Long live the queen

I received an interesting email, showing a sequence of photos of Queen Elizabeth, with the American presidents that she has met.

I unsuccessfully attempted a copy and paste, from the email to the Blogger app on my phone, but it didn't transfer the pictures properly.

So, now that I'm invested in the topic, here's a website that shows a similar set of pictures of the English Queen with a series of American Presidents.

Mandy on FaceTime

Mandy participated in her first FaceTime call, this evening. Mandy was the silent one in the conversation. She really did seem to know that Kristan was on the other end of the call, though. She cocked her head this way, and then that way, like the old RCA picture of the dog listening to the gramophone. Pretty cool. And very cute.

Better day

Kristan says today was a better day. They chopped the highs and lows off the pain curve, and kept it sorta level. The MD and OT are still at odds, over whether or not she can have rehab in the hospital. At first we were told that she might not qualify, because she was too weak to stick it out through three hours of rehab every day. Now she's hearing that the OT thinks she's doing too well, and qualifies to go straight home. The doc and we are very concerned that she will hurt herself, with all the transfers required, once she gets home. In the hospital, going to dialysis means wheeling the bed over to the other side of the building and back, which is much safer, than transferring from bed to her scooter, to the car, to a wheelchair, to the dialysis chair, to a wheelchair, to the car, to her scooter, and finally back to bed. Eight transfers, versus none, seems a lot safer to us. "Can't win for losing." — at Swedish Hospital.

Post surgery

She says there's no drainage from the healing surgery site today, which is great. But she's been having moderately wild blood glucose swings. Their new sliding scale leaves a lot to be desired. Basically, they wait until the BG gets a little bit high, then slam it down with a huge dose of insulin, that is a great risk of driving her incredibly low. She realizes that, and feels rightfully compelled to eat a huge amount of food after they give her insulin. — at Swedish Hospital.

Saturday snow

Saturday morning, walking buddy out of town, dog cuddled up under her blankets in the car, snow in the forecast, a few flakes already coming down... I'll settle for a piping hot cuppa coffee, eggs and a waffle, at The Egg & I.

And... it's snowing! Delicate fluffy flakes drifting down, doing loop-dee-doos and other fancy aerobatics.

First look

Just had a first look at her left leg. Her surgeon and infectious disease docs arrived to look at it, shortly after I got here. Bandages came off for the first time in a week. They say it looks very good. Must be a relative thing. Her surgeon made it clear, and we agree, that she should get rehab in the hospital, until she is more safely healed, and there will be less concern about her attempting to transfer, and seriously damaging the new surgery site. We celebrated by getting into some of the stuff I just brought her from the grocery store. — at Swedish Hospital.

PT's opinion

Kristan's PT said there's no reason she shouldn't be able to go home soon, as far as she's concerned. She's just looking at Kristan's mobility, arm strength, and ability to use the new slide board techniques she's teaching her. She's not considering the healing process. That part is up to her doctor.

Miserable to better?

Downs and ups, ups and downs. Kristan's day started miserably, but I'm hoping she agrees it got a little better later on.

Wow, I can really tell Daylight Saving Time is here. I'm walking out at 7 PM, and it's still sunny out. — at Swedish Hospital.

MH370

I read an interesting theory by Keith Ledgerwood on Tumblr, suggesting that if someone took over MH370 in flight, they could have intentionally tucked up close to another passing scheduled airline flight (he named SIA68 that was nearby), and in their no-emissions stealth mode (except for that pesky ACARS ping), flown for hours, undetected by all the civilian and military radar along their new route. They could have peeled off when passing through an area not covered well by radar, and landed at a secluded location of their choosing. This would have had to be well planned and executed to be accomplished successfully, but it seems like a legitimate possibility worthy of some consideration.

Then I found this rebuttal.

Windy snow

Wow. The snow is really blowing through here right now. Wind 36 gusting to 51. We get any more precipitation, and I'm calling it blizzard conditions.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Oops. Forgot to wear something green to work. Stuck a green 3x5 card in my shirt pocket. Kludgy at best... Really geeky at worst...

My old friend said, "What...you couldn't find a green pocket protector ;-) Ha!" Oh, now THAT really takes me back...

Busted

Busted. Tonight's RN let us know in no uncertain terms: Dogs are not welcome in the hospital. Mandy doesn't come back to Kristan's room after tonight.

Kristan is putting on a pretty darn happy face for us, regardless of what she's going through. — with Kristan and Mandy at Swedish Hospital.

Maybe a little better

Small progress. She seemed a little better this afternoon, either in less pain, or handling it better. The hospital doc finally changed her to a normal diet, so she now has more options in controlling low BG, and in just getting food she likes enough to eat. Her surgeon stopped by, and reiterated how well he thought the surgery went.

