I
made a trip over to The Meridian to see Uncle Jerry. On the way in through their security system
and very slow elevator, I stood next to the speech pathologist. She looked eerily familiar, and I know I must
have been sneaking a few peaks to get a closer look. She finally relented and asked if I knew who
she was. I assured her I knew the face
but had no name to go with it. It was
Kerry from Jamaica Beach. She has been
to church a time or two. I knew it. Always makes me feel kind of silly. She was kind, though. Jerry seemed to be sleeping quite
peacefully. A picture of his family was
mounted on the bed right next to his face.
Kristen was due to arrive in a few hours.
The
night before Mom started wheezing badly.
She was overloaded with fluids and her lungs were filling up. They stopped the IV fluids except for when
she needed her antibiotics. They also gave
her a dose of Lasix and started her on oxygen.
That took a while but eventually did the trick. They do have to watch that closely now.
The
gerontology team came by with their report.
The CT scan of her abdomen showed no further infection there. That was good news. They were still waiting on the latest blood
cultures. Those will be the key to what
happens next. She is still on high doses
of prednisone. She received massive
doses in the ER that they continued when she was in ICU. They will be weaning her off of those very
slowly over the next few weeks. She will
be here “at least one more night.”
Occupational
Therapy came by and helped her into the chair.
Between that and the ensure they brought her, she was in hog heaven. While Chris was gone – she went home to pick
up Cailyn from school and get a shower – Mom said she felt like she had to go
to the bathroom to urinate. I explained
to her about the catheter, but she kept insisting, so I asked Nurse Erin to
come explain it to her. Mom finally said
she understood. I was skeptical. Erin said to let her know when Mom wanted to
go back to bed. She would get some
help. After a little while she started in
again on wanting to go to the bathroom.
I told her unless she had to poop that wasn’t an option. She got frustrated and with a deep sigh said,
“I guess I’ll just go back to bed then.”
Thinking she meant that - foolish me - I called for Erin and she came
with a colleague to help her out. But when
they got there Mom changed her mind and said she had to go to the
bathroom. They explained the whole
catheter thing again, and Mom was really in actress mode. Her facial expressions in response to the
explanation were hilarious, and it was obvious she was paying no attention at
all to Erin’s carefully worded thoughts.
To her credit Erin was doing a masterful job of keeping a straight face. Not so much the other nurse. And then came what proved to be the last
straw. Mom stuck out her tongue at Erin. Both nurses lost it. I lost it.
Mom snickered and grinned and hunched up her shoulders in a “Ha! I got you” kind of movement. The next few minutes were a mishmash of
feeble attempts to stay on task. “Do you
want to get back in bed?”
Hilarious. “She’s so stinkin’
cute.” Outrageous. They finally switched to asking if she needed
to go poop. She said, “Sure.” And then she was not so sure. She finally said, “I just want to get up and
walk around somewhere.” And there it
was. I personally think the steroids had
her so pumped up that she was ready to run a marathon. They tried to explain about waiting for
physical therapy and going slowly, but she was … well, high. She could do anything. I finally suggested getting her one of those
bedside potties and letting her walk from the chair to the potty. Grateful for the chance to leave the room,
they raced off to put in the order.
We
did finally get her settled back in the bed.
And later on in the afternoon the potty chair did arrive. Maybe another day.
1
John 4:16 says, “And so we know and rely
on the love God has for us. God is love.
Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”
Father,
thank you for the loving and light-hearted moments those nurses provided
yesterday. Surround them with your
care. Amen.
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