Her Bags Are Packed...She's Ready To Go

Okay, maybe today's title is a stretch, but those items mom needs at Heartland are packed and loaded in my car ready to be transported back to South Boulevard & Livernois.

After a rather explosive morning, it was determined that the antibiotics appear to be creating a small problem. I arrived early enough to talk with the Dr about several things. Starting with this mornings problem, her antibiotics have been changed and she is starting to receive Flagyl in an effort to counteract possible side affects. We discussed how much this will delay her discharge and she felt that based on tolerance of these changes, she may be discharged tomorrow or Friday. Her hemoglobin was 12 today and there doesn't appear to be any evidence of blood exiting her body. This leads to the next topic, the frequency of anemia and need for 4 blood transfusions since May.

Without doing invasive testing, I'll get back to this, she felt that there may be an ulcer that is slowly causing this problem. I discussed our concern about this situation and questioned if an endoscopy/colonoscopy would be the next step. Dr B said that right now, as the result of her heart attack in November, she is not a candidate, they prefer to wait at least three months before submitting her to these tests. She went on to add that should there be evidence of blood, causing concern, testing could be revisited.

So that's what is going on so far today. After she was cleaned up, calmed down and felt safe (but cold) I left for a few hours. Cousin Pat called about where to visit today and is planning on visiting mom this afternoon. When I spoke to mom a while ago, she said her friend Joyce was also coming to visit so I've decided to stretch my few hours to a few more and will return later today with her mail.

Those of you readers that are familiar with mom's logic, she doesn't want to eat for fear of another episode. The Dr, nurse, and I, have explained that the antibiotics appear to be the problem and it is important to the healing process and gaining strength to eat. Last night she complained about the fish and potatoes being too salty and her lunch of chicken cacciatore was too spicy. She declined something different last night, ate one piece of fish and her soup and fruit. Not sure what she's doing this afternoon but will mention tis to her nurse when I seem him this afternoon.

If there are further developments, I'll pass them along.

By the time I returned this afternoon, all her visitors had departed and she was quite animated. She had another eventful trip to the bathroom resulting in her wound being cleaned again. Byron came for a brief visit and assisted mom with her dinner. She has been sitting up a lot today and while there is some discomfort she is not in pain and comfortable

Thanks for reading