Hi, Dan here. I figured this might be a good way to let people check the latest on Glow. If nothing else, it gives me a distraction. My cell: (989) 859-5305. I have to leave it off when I'm actually in her room but I turn it on as soon as I step out. Whatever it may say, I don't have voice-mail.
Timeline 10-28-06, about 10:30am: She wakes up and gets some coffee. She loses the sight in her right eye then her right leg goes numb. 911, ambulance etc. The dog is not happy. She starts developing chest pains in the emergency room and gets admitted. They kicked us out for the night. I came home without her and the dog is even less happy.
10-29-06: Turns out to be a tear in her aorta. They're surprised she made it to the hospital. They tell her she needs surgery now to have any chance. They tell her she has a 50/50 chance of making it through surgery. We take the good 50. She's in surgery for about 10 hours but makes it. The Doctor gives us an autographed pillow shaped like a heart. Weird. Respirator, lotsa drugs, lotsa tubes and the machine that goes "ping".
Sleeping, sleeping, sleeping
Every time they lighten up her drugs, she starts getting combative, her blood pressure goes through the roof and they have to knock her back out so she doesn't pop her stitches (actually, it's mostly glue, I think). They're concerned she may have some stroke damage. So am I. So is the dog.
Sleeping, sleeping, sleeping
11-8-06: They take her off the respirator and she's breathing good on her own. She makes eye-contact with me and smiles briefly. She gets agitated and they have to sedate her but while they're doing that she turns towards the arm the needle's in and faintly says "That hurts" before going back to sleep. I held her down while the nurse runs a feeding tube in through her nose. She makes the sort of face a person makes when someone runs a long tube to their stomach through their nose. I think I was making the same face. Bummer that it "hurts" but very cool she could say it. Right after I came home, the dog fell down the stairs but seems to be ok. A great dane tumbling down wooden stairs makes an interesting noise. The cat at the bottom decided to vacate the area.
11-9-06: Day 13: Setback. During the night, she's developed a fever of 103 degrees and there's fluid in her lungs, pneumonia. They put her on antibotics and had to put her back on the respirator. They got the fever down and are testing every fluid they can get out of her for infection. I watched 'em pull a fairly large amount of fluid out of her lungs. She hasn't had a cigarette for almost 2 weeks so this might clean out some tar. The dog dumped all her food into the kitty-litter box. I have no idea what the significance of that is. I think it was some sort of protest. I'm headed back to the hospital.
7:00pm: No change. They pumped a bunch of fluid out of her lungs. They're keeping the fever down. Heavily sedated (Her, not me). The dog keeps sniffing me.
11-10-06 - 1:30am, It's been two weeks. I bet the bill is up to hundreds of dollars. Still on the respirator but no fever, 98.6 on the dot. She got combative earlier and they gave her some extra sedation but breathing, pulse and blood-pressure are fine. No word on the lab work. The dog dumped her food on the floor but not into the kitty litter. I guess she figured out there just aren't any cookies in the house.
11-10-06 - 7:30pm, Doin' better. They have her on 3 different antibiotics and the infection has lessened. They had to draw some fluid out of her lungs but much less than yesterday. She's still on the respirator but the "lung guy" says she's doing most of the breathing by herself. They had to give her a unit of blood but it's not surprising considering they've been drawing samples out of her for 2 weeks. They've lightened up the sedation and she's been somewhat awake for brief periods. Her friend Emma stopped in and Glow knew who she was. She was responding to things like "wiggle your toes" and "look up, look down". The Doctor came in and asked her if she could move her arm. Rather than moving her arm, Glow looked at the doctor and nodded. I guess that counts. The dog continues to be annoyed but I brought her a Quarter-pounder with cheese and that seemed to lift her spirits for the 2.4 seconds it took her to eat it. Special thanks to Mike, Linda and the other folks from my soul-sucking pointless job for the kindness.
11-10-06 - 10:30pm, About the same. Her temp's still good. Blood pressure's a bit high so they're giving her Nitro. They had to suck some more fluid out of her lungs but still less than yesterday. The substitute nurse tonight is an idiot.
