November 11, 2008 through November 18The plan was for Mom to be in the step down ICU for a few days, and then transfer to Select Specialty Hospital on Friday to ween off the traych.
We caught up with some old friends during this week. The nurses and techs in both the ICU and step down ICU at ORMC are phenomenal! We could not ask for better care or better people. The nurse for her first two nights back in the unit was Angela. Angela was also the nurse she had her first three nights in ORMC. There was a tech named Tanya who also remembered and liked Mom. They took very good care of her.
Wednesday and Thursday were pretty much more of the same - critical but stable. Thursday night, Mom spiked a fever of about 102. That night, the doctors just ordered Tylenol to fight the fever.
Friday morning, when her fever still had not broken, the doctors decided to keep Mom at ORMC a few days longer while they ran some more cultures to figure out what was causing the fever. Concurrently, the surgeons were starting to worry that her colostomy was starting to scar closed, so they wanted to watch her, too. By Friday night, her fever came down and she looked more comfortable.
Saturday was more of the same. The cultures came back as growing Gram D Negative Rods. Her GCS rating was about a 7 each day this week.
The Awakening
Sunday November 16th. A glorious day. Mom woke up.
Grace called for her morning report from the nurses. The nurse happened to be in the room and said Mom was doing well, that she seemed to be responding to commands and did Grace want to say hello. The answer was a resounding "Yes!". So the nurse put the phone next to Mom's ear and Grace started talking. The next thing Grace heard was "Don't cry honey." Mom was responding to Grace's voice! Grace called me, and I went to see for myself. I think this was the most joyous ride to the hospital for me.
The nurses never told me what her GCS score was that day, but I would put it at 13-14. When I arrived, she started crying. Any time I mentioned family, or that we were happy she was awake, she started crying. After a little while, when she was more calm, I started making calls so everyone could say hello. She was able to hear from Chris, Victoria, Christopher, Nicole, Cathy, Grace, Grandma, Dianne, Larry and Ann. She was happy and yet she cried a lot that day.
When I talked to the doctors, Infectious Disease was not overly worried about the infection and Colo-rectal said they would probably keep her a week to watch the ostomy. This was at about 4:00. At about 7:30, the night nurse came in to tell me I needed me to put on gown and gloves since she was now considered in isolation again. The culture results came back with Stenotrophomonas Maltophilia, which is somewhat common with patients on ventilators.
I should mention that some doctors thought she had cellulitis (a skin infection) through her abdomen and legs. Others were calling it red man syndrome which is a side effect of the Vancomycin. This infection meant more Vanco.
I wound up working late on Monday and was unable to visit. The nurses said her day was about the same as Sunday. She was awake and responding to commands. Her temperature was still down. Overall, it was another good day.
On Tuesday, I received a call from the hospital at about 3:00. Mom was going to be moved to Select at 7:15 that night. The ORMC chapter of Mom's journey came to an end.
Postnote - the picture is from our trip to Mimi's Cafe with the kids while they were visiting in July.
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