New Years Updates

Finally, some dust has been settling at home (all over the furniture, the shelves, etc.). No, don't feel like cleaning, I think I'll just let it lie.

Granny has been doing very well. We've even been out to eat at Red Lobster a couple of times and also at the Outback! She is still very tired -- probably always will be, I guess. But as she says for an excuse, just wait until you're my age! (I should be so lucky.) She has a physical therapist coming to see her 3 times a week at home now and she has to do exercises for them. They have also advised her to GET OUT OF BED in the morning because that will keep you tired--when you don't move, they body tends to stay in that mode. She's not happy with that requirement, but she's been getting up. She also has a RN that comes to the home several times a week to check on her, and she also has an AIDE that will assist her for things like bathing, getting dressed, making her bed--however, she only has been here once and I suspect Granny will prefer to do things herself so will probably discontinue the aide service. Granny also has a machine in her room that lets her weigh, take blood pressure and oxygen levels, and then sends the data over the telephone every morning to a home health care nurse station where they can monitor vital signs to make sure she is doing ok. If she doesn't send it by 11am, they call. If the readings look bad, they call. So, she has been doing very well.

Barbara was out the week between Christmas & New Years (before the home health care started). During that time, we had three doctor appointments for Granny--2 of them taking an entire DAY to accomplish! We also saw the cardiologist who did an echo-cardiogram on the heart. They said her heart was working at 50% which was good. (GOOD? Then they said the norm was 55%, so her heart didn't entirely recover after they got the stent in, and she will have to continue taking medicine to assist her heart, but that she was doing very well.) Uh, 55% is normal? I still don't get it, but I'm just a non-medical person, I guess. Those of you who know Granny well, know she HATES pills, so she got the cardiologist to agree to hold off on the Lasix pill which also requires great big potassium pills along with it. The Lasix helps to keep fluids from building up around the heart, but also makes you go to the bathroom a lot. SO, Granny has to be very careful to weigh herself every morning and if it goes up 3 lbs, she has to take the Lasix--the added weight is a signal that fluid can be building around the heart again (which is what happens with congestive heart failure which is what Granny is/was dealing with).