11-11-06 - 2:00pm, Temp, blood pressure etc. ok. She's waking up more and more and seems to have a better grasp of what's going on. Her primary goal seems to be to pull the respirator tube out of her mouth. She's restrained but making a lot of effort to break loose. I bought her an MP3 player but I'm not sure if it would be a good idea to play her some tunes yet. While she's in this uncomfortable position, I don't want her to make some kind of "Clockwork Orange" association between Pink Floyd and feeling miserable. Maybe I'll just load it with music she already doesn't like. The dog abides.
11-12-06 - 6:30am, Day 16 Gettin' there. New chest x-ray shows little sign of pneumonia. Temp, blood pressure, lab work are all good. It appears the antibiotics are working. The nurse said she's much more aware of her surroundings and fighting the restraints a lot less. She only had to be sedated 3 times all night. If this trend continues, she'll be back off the respirator soon, hopefully for good this time. The dog remains unable to read this.
11-12-06 - 6:30pm She's been moved to room 702, right across from the nurse station so they can watch her closer. They've cut way back on her sedation and she keeps waking up a bit and trying to pull out her respirator tube. The lung Doctor says they might try taking her off it tomorrow but they want to be sure she won't have to go back on it first. When she's "awake", she's been responding to commands. She'd probably respond better to requests or suggestions. She does not like that tube down her throat. Everything else seems to be going well. I'm out of dog food. Ruh Roh!
11-13-06 - 3:45am, Day 17 More of the same. They're still trying to keep from sedating her and she's still trying to pull out her breathing tube. Vitals are still good and they think it likely she can go off the respirator later today. We'll see. I'm heading out to buy dog food before Rocco eats the cats.
11-13-06 - 6:00am, Dog fed. Cats safe.
11-13-06 - 7:00pm, Big step foreward! She's off the respirator and waking up for 10-15 minutes at a time. She knows where she is, who I am and can carry on brief conversations. She's only got that oxygen tube they lay across yer upper lip, nothing covering her mouth. She can only whisper because of her throat being sore from the respirator but She's not slurring her words or anything. She sorts of drifts in and out of rational thought but seems to have a pretty good grasp of reality most of the time. She kept asking me how "Frazier Crane" was and I told her he had a very successful radio show is Seattle and was doing fine. She said She was thirsty so they gave me some ice-water and a straw. She slurped almost the whole cup up in one go and said "That's good stuff". They've got her on a liquid diet, (Jello, broth etc.) and she's able to eat some. It's nice to see all the tubes out of her face. I told her about this web page and she laughed. The dog may have to give up the couch soon. I'm headin' back up there.
11-13-06 - 9:20pm Still going well. She's a bit more confused than earlier but that's to be expected after being out so long. signs are all still good. They're considering standing her up later and seeing if they can get her walking a little. She kept shifting back and forth between 2 different alternate realities. In one, She had to get up right away because all "the birds" needed her. It seems the birds were getting ready to fly somewhere and She had to give them the directions or they'd get lost. I told her I'd Map-Quest the route for them. In another one, It was really important that everyone take off their clothes for some reason and She had to go tell them. I'm not gonna even guess. I just got home and the dog was naked. Weird.
11-14-06 - 5:00am, Day 18 Still improving. Another set of X-Rays show the pneumonia's under control. She's still pretty weak and confused so they're gonna hold off on the "walking her around" thing for a bit. They're having her do breathing exercises every hour. The nurse said she'll probably be out of ICU in a couple days if all goes well. She's been asking for a cigarette but they don't think that's a good idea for some reason. They're scheduled to start her on "soft foods" in the morning.
The dog gets cookies.
11-14-06 - 7:20pm, No baby mush. You know that bit about the birds needing her? When I left the house today, there were more birds watching the house than I've ever seen around here before. Seriously, It looked like a Hitchcock movie. They were in all the trees and completely covering all the power and phone lines. Weird.
When I walked in today, she was sitting up in a comfy chair. She's been eating
"real" food, (mashed-potatos, turkey, peas etc.). Vitals are all still good.
