Thursday

Yay, Mom's ammonia level is down to 23 again, so can breathe a sigh of relief on that one. She is very sleepy this morning. I think they have given her too much pain meds, the Doc was not real happy when he could not get her awake enough to talk to her. So she will probably not get as much today. The GI Doc finally came in last night. He said she needs to move around and eat to get rid of the extra fluid in her abdomen, that is what is causing discomfort for mom, so once again we are in a viscious cycle. We are going to have get tough. Or Mom is. She can't eat and move is she is over medicated.

Dad and Barb and i are taking turns being with her. Dad is sleeping right now, and Barb is at work so I am on duty, but since she is sleeping I am doing this.

As far as her liver goes, they will do an MRI when she is back out of the hospital. We are anxious to get that figured out, it seems she should be recieving treatment for what is wrong. But we are not the experts. So one day at a time.

Wednesday

Thought I would get in a few words while Mom is still asleep this morning. Haven't really talked to her yet. She was very sleepy and tired last night, but Dad said she still did not sleep through the night. Dad has been staying in the room with her. I'm not sure how long he can keep it up. he can sleep through a lot of stuff, he can't hear real good so that helps.

Mom's ammonia level was back up a little yesterday, so they had to treat her for that again. hope it goes down quickly. It does seem to make her a little confused at times.
The nurses here are all amazed at how quickly she is coming out of it though. She has walked an hour a day for quite a few years, so her body is strong. Her voice is still out of commision. She has to whisper and it is hard to understand what she is saying. She is so tired she does not always repeat it. She gets a little stronger each day. Today she is supposed to have two physical therapy sessions. Their goal is to get her sitting up. They will have her sit in a chair as soon as they can. She will be able to swallow things better sitting up. So far she is not ingesting very much stuff, I think they will test her swallowing ability again today. All for now.

Monday

Sorry so long to get on here. Mom is so anxious for us to stay with her. She worries if we aren't close. And also she coughs and gags on her phlegm , so need to suction her. She is still so weak she can't use her hands. She has not really slept since she woke, so we are going the opposite! I asked the nurse if this is normal. And three nurses said in unison....oh yes it is called ICU psychosis. They said it will get better when they start Physical Therapy. She is still very clear in her mind. My cold is miserable to day, decided to run away with my nose and I have been sneezing like crazy, not fun with a mask on. But hopefully it will run itself out. The doctor said this morning that she has a heart murmur. He thinks it might be from all the fluid she has had in her body, but they will do an ekg eventually to check it. She choked during her swallow test so no foods or drinks yet, she can eat ice chips but she is not too interested yet. I think her throat is very sore. She cannot talk either. even an whisper hurts her. So need time to heal.

Sunday Morning

I Don't even know how to begin. Mom is awake, her brain seems fine. She responded to us when we came in this morning. Then they started the proceedure to remove her breathing tube. Seemed to be an extra long wait!! We did not go to meeting as we were helping to keep her from pulling the tube out her self. She was so good, and being as patient as she could be. The first thing she mouthed to us (she can't make sound yet) was "sing" she wanted us to sing to her. Barbara had gotten here by then, we called her as soon as we knew. Try singing and crying at the same time, I'm sure we sounded very wavery! Dad was so happy he cried and I cried when we first came into the room, had to say, it's ok Mom we are just soooo happy that is why we are crying. We know that she has a long recovery ahead, but just knowing she is here mentally is such a relief. Thank you all so much for your prayers and love and help. We will be having to be careful not to wear her out. I am in the waiting room right now, so she can sleep. Dad is in there with her.

Saturday Morning

Well it seems a little brighter this morning. Mom has her eyes open a little and seems to respond by turning her head when you talk to her. She is very weak, and only opens her eyes for a little while. She still does not respond to a command, so they cannot take her off the ventilator until she can. The Doc said yesterday that her lungs are all wet from all the fluid they had to pump into her. So they have to be very sure she is ready to be weaned off the ventilator. It does gag her once in a while. So we are more hopeful she is coming out of it today. We are so thankful for all the care we have been shown by friends and family Thank you Thank you Thank you.

