but I think I can type for a bit.
Don called tonight, and I was putting kids to bed, so I didn't answer right away, and he was nervous that I was ducking his calls, poor guy. He was feeling disheartened.
Tonight, Linda is back in ICU. After her anasthesia, they gave her pain medications (she said she was having pain), which slowed her breathing dramatically-- to the point where she was taking a breath every ten to twenty seconds. The docs and nurses did not like this at all, and moved her to ICU, so Don had to clean out her room.
When he left tonight, she was much like she was early last week, only looking up and down and largely unresponsive. He felt very morose, but I gave him my, 'It's the drugs," pep talk, and told him to give her a day or two-- she'll come around because now she knows what she was doing before the surgery and she will want to do it again.
He says the memory of what it was like to talk to her before this happened is fading. Those memories are being replaced by these.
Don said he and the speech therapist had the same thought today: I'd hate to lose on a technicality. I guess they almost forgot to ask her about removing the DNR...
Some of the Things You Need In the Hospital If You Decide to Have a Medical Emergency:
Industrial scissors. Sometimes you just feel like cutting things, like the elastic on socks so they aren't too binding.
Cell phones and phone cards are essential until you get to know the nurses well enough to be allowed to use their phones.
He said the fruit baskets people sent were marvelous. He really really appreciated the food people sent.
A durable power of attorney order.
Someone (friend, mother, sister, etc.) who is in the medical profession who can interpret what the doctors tell you and tell you what questions to ask.
Underwear and socks.
You also need to get to know Dorine, the pallative nurse in ICU. What is pallative? End of Life Care. Dorine's patients can visit at any time, so you don't have to wait outside the ICU until 9:00 a.m. Dorine also has volunteers who do:
manicures
massage
healing touch (Karl, maybe you should call Dorine?)
Don tells other families in the ICU that they should get to know Dorine, whether they need pallative care or not.
I have no idea whether that is how you spell pallative or not, by the way. I'm spelling it phonetically, a little trick I learned at Kirksville Junior High last year.
The plan remains to move Linda to Rusk tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. But obviously, we will wait and see.
Don is keeping a journal I made for him (remember: Mary is an archivist. We had to have acid-free paper and the right pens and paper protectors so this will last for Ellie someday). He said right now he is to the point where he was driving down to Columbia that first Saturday. You might as well start at the beginning. He was very sleepy, so he turned on Italian opera to keep himself awake.
Can't you see him? Not too upset, not in a hurry. He was driving Linda's clothes to her. He was driving down to get her, expecting they would be driving together back home, because they thought she had a migraine. He was driving sleepily down to get her, Madame Butterfly carrying him all the way down the highway, in the February sun.
<< Home