It was such a nice day yesterday, that Biz and I brought Larry home all day and let him sit on the porch in the sun, then he came in and watched college football and then took his nap in his own bed. I think that he was a little nervous about walking around the house because the last time he was home, he fell down and got hauled away in an ambulance.
When we took him back to V.H., I think that he was a little pooped out from being out and about.
Biz and I went out to Katie's for a bonfire after dinner. It was a beautiful autumnal evening and we had a nice time. Biz had a little wine and plopped off of the stoop and twisted her ankle a little, so after a little ice on the ankle, I loaded her up and we went home.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Getting stronger every day
Well, it has been a winding road for Larry, being in the hospital, then at Virginia Highlands, back in the hospital and back to VH, but, he is WAYYYYY stronger now than he was before this whole thing started. I am so glad that he is building up some stamina and reserve strength. When he had the procedure last week Thursday, they kept him over night because they had to take out the entire catheter and replace it, so he was laying on his back for 26 hours. He was a little shakey, but could stand and by Sunday could walk to the bathroom without a wobble. THAT! is amazing!
The poor guy was all bound up again after the procedure and on Saturday, they gave him a dose of Milk of Magnesia. That got things moving again.....alot. Poor Lar. At least his bathroom breaks are back to normal.
So, they think that he can get out later next week. I will let you know.
The poor guy was all bound up again after the procedure and on Saturday, they gave him a dose of Milk of Magnesia. That got things moving again.....alot. Poor Lar. At least his bathroom breaks are back to normal.
So, they think that he can get out later next week. I will let you know.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Indian Summer
It is a beautiful day in the neighborhood! Sunny and nice- you just could not ask for a nicer day in mid-September!
I dropped Larry off at dialysis and am home doing laundry and dusting, etc. Thought I better check my emails and perhaps blog a little!
Sunday night, we were supposed to take Lar to CMH and be checked in overnight for the procedure that he was supposed to have done early on Monday morning. The general consensus was, that he could have the procedure, get dialysed and then be released back to Virginia Highlands afterwards. Should work out great.
Now, Wednesday, when they were setting this up, the woman from the hospital called me and I told her that I did not have Mr. Larson in my charge at the present time and he would be coming from VH, so she then called over there to get things set up. Never having had any procedure done from anywhere but home, or right at the hospital, I really did not know what to expect, but ASSUMED that they would have it all set and I would just have to transport Larry on Sunday night.
It will teach me to assume! On Friday, I said something to the floor nurse about Larry's procedure on Monday and she looked at me like I had 14 eyes sprouting out of my forehead.
"What procedure?" she asks.
And I explain about the PD catheter that has to be moved so it will start to flow and that they are admitting him so he can be dialysed.
"Oh..." she says.
And I didn't think too much of it, figuring they had it in his chart and she just had not seen it.
The same thing happened with the nurse on Saturday night...which kind of concerned me, especially since they usually have to hold at least his coumidin, if not a couple of other meds before the procedure, but, again...I am thinking "Well, this is their job. They must have it under control."
On Sunday, as we are getting ready to drive Biza to the airport to leave, I go out and ask if there is anything that I need later on when I take Larry to the hospital. Did they fax the meds list over or are they sending it with me. And the floor nurse said "HUH???"
They knew nothing about it. They had not received any orders for it OR...any orders to stop his coumidin, so we had to cancel and are rescheduled for Thursday.
I always think things happen for the best, so, maybe it wouldn't have been a good day for Larry to have it done. But, it does crack me up that they had no idea what was happening.
I dropped Larry off at dialysis and am home doing laundry and dusting, etc. Thought I better check my emails and perhaps blog a little!
Sunday night, we were supposed to take Lar to CMH and be checked in overnight for the procedure that he was supposed to have done early on Monday morning. The general consensus was, that he could have the procedure, get dialysed and then be released back to Virginia Highlands afterwards. Should work out great.
Now, Wednesday, when they were setting this up, the woman from the hospital called me and I told her that I did not have Mr. Larson in my charge at the present time and he would be coming from VH, so she then called over there to get things set up. Never having had any procedure done from anywhere but home, or right at the hospital, I really did not know what to expect, but ASSUMED that they would have it all set and I would just have to transport Larry on Sunday night.
It will teach me to assume! On Friday, I said something to the floor nurse about Larry's procedure on Monday and she looked at me like I had 14 eyes sprouting out of my forehead.
"What procedure?" she asks.
And I explain about the PD catheter that has to be moved so it will start to flow and that they are admitting him so he can be dialysed.