Friday Afternoon

Not much to report this afternoon, Mom is moving her head again, and every once in a while she tenses up her arms and legs. I think I have finally understood what has been going on. They have kept her sedated.....which you are probably saying DUH! But what I mean is, I still don't really know what I mean LOL oh brother. I feel more hopeful she will wake up. Today they have her sedated, but not as deep, and when and if they get her ready to remove the tube, they will quit the sedation all together. She has been so still and limp, that I have not felt she was even really alive.

Friday

New morning. Still unable to get the feeding tube down. At this point they will feed her intravenously. We hope that the swelling will go down on the veins. We really don't know all the info yet have to talk to the Doctor. The plan for the next four days is to get her awake and responding. If that does not happen, then we will be looking at other options. Her kidneys are not shutting down, sorry if there was any confusion, they are not normal.....but that could be from all the extra fluid she has, they took two gallons of fluid off her body yesterday with diuretics and that can make her kidneys have some problems. We are holding up fine. Have lots of wonderful freinds feeding us, and bringing us cheer. All for this morning.

Afternoon

The procedure to check Mom's varices, went fine. The Doctor said it looks fine and he fixed a few more areas. For those that don't remember that is where she bled in her esopahgus. But.....seems there is always one huh? Anyway, the lovely Doctor removed the feeding tube and did not put it back in. So now the nurse is having a difficult time getting it back in. More blood, more uncomfortableness etc etc. It really is probably just as well she does not know what is going on. They were supposed to try and get her off the sedation this afternoon and take her off the ventilator if they can, but with all this going on she is on higher oxygen and higher meds. So probably not happening today. I want her as comfortable as possible. So we all must be patient. Dad just came back in here, the nurse can't get it down there, so they will have to do it with an xray. all for now. D

1/24/2008

We have a new development this morning. Mom has developed MRSA in her sputum, which if I understand right means she has staph in her system. That is the antibiotic resistant kind. We now have to wear gowns and gloves while in the room. And I have to wear a mask since I seem to be getting a cold. Also they are now saying that she has some renal failure. That means her kidneys are being compromised. This is all typical happenings for some one in critical care. So I guess that is why everyone that works here are not too upset. Lily said, (she is a friend who trained as a Doctor, and is in the ministry now) That some pull through and some don't. It will take time to tell. Today at noon she is to have a check into her esophagus to see if the bleeding areas have healed up and if there are any more danger spots. Then after the procedure they say they will be more aggressive in getting her awake. I am just taking that one day at a time, as I cannot know what happens next and don't want to speculate too much. We appreciate all your emails, and comments, I do not know how to respond to the comments so if you can email me it would be better. My email is denisebechdolt@msn.com if you don't know it. I will let you know what happens after her procedure today.

1/23/2008

Good Morning everyone, Mom is still exactly as she has been for over a week as far as responding to outward stimulation. Her ammonia levels are very close to the normal range this morning, 34, 32 is in the normal range. The Doctor did tell us a few days ago that it could take 36 hours for her to respond after she is in the normal range, so we are not panicking this morning anyway. Mom is fighting an infection, maybe two, lung and urinary. So we are just waiting like we have been. The doctor has not come in yet this morning. Tomorrow will be her proceedure to check where she was bleeding. All for now. D

Afternoon

Mom had her breathing tube changed to day and her brochial tubes cleaned out. The Doctor thinks she is developing pneumonia. So they have started her on two more antibiotics. She still has not become aware of anything. She survived both proceedures with flying colors. I got her hair washed a little today. The GI Dr. is here right now. He is checking to see of all her pipes are working right. Well he said the liver is doing its job fairly well for what all she has gone through. He plans to come on Thursday and recheck her esophagus to make sure he has all the veins clipped off that need clipped off. All for now D

1/23/2008

I have been offline for two days. But now have a computer again.

From some questions I have been getting (sorry I can't respond to all) It seems I have not explained things too well here.

The reason Mom was bleeding from her esophagus is because she has something wrong with her liver. We were in the process of finding out what was wrong and she actually was scheduled for a biopsy the day after all of this happened. Dialysis will not work to help get her ammonia down. Which brings me to......her level is 54 today, still have 20 to go.

Today the Doctor may have to replace her breathing tube. And he is thinking of going into lungs and doing what he calls a bronchial scope to clean them out. She has thick mucus in there. They are not saying it is pneumonia, yet anyway.

Mom's blood sugars are high, but it is from stress, she is on insulin now. They are still giving her enemas every eight hours and that is what they are doing to get the ammonia level down. There is a medicine called lactolos, I am not sure of the spelling but it is what is cleaning her bowels to remove the ammonia.

