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We just got back from Stockton, Sacramento and Vacaville. When we arrived in Sacramento around lunchtime on Saturday, mom was in her room and the ventilator was GONE!! Yea…that’s a big step. She was visited by the respiratory therapist (Rick) who put in the valve that allows her to talk with the trach. It was nice to hear her voice again. Rick told me the ventilator has been gone since Thursday. The physical therapist also came and worked with her doing her exercises. Mom told me that earlier she had sat in the chair for awhile. She was a little concerned that the nurses who helped her sit in the chair weren’t strong enough to hold her (she likes the big strong guys to help). She also took frequent breathing rests during the physical therapy. She seemed a little anxious without the ventilator but she was getting lots of encouragement from all the staff. She was much more relaxed when I left in the late afternoon (we had to get the girls sleeping in the car on the way to Stockton) since Spencer’s family had their annual Christmas gathering on Sat evening in Stockton. Lots of Spencer’s relatives asked about mom and seems like a few have been checking out the blog!

On Sunday we got to Sacramento before lunch. Spencer took Britney and Kaitlyn to Dairy Queen for lunch and William Lamb Park (where they had a great time; Kaitlyn was especially impressed with the cow that said ‘moo’). Alyssa stayed with Florence and Leo and went to an association lunch with them. Mom was doing pretty good. The nurse was Kathy today. They helped her sit in the chair while I was there; she sat there close to an hour and looked good. She said she was much less dizzy today. The nurse said she might be transferred to another room/unit as soon as tomorrow. I think they just want her to be strong enough to cough up the secretions in her lungs. They were still suctioning her some but she did cough up some on her own. An occupational therapist also visited; I had no idea what they do so I asked. He said they help people do self care tasks. Mom can do many things on her own already but she’ll be happy to use the bathroom on her own again! Alyssa was able to see mom again which made both of them very happy. Florence was also able to visit and Spencer came in too (since he had Florence and Leo to watch the girls). Florence brought mom a nice cozy robe which will be very helpful when she walks around more. I told mom Catherine would see her tomorrow and we would be back again on Christmas. Day by day she’s making lots of progress. By the way, Mom told Florence that she’s attending Caleb’s high school graduation even if they have to carry her in!!

This is Catherine. I left Carlsbad at 9:45 a.m. on Christmas Eve and made it to the hospital by 4:15 p.m. Record time for a holiday! Mom was awake and doing just fine. She still has a lot of secretions from her lungs that have to be cleared by suction through her trach by the nurses, which is the only reason she is still in the ICU. Since her cough is getting stronger, and her need for suction has decreased, she will be moved out of the ICU any day. I could tell by her notebook entries that she is extremely anxious and frustrated by her helplessness. It seems she gets a little panicky if her nurse is not in the room at all times. She also gets a bit panicked if she doesn't know where her call button is. I told her she needs to try to be patient with the staff, as she is a low priority these days. Her situation is no longer critical, while others' are.

I showed her pictures on my laptop and we talked until about 8:00 p.m. then I left for Grandma's.

Today (Christmas) Grandma and I had breakfast then I went to the store. I bought ingredients for brownies, cupcakes and cookies for the ICU staff and spent most of the morning baking treats. Diane and family arrived about 1:00 with a nice lunch. Then we went to see mom. I took in a huge broiler pan of treats with a card, which of course was well received. Diane also brought them a pumpkin pie. Mom opened her presents, and was pleased with all her gifts. The staff let Alyssa AND the twins in to see mom tonight, which was really nice. The twins were happy to see her and told her Merry Christmas and held her hand. They didn't seem scared or intimidated at all by her situation. After they left we watched the home video Spencer made of their trips and adventures over the past year. Mom enjoyed that. When it was over she said she really wants to go to Hawaii if she recovers. I said, "WHEN you recover. Not IF." Mom is looking forward to watching her new DVD's and asked when Spencer can hook it up. I told her that I can hook it up! The nurse today said that the team will discuss mom in the AM and possibly put in the request for her to be moved as soon as tomorrow afternoon. I am getting ready to leave but will be back tomorrow to see what happens. I hope everyone is having a great Christmas with their families.

Mom had a good day. Diane visited for about an hour on her way to Lake Tahoe. Mom got up and walked around the room a bit with the Physical Therapist, sat in the chair for an hour and a half, wrote 10 letters/cards, and we watched a movie on her new DVD player. She started a new form of treatment for her secretions that is inhaled through her traech site. This medication is supposed to help break up the fluid so it isn't so tough and sticky and hard to cough up. They are not going to move her out of the ICU until they feel the secretions are less problematic for mom. She will also continue the IPV treatments every 6 hours. Mom seemed to be pretty strong when standing, but tires easily and gets nervous when out of her bed. I am sure with more routine Physical Therapy her confidence will increase. No word now on whether she will be moved out of the ICU anytime soon. Every day I hear something different, so who knows for sure what will happen and when. I guess that is all the news for today!

