kookykat
10-30-2006, 04:20 PM
For anyone who's interested, Sharon's doing well. She's still in the hospital, still on bed rest. They're in the process of finding her placement in a subacute facility for rehab, once she's cleared via another spine x-ray, which is due to be done this coming Friday. She's got some rales still in the base of the left lung, but they're working on it. She's still on 2 L of oxygen, but I want to see them try to wean her. She's back on the EZPap and doing manual spirometry in between.
Her incisions are healing very nicely! She's got more energy, and after a tough couple of first days, has rebounded back to her usual self.
I may have to get a second opinion on the back surgery, because her surgeon now seems to be blowing it off, which annoys me tremendously. What Sharon does NOT need is someone who's going to disregard the potential gain she might get from the surgery because she's a stroke survivor and might therefore be a less than stellar outcome (which is what it feels like). :mad:
I do know they have to wait for a while, because she's got to be on either Plavix or Coumadin for 6 weeks to 3 months, depending on her level of activity. One doctor says Plavix for 6 weeks (the cardiothoracic surgeon), one doctor says it's his understanding that it's Coumadin for 3 months (the orthopedic surgeon). She's getting Lovenox shots right now, but that switches over to one of the two oral meds after she's active again.
I might actually take her to another hospital in the system where they've got a spine unit to get the second opinion, if the ortho surgeon continues to be less than interested in proceeding. It was his friggin' idea that the surgery should be done in the first place. :rolleyes:
Sharon's still in an awful lot of pain whenever she moves, so I don't think the bed rest has accomplished what it was supposed to. I'm so afraid she'll be paralyzed or weakened permanently and irreversably, but there's nothing I can do about it right now except wait. Wait and give her pain medication, apparently. That seems to be the plan. I'm going to leave a message for *all* of her doctors today requesting that they consider a lidocaine patch for that area of her back. It's helped her in the past and could help her now, but I don't now if it'll interfere with any of the new meds she's on.
So, that's where we is. I've got a 6-page letter going to the director of the patient representative department, with copies going to the chief of staff and president/CEO. There have been some pretty major issues that need to be resolved, one of which is the staff's overall reluctance to have me included as part of Sharon's care team, even though she's aphasic and can't pass on any information to me, for crying out loud!!!! Geeez...
Off to go put the rear view mirror back on the car...it's been too cold to do it since it fell off, but it'll be nice for another couple of hours, so I need to get out there and get it done!
Hopefully, my next post will be about Sharon getting back up and moving! :)
Huggers,
Mikster
Her incisions are healing very nicely! She's got more energy, and after a tough couple of first days, has rebounded back to her usual self.
I may have to get a second opinion on the back surgery, because her surgeon now seems to be blowing it off, which annoys me tremendously. What Sharon does NOT need is someone who's going to disregard the potential gain she might get from the surgery because she's a stroke survivor and might therefore be a less than stellar outcome (which is what it feels like). :mad:
I do know they have to wait for a while, because she's got to be on either Plavix or Coumadin for 6 weeks to 3 months, depending on her level of activity. One doctor says Plavix for 6 weeks (the cardiothoracic surgeon), one doctor says it's his understanding that it's Coumadin for 3 months (the orthopedic surgeon). She's getting Lovenox shots right now, but that switches over to one of the two oral meds after she's active again.
I might actually take her to another hospital in the system where they've got a spine unit to get the second opinion, if the ortho surgeon continues to be less than interested in proceeding. It was his friggin' idea that the surgery should be done in the first place. :rolleyes:
Sharon's still in an awful lot of pain whenever she moves, so I don't think the bed rest has accomplished what it was supposed to. I'm so afraid she'll be paralyzed or weakened permanently and irreversably, but there's nothing I can do about it right now except wait. Wait and give her pain medication, apparently. That seems to be the plan. I'm going to leave a message for *all* of her doctors today requesting that they consider a lidocaine patch for that area of her back. It's helped her in the past and could help her now, but I don't now if it'll interfere with any of the new meds she's on.
So, that's where we is. I've got a 6-page letter going to the director of the patient representative department, with copies going to the chief of staff and president/CEO. There have been some pretty major issues that need to be resolved, one of which is the staff's overall reluctance to have me included as part of Sharon's care team, even though she's aphasic and can't pass on any information to me, for crying out loud!!!! Geeez...
Off to go put the rear view mirror back on the car...it's been too cold to do it since it fell off, but it'll be nice for another couple of hours, so I need to get out there and get it done!
Hopefully, my next post will be about Sharon getting back up and moving! :)
Huggers,
Mikster