A Thanksgiving Day Mama Update

A 11/27/2009, Friday, update at the bottom.

Mama and Duncan, together in their recliner, taken August 19, 2008.


We do have a lot to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving Day, when it gets right down to it. Mama got to go to a regular room in the cardiac area around noon, which is good news. What's not very good news is that she was having a progressively harder time breathing than anyone wanted, most of all her.

The nurse there in the other room let the doctor know what her lungs sounded like and he prescribed Lasix which would make her pee a whole lot--there seemed to be too much fluid around her lungs which naturally made it more difficult to breathe. A few hours passed, she peed like a horse, sat up in one armed chair with her feet in another unarmed chair--which helped her lungs, too--got two puffs from an inhaler (something she uses now and then at home), and worked with a little device that Respiratory brought for her to blow into which would hopefully lead to coughing up some phlegm. She began to look better and breathe easier. In fact she told the nurse, in answer to "What should I tell the doctor about how you're breathing now?" "Tell him I'm better but not real good."

Thank goodness they're watching her very often there which meant that I could come home to Duncan without feeling too guilty. There's a slight, slight chance she'll get to come home tomorrow.

Oh, I couldn't find a plain electrical outlet in the new room, so I didn't get to plug in the computer--my battery won't hold a charge. I'm going to take it with me again tomorrow and keep looking for an outlet, maybe in the nearby lobby, and/or ask if it's OK to plug it into one of the red ones. There's an oscillating fan plugged into one of them, so maybe it will be OK. I didn't press it today--I was helping her go to the bathroom pretty often since she's not supposed to get up by herself yet.

Thanks again for being there with your love, prayers and good wishes.

11/27/2009 Update

She won't be going home today, maybe over the weekend or Monday even. She's breathing better but is still weak. The doctor wants her to sit up in the chair a good bit and walk in the hall some. Her heart muscle shows no permanent damage!

It took Duncan 50 minutes to decide to eat his breakfast this morning--he's such a little ol' man these days, wondering I'm sure where she is.

It was raining most of the night but the sun's out now--hooray!