Last night the nurse and doctor decided to remove mom's feeding tube because it has been clogging for the past 4 days, and it is difficult to unclog once that happens. Instead mom will be fed through the other tube that goes into her stomach. This tube was draining from her stomach, but will now be used for feeding. The tube that was removed bypassed her stomach and went straight to her small intestine. Also Mom's catheter came out accidentally during physical therapy, and they decided to leave it out as mom said she thought she could signal when she needed to go. It's nice to see less tubing connected to her! Mom's wound site is almost all closed up and healed really quickly in my opinion. Today mom is very tired and somewhat resistant to getting up out of bed. She got up once in the AM and took a few steps but then wanted to go back to bed. She gets really anxious if there are not "strong men" holding her, even though her legs are very steady as far as I can tell. We wrote some more cards today, and mom napped a bit. She also wants me to redo her nails, as the polish I did a few weeks ago is coming off now. All for now...

From Dave: Here is an e-mail I received from Ray Taylor in Salt Lake City. Dr. Taylor worked with Mom at the Radiobiology Lab at the University of Utah for many, many years. He was working there when she was originally hired in 1961, and I believe he retired a few years before she did:

Dear David, Pete, Diane, Catherine, etc: I just ran across the blog about your mother's accident and experience in the ICU, and I can't tell you how helpless I feel about what has been going on. What wonderful children she has to run interference for her and to take such good and loving care of her. I have known Lorraine since 1961 (longer than any of you have known her) and feel a real kinship to and for her. I hope that things have improved since the last entry that I saw (26 December) and that she is recovering well. My own illness that I have been fighting for a couple of weeks seems so insignificant in comparison with hers. After a week or so, I realized that she must be in the hospital, since her address has changed to "Bed 6" but I have been so goofy myself that it took me a while to realize what was going on. I sent her a letter for X-Mas that had some bad news about my family, and I hope that that did not cause her any distress. Please give your mother my best regards and let her know that the next time I see anyone from the lab, I will tell them about her experience. She is one tough lady. She already knows that I am retired and do not go in to the lab very often. Again, thanks for your love and concern about your mother. Best regards, Ray

Mom is doing ok today. They started a catheter again this morning as it wasn't working very well for her to be without. She seems to have needed less suctioning today than yesterday, which I hope is a good sign. Mom got up and sat in the chair for about and hour and a half today, and then walked with support, into the lobby of the SICU and back to bed. It wore her out, and even though she said she wanted to watch "The DaVinci Code" with me, she crashed out, and now she is napping.

Yesterday one of the cafeteria guys said, "Hey, I wondered what happened to you! Where you been?" and the parking garage attendant now knows me by name. Kind of funny! All for now. I will update later if there is anything to tell.

4:30 Mom has been shaking/trembling over the past few days, and it has gotten increasingly worse today, so the doctor consulted with the nurse and mom and decided to give her a daytime dose of Zitas, which is for anxiety and is the same med she gets at night. If the shaking is related to anxiety, this should do the trick within 24 hours. It is also possible that one of her breathing treatments (Albuterol) caused the shaking, as the RT said shaking is a common side-effect. If it continues, they will call in a neurologist. I am going to head back to Vacaville earlier than usually, around 6:00 p.m. and do some grocery shopping for Grandma. The weather is COLD and RAINY today. What a drag. I miss San Diego!!! _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A wet, dreary day outside, and a quiet day at the hospital. Mom has been out of bed twice today to sit in the chair, but hasn't felt like walking around. The nurse said they will get her out of bed later this evening as well. She has been doing her bed exercises, and napping a bit, too. Today is the first day they have not YET had to go down into her trach to suction the secretions. She has been able to cough them up to where they can be reached without going down the trach tube, which is a first. Mom is still shaking a lot today, especially on her left side. I have yet to see a doctor to ask him/her about this. It was my understanding that the medication was supposed to take care of this or else they would call in a neurologist. Mom has been writing a lot over the past few days about her frustrations with the slow recovery. She is wondering why the doctors can't determine the cause of the secretions and deal with it that way. She says she feels "detached" from the world. We watched two more of the "Planet Earth" DVD's and now we are listening to some of her Irish music and she is wiggling her feet to the music! :) I will write more later if there is anything to tell.