November 10

There was not a lot of progress in Granny's condition today, but there was some and no worsening. There were no "episodes" last night. A lot of the fluid has been removed from the lung, the xrays are looking much better and the chest sounds clear (according to the primary care doctor). They have not been successful in removing the ventilator--when they try, Granny has trouble breathing. So, they have been trying to "ween" her very slowly off of it....was 100% Monday morning, then that evening went to 60%, 40% this morning and 35% oxygen when I left this evening [meaning they were giving her that percentage to maintain her oxygen levels]. They want her to maintain as close to 99% oxygen levels on her own before they take it away. I was told by the respiratory technician that they had to go slow and careful with Granny on this. The ventilator is not breathing for her entirely, but it is helping her to breathe easier.

Granny was obviously very tired today and not as lucid (communicative) as she was yesterday, however, she is responding with head nods and hand squeezes and toe wiggles, so she is aware of things. She is being fed by a feeding tube as of this evening. And her blood pressure has been relatively stable. Although I did not see the pulmonary or cardiologist (despite being there from 7:30am to 5pm--growl), the heart cath is still planned for Friday.

Keep Granny in your prayers!

November 9

Granny had a bad night last night and had to be re-admitted to the ICU early this morning. She had been put on a ventilator to help her breathe and will probably remain on it throughout the night at least. A port had to be put in her neck (what they call the main line) to give her meds and whatnot. They were unable to do any more sticks in her one good arm (the left arm has lymphodema so cannot be used for this).

Granny cannot talk or swallow with the ventilator, not to mention is very uncomfortable, but she was able to write a couple of sentences for me tonight--wanted me to wash her mouth, and let me know she had been given a pill to help her sleep (although I don't believe it could have been a pill since she can't swallow).

The nurse told me that the doctor was planning to do the heart cath on Friday. I plan to just stay at the hospital tomorrow to be sure I can talk with the doctor and to follow what is going on more closely. (I had gone to work today and I think I missed out on too much that was going on.)

Granny's Health

For those who may or may not know, Granny was taken by ambulance to the hospital early Friday morning. She couldn't breath, was sweating profusely, highly agitated, and had chest pain. After emergency treatment, spent rest of day and night and most of next day in ICU. She has been diagnosed with congestive heart failure and pneumonia (this part due to the elevated white blood cell count, meaning some kind of infection is present).

At this time, she is in a regular hospital room, getting lots of meds and attention from the hospital staff, and has stabilized for the most part. She is feeling better, although gets tired with very little exertion, including lifting her arms when eating. I spoke with the cardiologist today (Sunday) and he says she has a very weak heart--part of it is working, but some of it is not. He was able to hear the heart malfunctioning after Granny had just gotten back from walking with a therapist in the hallway, so he knows for sure she has some blockage.

The next procedure is to have a cardio cathetor (? spelling) which is a line put through a vein I think from the leg up to the heart. Then they put in dye to see where and how much blockage there is. During this procedure, they can also use balloons or stints to open up blocked areas. Some people require open-heart surgery for severely blocked areas, however, Granny is NOT a candidate for this option due to her age & overall condition.

The cardiologist also told me that Granny is currently NOT in a condition to undergo this cardio cathetor procedure yet. SO, she will stay in the hospital until she is well enough to have this procedure. The cardiologist was saying, 24, 48, 72 hours...just wasn't sure how long it would be before she is ready. Granny is in a private room with a phone, however, she cannot easily answer it nor hear well, so is not a good idea to call. If you'd like to send her a card--I'm sure she'd like that. (just send it to the home and I'll take it to her since not sure how long she will be in the hospital)

If you really need to know the hospital info: Baptist Health Medical Center, 3333 Springhill Dr., Room 204, North Little Rock, AR 72116 501-202-3000

Mother's Day at Granny's

Surprise is waiting.......but wasn't until about noon before Granny found it in her chair.

Frustration sets in---can't get the box of chocolate covered cranberries opened!

Hey--what's going on in there????

Ah---finally! And lunch was made without Granny lifting a finger! Perfect Day!

Frustration

So....why do these postings never stay formatted the way I create them?

Oh well.....

Ta-DAH!

Ok--I think it's about as finished as it's going to get....Granny has already used her new shower 3 times--seems to work ok. The workers say they need to finsh off the end of the bottom door strip (cut or file the end I think) and then they want to go over the tiles with some water spot remover---I'm guessing it's a chemical to remove any left over grout or sealer spots. But, I've already been cleaning and putting things back into the bathroom....so now it's just a matter of Granny getting her things re-organized and put away and we are DONE!

Day 6 (+7 days): We had to wait a whole week (I just love construction projects, don't you?) for the colored accent tiles to arrive and the rest of the ivory tiles to be set because they didn't have enough of the ivory tiles with them. Picture to the left is what it looked like for a whole week....

Then, we got the tile in, the grab bars installed, and a new faucet for the sink which will match the shower fixtures.

This is neat--they put the accent tile around the door frame on the inside--you can only see it from inside the shower. (And don't think it wasn't hard to get a picture of it without stepping on the floor tile!)

Day 7: Shower fixtures added, tile grouted, shower door installed.

Day 8: Grout sealed and walls/ceiling painted--wait for drying, clean and then USE! We decided to replace the existing shower head with one which has a little extra handle strip for ease of holding onto, and then added a mounting fixture on the grab bar.

Well.........what do you think?

Bathroom Renovations!

We decided to convert Granny's bathroom closet into a shower to make it more convenient & safer for Granny to take a shower. Following is a pictorial of the progression.

This is Granny standing in the closet which was jammed packed with stuff--see all the shelves we took out? The next picture is some of the closet items piled up in the sewing room. THEN, I also had to clean out the area over the bathrooms in the attic because we were having a vent/light installed in the ceiling--that's also piled up in the sewing room (but not pictured here)!

Day 1: removal of the dry wall, door frame, and plumbing work leading to the new shower.

Day 2: installing concrete wall board, making bench seat, finishing the drain, pouring concrete floor.

This is the new vent/light in the renovated bathroom for Granny.

Day 3: Rest--waiting for the concrete floor to dry.

Day 4 & 5: Installing the tile.

Very nice corner soap dish, huh? And it's REALLY big, so can also hold shampoo bottles as well as bar soap.

Weekend BREAK!!!! We will let the tile sit over the weekend...then Monday is scheduled for grouting.

We also had the heat/fan replaced in the main bathroom with a heat/vent/light--here are the before and after pictures. You can see where the old round one was....and later on the entire ceiling was re-painted so you can't see any evidence.