I can't say she is out of danger yet, but the numbers are getting better. We found out yesterday that if she woke up she would probably be out of head, the ammonia level makes it that way. So that is why she gets so agitated when they quit giving her so much pain meds and sedatives. Plus all the tubes etc must be very painful and uncomfortable. It is good she has been oblivious.

Today I tried to clean up her hair, it was so matted, we haven't felt safe enough to try till now. I may try to wash it in a bucket tomorrow as I only got the preliminary off. She was on her way to dread locks!! At times I thought oh I should just cut it off. But she would be so unhappy if I did.

1/20/2008

Yesterday Mom became very agitated. Her blood pressure went up to 200/82 and her heart rate went to 169 p/m So she is sedated once again. Her ammonia levels are still high actually went up today, from 87 to 103. The normal is 17-32. Anyway it is better to have her calm and comfortable she looked so miserable. Until the ammonia levels come down there will be no further investigation. ie; no neurological tests She gets xrays every morning to watch for pnemonia, and they are feeding her off and on. They doubled up on the medicine to flush the ammonia out of her blood system. So we are just here waiting and hoping she can pull through. If not, we are confident God will take care of her and us. Love Denise

1/19/2008

Well this morning brings little change. Mom is still just moving her head, a leg now and then and her arm will rise a bit sometimes. It is so sad to see her like this. The awful swelling that was around her head and neck is going down, but her hands and feet are still swollen. We are supposing that her ammonia level is still high and this is why she is not awake. But I have fears it is more than that. I am trying to keep my hope up....but also want to be ready for her to go if this is what this means. Dad and Mike and I have a place to stay in a sharing House here by the hospital which makes it very convenient. It is $20 a night. My sister lives about 25 miles from here so she and her family go home every night. All for today. love Denise

Second Addition

Yesterday we had a scare, we thought mom was bleeding into her brain. Thank goodness she was not. She has a high level of amonia in her system from all the blood she swallowed and also from her liver not functioning at 100%

As of today at 4:00pm, she is still not responding to us. She is moving a little today, her head and her leg every once in a while. I am anxious and worried if she ever will respond again, but trying to keep up hope that this too will pass. I have so much I want to tell her. I'll try and keep this updated.

My MOM

My brother in law Chuck came up with the idea of putting a daily update on this blog site about my Mom. She is at the Sutter Memorial Hospital. In Sacramento. She has been here since early Tues. morning. Monday night 1/14 she and dad were getting ready for bed, and she went to the bathroom and felt like she was going to throw up. Well she did, and it was blood, she called Dad and he came and she said, I think It's ok, just help me to bed, I probably just broke a small vessel or something. Well Dad put his arm around her, and they started out. She then fainted and then more blood came up out of her mouth. Dad said I better call an ambulance, she said, oh you can drive me....and then more blood came out and she said do what you think you need to.



Well they went to Colusa hospital emergency room, and they did what they could to stop the blood and thought that maybe they had it stopped but felt she needed to be sent to an ICU room. This ICU here at Sutter Memorial was the closest room available in the area, it is about an hour and twenty minute drive from colusa. It was foggy so they could not life flight her, so ambulance again. By the time they got here Mom had almost bled out, Dad thought she was dead. So they filled her back up with blood, a total of 13 units by the time they finally got it full again. Then a Doctor GI Specialist, said I can as a last resort, go down her esophagus with a scope and see what is happening. So ok, if they thought she was not compromised in her brain, yes we want you to do it. He found 9 veins in her esophagus bleeding. He either cauterized, or rubber banded them and stopped the bleeding. Oh forgot she was put on a ventilator, so then she could not communicate any more. Before she was unable to talk she was being the strong one, and telling everyone not to worry about her.

For the first two days they have kept her sedated, and she has had her eyes shut, and does not respond to any voice. Yesterday we had high hopes because they said they were going to wake her up and wean her from the breathing tube. Well hour after hour passed and she did not wake up. So in the afternoon, finally a Doctor came, and he said we better check for brain bleeding. We were all devastated. So once again, wait, two hours later we get the results, hooray, no brain bleeding. Her amonia levels are too high, that is why she is not responding, so they put her on medication to get it under control. The amonia level may be high because of all the blood she had in her stomach.