misskarne
Handy Emergency Backup Mode
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((((Gerry and Lee)))) Hang in there, Gerry. Please take care of you, too.
Well it's Saturday. Day 94. Over the past week, she seems to be healing well, but we have other complications... electrolyte balance and fluid management, edema, then respiratory issues today.
I'm starting to think she likes it here.
Nothing is ever easy.
(((((Gerry)))))And as always, we cherish the support of our friends. Have a nice Sunday with your loved ones!
......TRUE...Well it's Saturday. Day 94. Over the past week, she seems to be healing well, but we have other complications... electrolyte balance and fluid management, edema, then respiratory issues today.
I'm starting to think she likes it here.
Nothing is ever easy.
It's hard when there isn't a clear option.I'm going to have a chat with our doctor in the morning to get his perspective. I think I'm over-thinking this.
@Gerry are there any options available for home care? It's amazing that she hasn't picked up a hospital acquired bug by this point. She really would recover better at home, but she'd need a nurse with her and monitoring. It's always a balance between getting them out of the hospital ASAP and keeping them close. Right now, you're a wee bit apprehensive about taking her away from the full service facility after her set back. Which is understandable.
Unfortunately, full-time home care is a little off the radar. I'm actually comfortable with her back in our little hospital, now... after the dance with PE the other day, she has been pretty stable, and there really isn't too much else that can go wrong, right now. Circumstances have spared her the dubious joys of adult appendicitis, for instance.
Mobility continues to be an issue... She still isn't moving around with any degree of fluency, the strength just isn't there, yet. A normal adult would have handled her last surgery fairly well, and would be thinking about walking out one of these days soon. Lee didn't go into that surgery in any normal state of health, so the impact on her physical baseline was profound... several steps backwards. She is coming along really well, but she still isn't quite where she was at the first time they repatriated her.
I'm trying to figure out how the next steps unfold to get her into a holistic therapy program... and choose the best path to get her there. The best program around here doesn't much like medically unstable participants - PICC lines, NG tubes etc sort of make them nervous. I don't think a few weeks of supportive care here will hurt things at all, but maybe being in the bigger city hospital would accelerate that a bit.
Maybe what I need to decide is if the pace NEEDS to be accelerated...
And there in lies the dilemma of long term recovery. Hospitals do their best to prevent the spread of infectious organisms, but most don't. There is a point where extended stays become a race against contacting something you really don't want. But, sometimes the patient needs the support. Home care is difficult. Equipment is expensive. But, Lee's recovery will occur at her own pace regardless. At least being "closer" to home will make it easier for her friends to stop by and for you. Other than that it's one day at a time. A good day is one with no new problems.Maybe what I need to decide is if the pace NEEDS to be accelerated...
This speaks for me.Whichever will get her to the neuro-recovery place more smoothly sounds best IMO. That place is going to give her all kinds of slow, tedious therapy that she desperately needs. If she is anything like my husband, the better she gets, the more she will hate being there... but that therapy is incredibly important and the places are (or should be) safe, even if (as happened with my husband) they had to put a guard rail on his bed, alarms under his chair seat, and strap him into a wheelchair (with my permission) because he was such a high fall risk.
Sadly, a patient wanting to go home doesn't mean they are ready to go home. And as hard as things have been for you up to now, @Gerry, they will be twice as hard when she is home and you are responsible for almost everything--her safety and all her therapies and medical care--without a medical team on-site to help.