how about drinking?

Oh NM - what a mess. Hope Mom can stay calm in the hospital until all the determining tests are done.

Wow nativemainer. That's ALOT! It's a full time job trying to keep up with our medical professionals. After reading your ordeal I really wanted to add some rum to my protein shake.

@nativemainer, OMG - what a day - and I thought the Australian health system was a mess - it is nothing compared to your day. I hope your mum is feeling better on clear liquids and that you have had time to take a breath with the puppies. In your pocket with a triple shot of virtual single malt whisky (the whole bottle if you need it)

Oh my Kim!! What an ordeal for both your mother and you. Can you request that the doctors call you before anything is don? Do you have medical POA?

Sending you hugs.

Good Morning, Loungettes! an update and another unload, but at least progress has finally been made. Let's see if I can even keep it all straight.

Mom had the HIDA scan Monday, was supposed to be able to eat when she got back to the room since if she did need any other procedures they wouldn't happen on Monday anyway, but the GI people didn't change her diet order until almost supper time. While she's getting the scan a lab tech come by twice to draw blood for a transfusion, which freaked me out, no one had sad anything about needing a transfusion or what was causing that. I caught up with the nurse, who also didn't know anything about a transfusion and could not find any orders or mention of a transfusion in Mom's chart. Not sure where the lab tech got that idea, but no transfusion. She finally gets a clear liquid diet at supper time. Yesterday (Tuesday) ayem, when I get there Mom is NPO again in case she needs yet another procedure (ERCP), not even sure exactly what that was going to be based on. The PA says we'll know if she doesn't need the procedure if they do not bring her a lunch tray. Her nurse says we should know before then, and any procedure needed probably can't be done on Tuesday as the GI schedule is fully booked up, and calls GI at least 3 times to get the order changed. It finally gets changed and they bring her a regular meal tray as a late lunch. But we're still waiting to hear from GI what's going on. I lost my cool, and when the hospitalist came in, I had her send a message to GI that I needed to see the Gastroenterologist for an explanation of what is going on by 2 pm or I'm filing a formal complaint. 2 pm comes and goes, no word from GI. I talk with the unit manager, who is finally able to get through to someone in the GI department. The gastro doc has been in back to back procedures/surgeries since 7 am, not expected to be done until 5 pm or so. So I flip out again, why couldn't that info be given to me this morning, and then I could have directly argued with the GI PA that keeping Mom NPO for a procedure that cannot even happen today is crazy, and if the department had the courtesy to let me know the doc was tied up from 7 to 5 and not tell me that we'd find out about a possible procedure based on if a lunch tray was delivered there would have been no problem. The manager also found out that surgery had signed off, so there would be no surgery this admission (unless something changed drastically). She also gave me the phone number for the patient representative, who I will call later today to start the formal complaint process. While I"m driving home the GI Doc calls—this is around 5:30. The scan from Monday shows no need for another procedure. No stones blocking the bile duct. The rest of the biliary tree (drainage passages from the pancreas, gall bladder and liver into the intestine) are clear. No infection in the gall bladder. Mom will get follow up with gastroenterology after she is discharged. She can go ahead and eat, and see if a low fat diet keeps things under control. He thinks a stone blocked the bile duct but has moved out on it's own. When the hospitalist came in around lunch time, she told me Mom's liver enzymes were slowly getting better and the scan from yesterday shows some fluid congestion that is caused by the gall bladder issue and clearing up very slowly because of the mitral valve leakage Mom has. The hospitalist wants to watch Mom's liver enzymes and for signs of the mitral valve causing any other problems, and be sure she can eat a regular diet for a few days to be sure everything is going in the right direction and doesn't flare up again as soon as she is eating regularly again. So now it appears that GI is signing off, and it's all going to be in the hands of the hospitalist going forward, with a goal of discharge toward the end of the week. And since the dietary people came in and took her menu order for dinner last night and breakfast this morning, and the whole organization knows I am VERY frustrated and upset, I'm hoping things are going to go more smoothly for the next few days. Now I'm going to run past her place, pick up her mail and a few things she wants from her apartment, and go visit her.

Thanks for listening!

NM - Go get um!!!! Glad Mom seems cleared with no more tests or procedures or surgery.

Carole: I'd be interested in hearing the specific name of the treatments you're getting. My derm doc sort of said "poo poo" when I asked about something like this to destroy the pre-cancerous growths and the AKs and SKs

Good Morning, Loungettes! Happy Saturday!  Another major unload coming, feel free to skip.  