PCA

I won't say they have pain under control. But at least they gave her a patient controlled pain pump (PCA) device, so she's a tiny bit more in control of her destiny.

Pain!

She says pain control is highly inadequate. She is such a master of understatement.

Low BG! Pain!

She was late getting back to her room. Her day RN called over to PACU and insisted they measure Blood Glucose (BG) first. It was down to 33! then 23!!, then up to 83 after yet another dose of D50. She's in a LOT of pain. Way more than she expected, or can handle. They must look at her large everyday dose of pain meds, and figure that ought to handle an amputated leg too. We also have a lot of experience, enough to know that a low BG multiplies her pain. Trying to get her BG up, by ordering from Food Service, but they have her on a diabetic diet, and refuse to send up much in the way of carbs. Working our way through the obstacles a little at a time.

Surgery complete

Her surgeon just came to the waiting room. He says it went well. She'll be recovering awhile before we can see her.

Surgery in progress

Lots of trouble this morning. K was teed off at her RN last night, because she didn't get enough food to sustain her BG through her all day NPO. Then they gave her 9 units of Lantus in the morning. Not unpredictably, her BG was down to 87 when they took her to dialysis at 7am. Then it was 80 partway through dialysis, when I called her RN to check in. Then 56 as she was coming off. Her RN gave her D50 to bring it up. Straight off to surgery from dialysis. BG was 72 in pre-op, so she got more D50. Now she's been taken into the O.R. and surgery has started, estimated 90 minutes to complete. — at Swedish Medical Center

Surgery rescheduled

With all that's going on, it's nice to be distracted by sheets of snow coming down outside.

It looks like they're aiming for Friday afternoon surgery now, around 1:30. The surgery will be performed by Dr Morin, since the original surgeon Dr Faro is out of town the rest of this week. She will be in dialysis that morning from 6:30 to 11:30. Then I guess they will rush her off to pre-op.

There was a lot of discussion about how to control the BG levels more closely. They agreed to measure and treat more often. I agreed to stop bringing her food from outside, so they can calculate her carbohydrates more accurately. Interestingly, the two key people in the discussion (the surgeon, and the PA in charge of BG management) have plans to be out of town for the rest of the week.

Surgery deferred

So, the hospital staff let her blood glucose get way high last night, and now even though BG is back to a very reasonable 160, the surgeon and anesthesiologist don't want to go into a 7pm surgery. They say wild BG swings throw off the electrolyte balance, which would be dangerous going under anesthesia. Say goodbye to this surgeon, who is leaving town tomorrow for a week.

Morale Support

Kristan's brother John will be here Monday, for morale support. I'll be taking some time off work, so I can be available.

As much as she discourages them, I think these recently delivered flowers look and smell wonderful. She goes on NPO status (no food or water by mouth) at 9am tomorrow. — at Swedish Medical Center.

Clocks!

I am amazed at the number of clocks we have around here, that need to be looked at when Daylight Saving Time starts or stops. I started changing clocks the night before. Had to be careful to only change the clocks that were not going to automatically update themselves. But then, of course I had to check all the auto-updating clocks the next morning, to make sure they had changed themselves, and that they were reasonably accurate. Several were way off, so I was glad I checked.

Clocks changed: 29. Done!
Auto-clocks checked and/or adjusted: 13. Done!
Batteries changed, so clocks could be set: 6.

DST bug in IOS 7.0.6

Hmm. It appears that IOS 7.0.6 has a Daylight Saving Time bug. I see the horizontal line marking current time is drawn an hour late on the calendar, although it has the correct time printed to its left. Well, that's disappointing.

Surgery Monday

I just talked to Dr. Faro. She will perform the surgery Monday at the end of her shift, most likely after 5 PM. Not sure how long it will take. She said she didn't plan to rush it. There are four key nerve trunks to find and deal with properly. — at Swedish Medical Center.

Ankle Disintegrating

Her doctor told her today, that the CT scan, and the multiple stage bone scans, verify that there is no hope for her ankle, as it is disintegrating rapidly. It sounds like the amputation will occur Monday sometime, depending on when an operating room is available. — at Swedish Medical Center.

Needs dialysis

Saw Dr Atkins, her podiatrist, who was here to consult. He doesn't like how her ankle looks either. Haven't seen anyone else here. Lorene says the Infectious Diseases doc wants them to give her extra dialysis sessions, to try and get off the ten kilos of edema she's picked up in the past few weeks. I just found out, she didn't get dialysis Minday night. After a few days of that, they'll start getting serious about the next step.

Lousy news.

Kristan is at her wound clinic appointment with her foot doctor. He didn't like the look of her ankle, and ordered some x-rays. They show that her ankle is deteriorating inside, which means the infection is eating away the bone. He is re-admitting her to Swedish Hospital, presumably in preparation for a below-knee amputation. Her caregiver is with her for the rest of the day.