Lots O'Forms

Forms, forms, and more forms. I stopped on my way home, to visit K at Dialysis, after a long day supporting the Delta IV WDR countdown. I had started helping her on Monday evening, with all the "new patient" forms they wanted completed. I was at a loss to answer many of the questions, so she took over. She must've fallen asleep immediately after I left, because today very few of the forms were completed. That's probably a good thing that she slept, because she's in serious neck pain during most of her waking hours now. Today she said she had a "level 10+ pain incident" when she first arrived at DaVita. So, I took a stab at completing all of the forms tonight. It's kind of scary, acknowledging for her, that she understands everything they've said in there, especially what they will be doing to/with her, in the case of a facility emergency. I guess I'm falling back on the fact that she's completed all these forms before, when she first came here. — at DaVita Dialysis Center.

Envious

I'm jealous of my neighbor, who just brought home her new Apple iMac computer on Monday. It's so clean and uncluttered, super fast, and has a really nice 27 inch display, not to mention all the nice bundled software.

Her husband is still clinging to his almost fanatical assertion that the Macintosh is just a toy, that "comes with absolutely no software that I would ever use." His opinion is based on his experience at the Apple store 3 years ago, when the salesman told him it didn't come with a word processor or spreadsheet software, but it did come with iTunes, iPhoto, and iMovie. He was less than thrilled, since he doesn't mess with digital music, pictures or movies. I've been telling him since then, that the Mac did come with the two applications that he uses most of the time -- the web browser and email client. And considering that his PC didn't come with a spreadsheet program either, and he's been using the free OpenOffice (also available for Mac) all these years, his conclusion seems really confusing. He says I just like to argue.

Back at Dialysis

She's back at the local DaVita Littleton Dialysis. After months away, they need a dozen forms completed again. I'm visiting on my way home from work, but I won't have to come back when she's done, and drive her back to the skilled nursing facility. It's nice that Azura (who has changed their name to PowerBack) is now capable of giving her rides both to and from dialysis, even on her evening shift. I may actually get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight. — at DaVita Dialysis Center.

Transfer to SNF

They are transporting Kristan now, to Azura skilled nursing facility (SNF). She had barely gotten out of dialysis, and hadn't eaten all day, after being sick in the morning, when they started rushing her to get ready to leave. It will be interesting to see, if they get her to Azura too late to make arrangements for her pain medications tonight. The good news, is that Amy and I looked at Azura back in 2012, and thought it would be a great place for her, except they couldn't handle transport to and from her late evening dialysis. Apparently they have a new contract for transportation, and picking her up at 9pm is no longer an issue. — at Azura of Lakewood Rehabilitation Suites.

7pm update: She's beginning to settle in.

New doc seems awful

Kristan's got a new hospital doc, who has changed her back to an untenable diet. The old doc was working with her, and trying to get her BG and pain under control, before discharging her, but now he's gone for a few days. The new Doc doesn't seem to care about managing BG or pain, she just wants her discharged, and out of there. Sounds like she'll be discharged to Azura skilled nursing this afternoon.

Italian dinner

I'm picking up a wonderful Italian dinner, to take to K in the hospital. She is furious at them, for not letting her eat anything palatable. And today, Romano's is donating 25% to Project Angel Heart for every meal eaten here. They're making a special take out exception for us, because I'm taking the meal back to the hospital. — at Romano's Italian Restaurant.

Still at Littleton Hospital

Lorene says no discharge today either. I'm thinking that's good news.

I'm picking up a wonderful Italian dinner at Romano's Pizzeria, to take to the hospital. And today, Romano's is donating 25% to Project Angel Heart for every meal eaten here. They're making a special take out exception for us, because I'm taking the meal back to K in the hospital.

Terrible news

This is really bad. K said they're talking about discharging her to skilled nursing very soon, offered three possibilities. Neuro Doc was supposed to call me, but hasn't. Nor returned my call. Last I heard, they were discussing possible neck surgery to address the nonunion.

Update: This just plain sucks. They are proceeding with discharging her today if possible. The neurosurgeon won't try another surgery, because her ongoing chronic medical issues may not allow another surgery to heal. The doc reading his notes says he mentioned "listhesis". He said the fracture line is not grossly unstable, which I guess means she is safe to transport out of there. The Therapy dept says she can't do basic things well, can't stay on task (and presumably isn't safe to go home), which is why they're recommending discharge to skilled nursing rehab.

So she will be wearing a neck brace indefinitely. Any further treatment would be a "multi-level approach". They left the possibility open, of working with Dr Guillot, the other neurosurgeon, on an outpatient basis.