"Oh..." she says.
And I didn't think too much of it, figuring they had it in his chart and she just had not seen it.
The same thing happened with the nurse on Saturday night...which kind of concerned me, especially since they usually have to hold at least his coumidin, if not a couple of other meds before the procedure, but, again...I am thinking "Well, this is their job. They must have it under control."
On Sunday, as we are getting ready to drive Biza to the airport to leave, I go out and ask if there is anything that I need later on when I take Larry to the hospital. Did they fax the meds list over or are they sending it with me. And the floor nurse said "HUH???"
They knew nothing about it. They had not received any orders for it OR...any orders to stop his coumidin, so we had to cancel and are rescheduled for Thursday.
I always think things happen for the best, so, maybe it wouldn't have been a good day for Larry to have it done. But, it does crack me up that they had no idea what was happening.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
And Now...For something completely different!
``````
Well, all right. Maybe not completely different. The short version of the long story....
Biz was here for 7 days -Aug. 26 til Sept. 2. Larry and I had gone to Waukesha on Tuesday before we picked her up and the catheter was not working. John said..."If he is constipated, that can keep it from working". Well, yes, Larry was constipated, but I had been giving him laxatives and felt that he would probably break loose soon, but, they suggested Miralax to coax it along, so I figured, why not?
Welllllll.... We picked up Biz on Tuesday at 3:30 ish. Every time he went, he was in terrific pain from his hemorrhoids, but we started to get some loosening over the next few days, so much that we had to stay close to the bathroom because he had to run for it (Not good with one leg and difficulty walking- I did alot of wash). And we were up every 1 1/2hours every night, so all of us were pretty tired.
We went back to Waukesha on Thurs. Catheter still did not work. They had us go to X-ray and get a picture taken of his innards. And it showed a large blockage on one side. The doc prescribed Lactulose, but that was not ready to be picked up until Friday, so we bought an enema on the way home, gave him an enema and about 1 hour later, things really started to move. And move. Still painful. We put him to bed on a pad, just in case and Biz said that she would get up to take him to dialysis.
I heard her go down at 5:30 and a few minutes later, she called up the stairs that she needed me. When I got downstairs, she said that he had blood all over the pad when she got him up, and then he pooped blood. BUT.... it was no longer painful to poop, so we figured the hemmie had popped and was bleeding. I said, let's get dressed and take him to dialysis and see what Beth says.
She also thought that it was a hemorrhoid. So, we left him to be dialysed. When he got home, he had another big poop with some more blood, but the next several were totally clear and no pain. Saturday, the poop even looked like poop and no blood. YAY!
At 6:00, I give him about 1/2 tsp of the lactulose and We go to bed at 10:00 . At 3:00 the intercom goes off. He has to go potty. We get him in there and it is a HUGE movement with blood. And blood on the pad again. At 8:00 am another HUGE movement with blood. Now we are fairly concerned, but don't want to haul him to the emergency room until we see how he does in a while.
Mushy was going to come and get him up and Biz and I were going to meet Katie and John at the flee market in Cedarburg for awhile. I figured that when we got back at about 10:30, Julie would be awake and we would ask for her input.
Nope! At 9:05, my phone starts singing and it is home. I figure Mushy is just calling to say that she got there and is getting him up. No again. It is Mushy, Panicked. Yelling that I have to get home now. I immediately change directions to head towards the parking lot and ask why and she screams that Larry is on the floor.
"OK, Martha. Did he have a stroke or heart attack?"
"No, he was wobbly and he fell."
"Have you called 911?"
"No."
"Hang up. Call 911 and then you can call me back and tell me waht happened."
The upshot is, he was woozy and when they stood up, he started to freeze up (A sure sign that his blood pressure is really low) and not respond and then statred to tip over. She got him to the hamper and when she thought that he was stable went to grab his wheel chair, but, alas and alack. He was not really stable and he fell over backwards and wacked his head .
They took him to emergency. They x-rayed him to make sure that he didn't break anything with the fall and then, they tried to figure out what was bleeding- and bleeding and bleeding.
He wound up in ICU and got 4 units of blood. The butt doctor- Dr. Staff (Really nice guy who actually TALKED to us and LISTENED to us) Gave us the lowdown and said he wanted to do a colonoscopy in the am, so on top of everything else, Larry had to drink a gallon of that stuff to make him go even more. What they found is...he has no polyps, he ripped his butt open when he was pooping so much and his coumiden level shot up to 5.8 and he bled like a stuck pig.
