Quick update on mom

Things are progressing slowly. Her heart has stabilized, so they are putting her back on her medicine for high blood pressure. The blood transfusion doesn't seem to have had much effect. They are going to be giving her nutritional supplements--though she did eat a fair amount of her dinner last evening. The portion was so big I might have had trouble finishing it.

At the moment, I don't know where she is exactly. Yesterday afternoon, they told her space in the pulmonary unit had opened up, and she could move down there if she wanted (and they might move her even if she didn't want it). Since her favorite nurse is off this weekend, she decided to transfer.

They said it could be as late as 7:30 that she would actually go. At 7:00 they said they were cleaning her new room. Then nothing. I asked and asked. I wanted to see where she would be, but at 11:00pm we were still waiting. I'm going to get on the phone now and try to find her.

Plat du jour

I found this after leaving the hospital last night. S/he must have quite a commute.

Thursday night/Friday morning report

Things are progressing pretty well with my mom. She is able to sleep better now, as her coughing has mostly stopped, and they switched her noisy roommate to a different room. The new one is much quieter--in fact she seems to sleep most of the time. My mom is much more cheerful.

The doctor said the IV anti-biotics would continue though the weekend, so my mom will definitely be in the hospital that long--not that I think she will be strong enough to leave for a while anyhow. They want her eating reasonably normally and walking before they will discharge her. Now she has no appetite, and only eats a fraction of her meals--though she says she does a good job on the cottage cheese and banana for breakfast. They gave her a unit of blood yesterday to help make up for this.

The biggest concern at this point is her heart. Her blood pressure is somewhat high, though the rate and oxygen levels are pretty good. It is the arhythmia that has been noted that has most of the doctors' attention. They said that fluid retention, as evidenced by the swelling of her feet and ankles, is not a large concern, unless it's in her lungs.

My meeting the NYCLA LGBT Issues Committee last night was postponed, so I didn't have to worry about that. My sister-in-law went back to Massachusetts, as she has to work today, but my sister is trying to arrange things so she can come down.

Wednesday night/Thursday morning update

My mom is recovering slowly. All her medications seem to be working--though her blood pressure was somewhat high yesterday. It did go down a bit by mid-afternoon. Her blood-oxygen level also isn't quite what it should be. We are a little concerned about the swelling in her feet and ankles--she isn't walking yet. My sister-in-law and I will be talking to the doctor about that shortly.

Last night I was able to attend the board meeting of the LGBT Law Assn Foundation, of which I'm treasurer. I've got a meeting of the NY County Lawyers Assn LGBT Issues Committee this evening--I'll see if I'm able to go to that. My sister-in-law has to go back home this afternoon.

Tuesday night/Wednesday morning report

My mother's getting stronger. Yesterday she sat up in a chair for 6 hours (only 2 hours the previous day), and was able to scoot herself up in bed by herself, which she hadn't been able to do by herself before. The new medications seem to be working well.

My sister-in-law got in. She's a much better care-giver than I am--she can anticipate my mom's needs much better, so she's proactive, whereas I'm mainly reactive. With her here I was able to take a little break yesterday evening for a small, late, Halloween observance (a weird "burlesque" show--which on Halloween at least is an excuse for young women to do a strip tease (more strip, less tease, for most of them), and pour fake blood on themselves). It was good to get out--I hadn't presented as a woman in over 2 weeks.

Monday night/Tuesday morning update

Things are progressing with mom. She's getting stronger day by day--strong enough at least to start complaining about things. There are some side effect/complications, but nothing major. A cardiologist has been called in to adjust her medication to regulate her heartbeat.

Meanwhile, my sister-in-law is coming in for a couple days. With her here I'll be able to spend a little less time in the hospital, and I think I'll be able to get out tonight for Halloween a bit.

Sunday evening update

Mom's significantly better. She's stronger, they've given her solid food to eat, and she was sitting up in a chair for a while this afternoon.

She's still very sick, of course, and there are side effects of her treatment that that have to be monitored and managed. But she seems to be going in the right direction--which is a relief for me.

Sunday morning update

My mom's doing OK, but as the doctor explained, her immune system has basically taken over her body fighting the infection, leaving her little energy for anything else. So she feels exhausted. It doesn't help that her new roommate has Alzheimer's, and screams a lot, making it hard for my mom to sleep. They're trying to find some way of rearranging the rooms, but many of the patients there are similar to her roommate. The hospital is full, giving them few options.