Wordless Wednesday, February 23, 2011

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Crisis Update

Today was a tough day.

This is the end of the sidewalk leading up the hill to the hospital. The road below leads into the main part of the downtown core.  Today as I walked to town, there were several emergency vehicles just a few blocks from where this photo was taken. A young man had been run down as he was jay walking. I pray he is all right.

I wasn't planning on going in to the hospital to see mom as I am packing at her home.  Although I have made a lot of progress in sorting and packing, I still have quite a lot to do before I leave town for my own home and attend to personal business there. When I left the hospital last night mom was doing well.  But when I called the hospital this morning to say "hello",  a nun who was visiting mom answered the phone and said I must get to hospital immediately as mom really needed me. I guess she was having a nose bleed.

I didn't think too much of this since I thought the nun could help mom while she was there. I protested that I had a cold coming on.  If mom contracted a cold due to my presence she could possibly be in more danger from lung problems than from a nose bleed.  The nun insisted I get there quickly. That got me moving as fast as I could.

By the time I arrived at the hospital mom's nose bleed had stopped but as it had been going on for 2 hours she looked like she had been in a terrible fight. Her clothing and her bedding were full of blood and no one had tried to wash the blood from her face. I set to work to start cleaning her at which point the male nurse said he could do it. I declined as I didn't want mom waiting any longer to be changed.

It is Fall now in Canada. These are the colours of most deciduous trees, although we also have some deeper red colours on maple trees.  The most glorious Fall colours are found in eastern Canada.  This view is from the top of the hill just before get to the original hospital entrance.

After spending several hours at the hospital, I also got a chance to meet the attending doctor.  He was only attending to mom today.  Her family physician called him in especially to address the issue of the nose bleeds which have been happening daily for the past several days.  I don't know how to spell the doctor's name but he was such a godsend and such a delightful man. So kind and gentle and very clear in his presentation of mom's condition.  He readily informed me when I asked him for an update on several issues of concern.  Then he turned around and proceeded to repeat everything to mom.

The doctors in Emergency were concerned that she might get a blood clot in the leg that is infected with cellulitis so they have been administering a blood thinner medication daily.  It also seems that  a possible blood clot in the lungs were found in the  x-rays taken yesterday (Sunday).  When I visited mom Sunday evening she did complain of sore back and asked me to rub it as she felt something there that was bothering her. Now I don't know in retrospect if my rubbing the back was a good thing but mom seems to think I saved her life by doing this.

Today she was spitting out a lot of blood clots during her nose bleed. From what she says about the ordeal,  it is the worst nose bleed of her life even though she has had some doozies in her lifetime.  The specialist ordered blood work which was done at noon and by 2 p.m. he prescribed another IV medication to neutralize the blood thinner. He says they will have to monitor her carefully and that hers was a complicated case since they do need to continue to give her blood thinners.

I left the hospital at 3 p.m. and apparently before the doctor left, he told mom he would not likely be back to see her but that the nursing staff would call him if need be. At 9 p.m., mom called very briefly to let me know the nose bleeding had started again and that the doctor, who was then in the Emergency Room was expected to pop around and see her again.  I didn't get any call from the hospital so am trusting everything will be all right and will call the hospital first thing Tuesday.  More things happened today that made it a very tough day but I thank God I survived the day relatively intact and feeling less tired and sore than yesterday.

Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

1 Peter 5:7

For my readers in Africa, I just want to say how impressed I am with the attending doctor today and with the attending doctor in emergency on Wednesday evening. Both of these good and knowledgeable doctors are from South Africa and we are so blessed to have them here where there is a shortage of good doctors in the country.

When I left the hospital a shift change of nurses had just taken place.  Here a nurse hurries home.

Went for a Visit to the Hospital

I went to visit mom at the hospital Monday. It is a statutory holiday here so it was rather quiet around the town. I will post photos of the city later.

A view of the City of Kamloops toward the north shore from the hospital grounds.

A view to the hospital from my walk up the hill.

A view from the hospital window. See the Kamloops River in the background.

Mom is doing well but very eager to get out of the hospital. She feels uncomfortable in there because it isn't set up for her like her apartment. At home she not only has the comfort of home, but she also has a special lift chair, and many other aids for mobility and independent living.

In the hospital room they don't even put a sheet on the bed. I have no idea why because they cover most of the mattress with pads and small blankets so they might as well put sheets down. It makes no sense. When she has asked about it they tell her the mattress is covered (which is it) and it is like having sheets on it (which is isn't).

The mattress does have some kind of fabric on it which is very slippery so it is hard for her to get comfortable as she slides around on it. Also she finds the mattress fabric irritating to her skin.

Here is a look at her leg. It had cellulitis and she has been in the hospital bed for 3 weeks waiting for it to get better. You can read more about cellulitis here

 Can you see how the dead skin has just peeled off?

Leg with cellulitis and dead skin peeling off. As you can see the leg is still very inflammed.

Her left leg used to look like this too but now there is absolutely no redness and previous wounds have healed. I think the heavy duty antibiotics she was receiving intravenously for a week really helped.
Mom is really anxious to get out of hospital. She says it is too difficult to keep the leg from getting reinjured in there when they insist on her having physiotherapy while there and that she do everything herself. Given all the equipment lying close by it is easy to see how the leg can be injured as it is quite fragile when red like this.
Once she gets home, (today is supposed to be discharge day), she can rest her leg.

My brother washed the carpets when he was here over the weekend. I have also been making the apartment ready by putting everything that was moved during carpet cleaning, back in place. I also washed dishes, floors and the bathroom and packed some clothes for the discharge girl. That was how I spent my statutory holiday. In my travels to and from the hospital, I saw a lot of hub=bub on the city buses. The high school students were out in full force doing last minute school shopping and hanging out with their friends sharing excitment about back to school which commences Tuesday.