Monday Mom had the HIDA scan done late morning. No reports, according to the GI nurse practitioner may not get a report until tomorrow. It took hours after mom got back to get her NPO order stopped, she didn't get to eat or drink until almost supper time.  

Tuesday when I get to the hospital we are still waiting for the HIDA scan results, Mom is NPO again until we find out the results and if she needs another procedure.  This goes on until midday, I pitched a fit, and demanded to see, face-to-face an actual gastroenterologist, not the dingbat Nurse Practitioner that can't tell us anything, As in threatening to file a complaint if he doesn't show up by 2 pm. Finally got put in touch with a manager that found out the gastro doc was in procedures all day until 5, but someone else from the department should have been managing that piece. The gastro doc finally calls me around 4:30 pm, and tells me the scan was read right after it was done and it showed no problems so gastro was signing off, nothing for them to do for her.  Later we find out from the hospitalist that the plan is for Mom to start eating regular food again, and watch over the next few days to make sure her liver function tests keep getting better and no more nausea or vomiting, aiming for discharge on Thursday or Friday.  

Wednesday when I got there Mom said a case manager had been in and told her she was going home today. When the hospitalist, a new one from the one we've been seeing comes in,  he says that since GI has signed off and she could eat breakfast ok and her labs were a little better she was being discharged. I'm not really happy with this, I'm not convinced that eating one or two meals without nausea and vomiting is really enough, but he's sending her home anyway. So, Mom gets discharged around 2 pm, finally brought down to the me to take home around 4 pm. Her stomach is bothering her by the time she gets in the car, and I'm thinking she's upset about waiting  to be brought down for 2 hours and things will settle when she gets home. Got her home, and the nausea gets progressively worse, the vomiting starts again and she is having belly pain that is getting rapidly worse. I take her back to the ER at 7:30 pm.  The ER waiting area is packed but she gets taken back to a room in about an hour. Blood work done, her liver function tests have shot way up, even higher than before, and also shows she now has pancreatitis. The order is written to re-admit her to the hospital, but there are no open beds, so she will be staying in the ER overnight. The ER doc has been keeping her reasonably comfortable with IV morphine every 2-3 hours, The night hospitalist comes in to do the admission, talks about wanting to get another CT scan with contrast but that might interfere with Mom's kidney function due to her age. She won't even talk to me about pain management, again because of her age and the risks and goes back to talking about not starting antibiotics because there's no sign of actual infection.  Half an hour after she leaves, the nurse is giving Mom antibiotics and telling us the CT scan been ordered. It takes an hour and a half to get the hospitalist to order pain medication, all that time mom is writhing in the bed and begging me to kill her. The hospitalist orders 1 dose of a different medication in a much too small dose. I hit the roof.  The ER doc can't write orders anymore because she is technically not an ER patient any more, but an inpatient. 

It's well into Thursday morning by now, so  I go on the war path, demanding to see the hospitalist in person and for a Palliative Care consult. The daytime hospitalist comes in, give me the same 'can't give much pain med to an 88 year old, it might depress her breathing' line. After I tear him a new one he does agree to let Palliative Care 'make recommendations.'  I didn't tell him that the ER nurse had put in the Palliative Care consult already, and the hospitalist didn't have a choice in that matter since he did give a one time order for a bit more of dilaudid and Mom was calming down. A Palliative care doctor came in, agreed that Mom could and should have adequate pain and nausea control, and wrote orders for scheduled pain and nausea medication, in addition to as needed pain meds. Within an hour of starting this regimen, Mom was able to be awake without writhing in pain, crying, and begging me to kill her. The Nurse Practitioner from GI that Mom had been seeing came in, would talk about anything but pain management, talked about getting another gall bladder MRI to compare to the one already done, and listed off a whole bunch of things that might need to be done. When the actual gastroenterologist comes in later (with a whole different story about what needs to be done) I tell him I do not want this NP involved in Mom's care at all going forward. Around 5 pm Thursday Mom is finally moved up to a room. I stay until she gets settled, and head for home about 6 pm. When I left Mom was comfortable, coherent, but tired and going to nap.  