They transfered him to a regular floor. He had a beautiful corner suite for 1 night and then had to get moved to floor 2, so they could test his PD catheter ( I will get into that story another time), then they released him to Virginia Highlands sub-acute rehab to regain his strength. That is where Biz took our picture with her new lap top. He will have to be at VH till the beginning of Sept., but I think that it will really help him to regain his strength and endurance there, instead of him pretending he is doing his stuff here and getting weaker and weaker.
And now, I must have a little dinner and then go and visit him for a while.
Well, all right. Maybe not completely different. The short version of the long story....
Biz was here for 7 days -Aug. 26 til Sept. 2. Larry and I had gone to Waukesha on Tuesday before we picked her up and the catheter was not working. John said..."If he is constipated, that can keep it from working". Well, yes, Larry was constipated, but I had been giving him laxatives and felt that he would probably break loose soon, but, they suggested Miralax to coax it along, so I figured, why not?
Welllllll.... We picked up Biz on Tuesday at 3:30 ish. Every time he went, he was in terrific pain from his hemorrhoids, but we started to get some loosening over the next few days, so much that we had to stay close to the bathroom because he had to run for it (Not good with one leg and difficulty walking- I did alot of wash). And we were up every 1 1/2hours every night, so all of us were pretty tired.
We went back to Waukesha on Thurs. Catheter still did not work. They had us go to X-ray and get a picture taken of his innards. And it showed a large blockage on one side. The doc prescribed Lactulose, but that was not ready to be picked up until Friday, so we bought an enema on the way home, gave him an enema and about 1 hour later, things really started to move. And move. Still painful. We put him to bed on a pad, just in case and Biz said that she would get up to take him to dialysis.
I heard her go down at 5:30 and a few minutes later, she called up the stairs that she needed me. When I got downstairs, she said that he had blood all over the pad when she got him up, and then he pooped blood. BUT.... it was no longer painful to poop, so we figured the hemmie had popped and was bleeding. I said, let's get dressed and take him to dialysis and see what Beth says.
She also thought that it was a hemorrhoid. So, we left him to be dialysed. When he got home, he had another big poop with some more blood, but the next several were totally clear and no pain. Saturday, the poop even looked like poop and no blood. YAY!
At 6:00, I give him about 1/2 tsp of the lactulose and We go to bed at 10:00 . At 3:00 the intercom goes off. He has to go potty. We get him in there and it is a HUGE movement with blood. And blood on the pad again. At 8:00 am another HUGE movement with blood. Now we are fairly concerned, but don't want to haul him to the emergency room until we see how he does in a while.
Mushy was going to come and get him up and Biz and I were going to meet Katie and John at the flee market in Cedarburg for awhile. I figured that when we got back at about 10:30, Julie would be awake and we would ask for her input.
Nope! At 9:05, my phone starts singing and it is home. I figure Mushy is just calling to say that she got there and is getting him up. No again. It is Mushy, Panicked. Yelling that I have to get home now. I immediately change directions to head towards the parking lot and ask why and she screams that Larry is on the floor.
"OK, Martha. Did he have a stroke or heart attack?"
"No, he was wobbly and he fell."
"Have you called 911?"
"No."
"Hang up. Call 911 and then you can call me back and tell me waht happened."
The upshot is, he was woozy and when they stood up, he started to freeze up (A sure sign that his blood pressure is really low) and not respond and then statred to tip over. She got him to the hamper and when she thought that he was stable went to grab his wheel chair, but, alas and alack. He was not really stable and he fell over backwards and wacked his head .
They took him to emergency. They x-rayed him to make sure that he didn't break anything with the fall and then, they tried to figure out what was bleeding- and bleeding and bleeding.
He wound up in ICU and got 4 units of blood. The butt doctor- Dr. Staff (Really nice guy who actually TALKED to us and LISTENED to us) Gave us the lowdown and said he wanted to do a colonoscopy in the am, so on top of everything else, Larry had to drink a gallon of that stuff to make him go even more. What they found is...he has no polyps, he ripped his butt open when he was pooping so much and his coumiden level shot up to 5.8 and he bled like a stuck pig.
They transfered him to a regular floor. He had a beautiful corner suite for 1 night and then had to get moved to floor 2, so they could test his PD catheter ( I will get into that story another time), then they released him to Virginia Highlands sub-acute rehab to regain his strength. That is where Biz took our picture with her new lap top. He will have to be at VH till the beginning of Sept., but I think that it will really help him to regain his strength and endurance there, instead of him pretending he is doing his stuff here and getting weaker and weaker.
And now, I must have a little dinner and then go and visit him for a while.
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