They're not giving her oxygen now and her blood saturation's fine.
I'm told they did end up walking her around a bit. She's weak but her legs
seem to be working fine. That's a good thing. Glow likes having working legs.
She's still confused much of the time. At one point, she asked me if she could
carve the "roast beast".
I haven't shaved for a few days. I guess I look like the Grinch.
The nurse asked her if she knew who the President was. Glow told her "Reagan".
The nurse told her it was Bush and she said "Same thing". I think that's more
political awareness than most people have.
Later, she told me "I don't like this story". I assured her it has a happy
ending and she said "oh, that's good then".
They're planning on moving her out of ICU, probably in the morning.
Another good day as I see it.
The dog remains a dog.
11-15-06 - 2:00am, Day 19 She's been having rational conversations with the nurse all night. She's drifting off into confusion much less often. She seems to have a better grasp of what's going on but really wants to go home. They're still planning on moving her out of ICU this morning and it may only be a few days before she comes home. This is great news but it does present a few problems. I'm concerned about the dog being here. For one thing, we may end up needing a home nurse here for a little while and that would be a problem. Rocco's a good dog but very protective of Glow. I'm not sure a stranger in the house caring for Glow would even be safe. For that matter, I doubt a nurse would want to be here with a dog that size. Rocco can be pretty intimidating at first. I've pretty much blown off work as much as I can get away with so I'm not going to be able to be here at night to look after her. That's a scary thought. There's also the possibility that Rocco might unintentionally injure her. Glow's gonna be very weak and vulnerable for a while and Rocco likes to climb up on her lap. This is a very large dog that could easily pop some stitches or knock her over. I hate to do it to her but I'm gonna see if I can make arrangements for Rocco to stay with someone else for a while. Glow recovering has to come first and that's all there is to it. I'm going to talk to the hospital social worker about what home-care options are available for people in her (our) financial situation. Hopefully there's some sort of program. I'm not real pleased about having to rely on the American health-care system. We'll see.
11-15-06 - 7:00pm She's getting back to being herself again. Her voice is still a whisper but it's a stronger whisper. I spent the whole day with her and she's pretty much back to normal mentally. She's real tired of course and naps for a few minutes every half hour or so but that's fine. She's still really weak physically but they've been getting her up and walking her around. Everything's working, body & mind. She just needs to build up some more strength. She needs to eat more. I got her to take a few token bites and a couple slurps of "Boost" but she has no real apetite. Hopefully, that'll pick up as she progresses. It might just be all the drugs they had her on. Her blood pressure was a bit high so I loaded Pink Floyd "Dark side of the moon" into the CD player, put the phones on her and turned it up. It actually helped. She laid there with her eyes closed and a big smile on her face mouthing the words. It was the first time in a couple weeks she's heard anything besides beeps and alarms. I'm glad she's still into Floyd. I would have been worried if she wanted to listen to Garth Brooks or something. They're planning on moving her out of ICU any time now. I think it's mostly a bed-space thing at this point. I'll post her new room number when I find out. What a long strange trip it's been.
11-16-06 - 7:00pm, Day 20 Still in ICU but getting better every day. She's been walking around under her own power. Her voice is stronger, appetite is better, thought processes are almost completely back to normal. Lots of joking and laughing. They braided her hair into 2 pigtails like Mary Hartman (or Willie Nelson). She prefers to think of it as the style Alanis Morissette wore in the movie "Dogma" when she portrayed God. She said to say she just came down to play skeeball. If you don't get that joke, watch the movie. The only reason she's still in ICU is that her blood pressure's still a bit high but it's been coming down. They're very surprised at how well she's doing considering what she's been through. It's sure lookin' good.
11-17-06 - 2:30pm, Day 21 Still improving. Her voice is stronger, she's stronger, her brain am be work more better. They're gonna take her off the IV and switch to pills. She could be home in a few days and her friend Terry said he'd take care of Rocco. He has a fenced-in yard and lots of space for Rocco to run around in so that's cool. She wants her laptop so I came home to grab it. I guess she'll be reading this pretty soon if they let it in so I better not say anything bad about her. Hi Glow! I gotta run.
