Not a lot new with Nancy. Oxygen is still set on the lowest level of one liter per hour although it is now being trickled through water to add a little humidity to the flow. They did take the catheter out (for urine) and shortly after paid the price! That part of her isn’t working any better than her voice. Maybe they should have stopped the Lasix (furosemide) a few hours sooner.
Monday she will have a meeting with the ‘rehab’ folks to see about getting her up and moving. This will be done with monitors in place and two attendants. She has moved very little for over two weeks and so her muscle tone (or whatever one calls it) is close to nothing.
The rehab unit sent a packet for us to read. All the material makes the assumption that the person has heart problems because of poor diet and smoking and so on. Not one mention of a valve problem. There is nothing to be done about that except to replace it. At the moment a successful rehabilitation means getting to the operation. I’ll write more on this as we go thru it.
Here’s a thought Nancy and I talked about today. A couple of people have asked about the hospital she is in and the RM.# with the idea of sending cards and flowers. She is going to try to add a note to a pre-printed message I will write in response to Christmas cards for folks we do not have an e-mail address for. If you are reading this you have an internet connection so just send a message via e-mail. I will print these for her to read now and save them in digital format too so she can respond later in like manner. You can use this e-mail address: nancyh@ellensburg.com
The hospital does have an in-house web based card service. I think it is free but there may be a fee. Please consider using it and, if you like, use the money you save on flowers, cards, candy, or whatever on your local food bank. Here is the link:
http://www.yakimaregional.net/Patients/eCard/default.aspx
The card is printed in color on 8.5 X 11 inch paper and they bring them to the room and tape them where she can see them. Works great. However, the e-mail to – nancyh@ellensburg.com – is the best thing to do.