5:30 am Friday Mom calls, she's confused and upset, people are taking contacts off her phone, and won't tell her anything and she's upset because she hasn't had surgery, she was supposed to have had surgery, then says I'm not me, but a good imitation and hangs up on me. Mom can be a little confused when she first wakes up in the morning, but this is more than usual, although with everything she's been through and the pain medications I'm not surprised that it's a bit worse than usual. So I go in, get there around 6, she's already more awake and coherent and doesn't even remember calling me. In the meantime she did throw something at one of the staff who "was trying to make me do something and wouldn't let me do it." After a while a surgeon comes in, says the gall bladder needs to come out, Monday would be the soonest that could happen. The GI doc Thursday talked about doing an endoscopic procedure to clear out the bile duct if the gall bladder MRI showed one or if Mom's blood work was continuing to get worse and the MRI couldn't be done quickly. Her nurse came in around 9 am, told us Mom's blood work was not better and the procedure was scheduled for this morning and they would be coming to get Mom around 11-11:30.  Shortly after that the NP from the GI group came in and starting talking about waiting for the MRI, but they were really booked and, since that test isn't done on the weekends, probably wouldn't be until next week. She didn't know the other procedure was already scheduled. When I told her, she started going on and on about risks and dangers and side effects and was scaring Mom half to death. Then the Palliative Care doctor came in to check on pain control, no changes made since that plan is working well, and Palliative Care will be available over the weekend if needed. They come to take Mom down for the procedure at 12:30.  Took her back for the procedure about 2 pm.  Finished at 4.  The doc found a stone stuck in the bile duct, took it out, cleaned a lot of sludge out the ducts, found a lot of stones in the gall bladder. The gall bladder needs to come out, so now Mom is being turned over to surgery. NPO until 8 pm, then clear liquids tonight, progress to soft diet Saturday, regular diet on Sunday. 

So here we are at today, Saturday. I spoke with Mom on the phone a while ago, she was a little confused but waking up nicely.  She called me a short time ago, wants me to bring her a cup of "real" coffee "from anywhere that isn't the hospital."  So I am going off to pick up her glasses and puzzle book, get her a cup of coffee, and see how the day goes.  I hope we find out she will be having her gall bladder out on Monday and not and not going home to wait a couple of weeks to have it done.   

Again, thanks for listening. I got some good hard sleep last night and am feeling much less like I'm coming apart at the seams.  

MinusTwo -doing okay sister. It's a heavy deadline time for my project and working too much.

We had a big early snow storm this week. Four inches where I live and three or more feet up north. Temps went from highs in the 80s last week to highs in the 30s this week. Not much of a real Autumn this year.

The chili ristra photo got featured on a local news station this week 😊

Jazzy,

The lovely chili ristra pic brightens up my weekend.

BBL

A woman in the resort where we spend the summer had gall bladder issues and went through an ordeal before she was correctly diagnosed and had surgery. After surgery, she cannot eat beef or pork. She can eat chicken and vegetables. She lost 40 lbs and looks great. I think she regards the weight loss as a good trade off for the dietary restrictions. I have no clue why her digestive system can't handle beef and pork.

The snow is beautiful. We spent a winter in Vermont the first year of our marriage and worked at a ski lodge. It was quite an experience for a southerner.

Kim - how is your mother doing?

Thanks for the explanations. It sounds like fat in the beef and pork is perhaps the issue. This woman's husband and son are big hunters and venison is a part of their diet. It is very lean. I don't know if she eats it. People mix fatty pork with venison in the sausage making. And they make lots of jerky, which isn't something I'm used to eating.

I joined WW online and have cut back on daily alcohol. I'm limiting myself to a glass of Chardonnay before dinner and skipping my vodka martini with a multitude of olives. DH is recovering from knee replacement surgery and taking pain meds. So he hasn't been drinking any alcohol. That helps. Normally we both enjoy martinis at 5 pm, mine vodka, his gin.

Hope your mother is doing better, NM. Which would mean you're doing better, too.

I recently joined a poetry group run by a dear friend on Facebook. They publish an annual anthology of poems and so I wrote half a dozen for the book. When I know the title of the book and when it is coming out, I will let you know. I will also let you know the titles of my poems! This is my first time ever doing this and I am excited!

Thank you!

NM, good news on your mom. Hope she recovers with no glitches and you can get back to normal life. It will be interesting to see if she has any dietary issues.

I'm following the WW plan and limiting my drinking to a generous glass of wine at night before dinner. So far I'm not feeling overly deprived. I'm also going to senior exercise classes at the gym.

Mommyof3, congrats on writing poetry. And you'll be published. Impressive.