11-17-06 - 3:30pm, Lappy online. Okie dokes, I managed to get her laptop into her room and connect to the hospital network. We is online. Glow is snoozin' but doing fine. They're making minor adjustments to her meds. They got her blood-pressure down. Actually, it's a bit low now but at least they're figuring out the right mix.
11-18-06 - 2:00am, Day 22 Still fine. Still in ICU. They're planning on moving her in the morning.
11-18-06 - 7:00pm Right. I'm gonna quit writing that "She's moving out of ICU in the morning" thing. She continues to get stronger and more clear-headed. She's at the point where she's getting good at eavesdropping on the conversations the staff are having at the desk right across from her room. Conspiracy theories abound. Her blood-pressure's good now but there was one incident today where her heart skipped a few beats then went back to normal. She's stuck in ICU until they figure that out I guess. Her heart-rate and other vitals have been fine other than that. She's gettin' pretty bored with the whole hospital thing. I have this huge industrial-strength cowbell. She wants me to bring it in for her but she's not saying what her evil plan is.
I have to go back to work tonight before they forget who I am.
11-19-06 - 6:30am, Day 23 Sounds like she had a good night. Her heart kept ticking at a nice steady pace. Blood pressure etc. all good. They seem to have found the right mix of meds. No estimates about when she'll be moving out of ICU. The nurse said she's kind of "bummed" about that but I'm happy as long as she keeps getting stronger. Still, moving down to a regular room would be nice. They have dayrooms and that sort of thing so she wouldn't be stuck in the same room 24 hours a day. I'm gonna go get some sleep so I can head back to hang out with her.
11-19-06 - 6:10pm She's sleepin'. I'm writing this in her room. It appears the nurse I talked to this morning didn't know what she was talking about. Glow has had several more episodes of irregular heart-beat during the night. By irregular, I mean it was going up to 6 seconds without beating. She talked to a cardiac surgeon today that told her she needs to have a pacemaker implanted. Of course, he's the guy who implants pacemakers for a living. Another Doctor came in and she asked him about it. He glanced up at the monitor and said "Nah, I don't think so". They're talking about moving her out of ICU again. That seems like an odd idea with this going on. Sure, it'd be nice for her to have more freedom to move around but my main concern is having them monitor this heart situation. Glow just woke up. Gotta go.
11-19-06 - 7:50pm She's been told she can't ever drink coffee again. Her heart rate jumped up. The Horror!
11-20-06 - 7:00am, Day 24 I'm told by the nurse (a different one) that she had a "really good night". I specifically asked about her heart rhythm and was told she didn't miss any beats or show any signs of irregularity. There's some discussion about a pacemaker or defibrillator being implanted but no specific plans at the moment. Hopefully, it was just a temporary side-effect of one of the drugs they had her on. I know Glow's not too keen on the idea of any more surgery. If she ends up not getting one implanted, I might see about getting one of those AED units (Automated External Defibrillator). We have them at work and they're pretty cool. They analyze a persons heart rhythm and can zap it back into a functional one if it gets too out of whack to pump blood effectively. They're starting to put them in all the schools, nursing homes etc. It's not something you want to have to use but they've saved a lot of lives. Getting the heart pumping in a productive manner is something you want to do now rather than waiting for an ambulance. I'm trained in CPR but your chances are a lot better with one of these thingies. I haven't really shopped around but they go for a little over a grand, a small price to pay if it's ever needed. They're pretty fool-proof too. It wont allow you to zap someone unless they need it. We'll see how things go.
11-20-06 - 7:00pm Not much change. She's still getting stronger. Her heart's been beating correctly as far as anyone can tell but they're watching closely. Her brain's working like it always did. They keep asking her these standard questions to evaluate her orientation like "what year is it?" etc. and she's at the point with those where she's messin' with 'em. They asked her who the President is while I was there and she told 'em it was George Jefferson. She got her hair washed for the first time in 3 weeks. They have some sort of weird shower cap, dry-cleaning method for that but it seems to work well. I gotta run back up there. She wants her robe, slippers and some other stuff. She's lookin' good.
11-20-06 - 10:00pm Brought her the cowbell. She has big plans I think. All is well.
11-21-06 - 10:20am, Day 25
She's out of ICU!
Now in room 337.
11-21-06 - Noonish
11-21-06 - 2:46pm
11-21-06 - 11:30pm Sorry I was late with the updates. It's been rather hectic. I'll try to catch this up. I went to see Glow when visiting hours started at about 11:00am. She wanted to get out of her room for a bit so we took a stroll down the hall to the little waiting room they have up there. It was maybe 35 yards. We went real slow and she made it but was completely exhausted. After a few minutes, we went back to her room and she was so weak by the time we got there she could hardly move. A few minutes later, the lung Doctor came in, checked her breathing etc. and said the pneumonia was gone and that her breathing sounded fine. Another few minutes went by, a nurse came in and said Glow was going home. No idea if that decision had anything to do with the cowbell as my sister Becky suggested. We met with the lady that's in charge of the hospitals "home-care" program and they're gonna go ahead and assign a home nurse (or whatever they are) to her since the paperwork for financial aid has already been submitted. They're supposed to contact us tomorrow morning to work out the details of getting someone in here to help. In the mean time, both of Glows daughters, (one being a student nurse) are staying here. The infection may be cleared up but she's still very weak and keeps almost passing out when she stands up. They think the dizziness is due to the blood-pressure medication she's on. They gave us some info on programs to help pay for all her prescriptions etc. but nothing can be done with that until Thursday for some reason. I got all her prescriptions filled out of pocket and fortunately it didn't run nearly as much as I was expecting. There were generic equivalents for most of 'em. I was sort of worried since she has like 6 prescriptions and one of the meds I take runs $430.00 a month if you have to pay it yourself. I could quite easily go off on a rant here about the whole "health" business and our insane priorities in this Country but I'll save that for another time. Terry was swamped with work today but is gonna come get Rocco tomorrow. I have to work Wednesday but then I'm off for 4 days.
11-22-06 - 11:00am A nurse came by today. Gonna start Friday. Glow's supposed to start walking around a bit, maybe 5 minutes a day. Actually, the more exercise she can get the better. I don't think she'll be running any marathons this week though. Her blood-pressure medication makes her almost pass out whenever she stands up and she's very weak to begin with. A nurse at the hospital said it usually takes 3 days to recover for every day someone spends in a hospital bed so it'll be a couple months at least before she's fully functional. She has an appointment to see a General practitioner Tuesday. I talked to Terry today and he's coming by pick up Rocco sometime today. It's gonna be sad to see her go but the cats will appreciate it. Oh well. I guess I should go pack up the chew-toys an stuff.
11-22-06 - 2:45pm Rocco moved to Standish. Doggone.
11-23-06 - Thanksgiving. I was just reading this in Wikipedia: "Aortic dissections resulting in rupture have a near-100% mortality rate even if intervention is timely." I guess we have a lot to be thankful for. Glow survived the thing that killed John Ritter and she had multiple and large ruptures. Here's a link to that Wiki article if you're interested. Glow continues to get stronger. She could easily beat-up a small hamster if necessary. The pacemaker idea seems unlikely. Her heartbeat's fine. She's been walking around the house as much as she can but it wears her out fast. She sleeps a lot, probably due in part to the pain meds. She doesn't like taking drugs but I'd imagine having your sternum cracked open and your ribs pried apart for several hours would leave you pretty sore for a while. I've been told it takes about 6 months for the sternum to completely heal after something like this. She's being careful not to put pressure on it. Still, better each day. I think we're just looking at a slow but steady recovery without much to report (hopefully) so I probably won't keep updating this unless something changes. Happy Thanksgiving! We didn't bother with a turkey but there's a lot of quiet "thanks" going on around here. Thank you to everyone for the kindness and prayers.