They gave her a list of skilled nursing rehab facilities to look over, and apparently she's selected a few to consider -- Holly Creek, Azura, and Life Care Center at Littleton is her last choice, since she has experience with their Aurora facility and didn't like them much.

5pm Update: Holly Creek did not accept her. I think they don't have a bed available.

Life Care Center At Littleton has declined to accept her. At first they accepted her. Then she told them that we still owe Life Care at Aurora some money, and they reversed their acceptance into a denial. If only life Care At Aurora would send us the itemized bill that she has been asking for, for the past six months.

10pm Update: No discharge today. Maybe tomorrow. The doc says he wants pain and BG under control before discharging her. She says pain is nowhere near under control.

Nonunion?!

The ER trauma doc who called me last night at 12:30 AM to give me status, said that re-reading the CT scan, they were not sure K's neck has a new fracture, after all. The Nephro doc who stopped by earlier today, said the latest diagnosis in the chart is "Nonunion", which would not be the result of a fall or other trauma. Still not sure what's next, other than getting dialysis this afternoon.

Admitted to Littleton Hospital

Kristan was admitted to Littleton Hospital last night. Her nurse this morning says the current diagnosis from the CT scan is "Odontoid minimally displaced fracture". K thinks she had a fall while she was at Swedish Hospital in the past month. She will be seen by a neurosurgeon today.

And now, off to ER

Not even 24 hours after arriving home, K is heading to the Littleton Hospital ER. She has been complaining of a very painful and "crunchy" neck when she moves her head around. Lorene says they are skipping her first dialysis after coming home, and going to ER soon. They called the office of her neurosurgeon, who did the surgery to fuse her neck in 2012, and both he and his backup are out of the office until next week. They recommended going to ER for this.

She told her doctors at Swedish hospital about this multiple times, and they were not even a little bit interested. I think they have a one-track-mind approach to resolving the primary issue for being there, and letting people deal with anything else once they go home. The problem with that thinking, is that it took two months to get her home.

Update: The X-ray indicated vertebrae C3-5 are not well aligned. But it could just be the angle they took it. So now they're taking her off for a CT scan. No MRI allowed, because of her ICD.

Update: The trauma doc Dr Pico says the CT scan indicates a new fracture in the C1 area. Don't know the next step. They're checking with the neurosurgery office. I came home to check on Mandy. Soooo tired...

Update: Back to hospital for a minute. They'll be checking her potassium to see if they need to dialyze her tonight. No news from neurosurgery.

She's home!

Kristan is finally home, after more than two months in the hospital. They were really working to get her home, because her Medicare hospital coverage has been exhausted. Mandy is very happy to see her home. As are we all. She had a lot of bags of stuff to bring home. I brought her scooter home yesterday, so Lorene wouldn't have that big klunky thing to transport.

Maybe home Thursday

The Rehab dept is looking at sending Kristan home Thursday! We're struggling to establish a practical caregiver schedule. NOT simple. She says she wants her privacy, during the times when the Rehab dept is insisting that she needs constant supervision at home, and I'll be at work.

Snowed all night

More lovely Spring weather. It looks like it kept snowing all night. The driveway even needed shoveling. According to the news on the radio, the ski resorts got a foot. I miss my downhill skiing days.

The latest web security fiasco

For those of you madly running around changing your passwords on the hundreds of websites where you have accounts: it might be wise to consider checking first, to see if they have patched their OpenSSL library. If they had the problem (not all sites did), and have applied the OpenSSL 1.0.1g patch (not all sites have), they should be advising you to come back and change your password. If they have the problem, and haven't applied the patch yet, you could be giving away your new password too.

Here are some references I've been reading and re-reading...

• "The Heartbleed Bug", announced in April 2014.
• Affected/unaffected sites, or "The passwords you need to change right now".
• Heartbleed Bug Site Checker

Mobility!

Kristan now has her Revo scooter in her room at Rehab. I just disassembled it, and transported it over there, reassembled it, and rode it into the hospital. Mandy had fun riding in my lap! I don't think they realize what they've let themselves in for. I can picture her zooming all around the place, checking out everywhere that she's had difficulty getting people to take her. — at Swedish Hospital.

Moved to Rehab

Kristan has been moved to a room in the Rehabilitation department, as of this morning. I see on their wall calendar, that she'll be having regular sessions of Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, and even something they call "Spa", which I would love to find out is something fun. They hope to get her to a point where she can go home soon, within a week or two. Which would be good, considering that her Medicare hospital coverage just ended. — at Swedish Hospital.

Saluting 19 generations of programmers

I saw an interesting article on Info World's website, about different computer programming languages and the developers who have used them. It took me a long way back, down memory lane, so I thought I'd share. You need to click on the NEXT button, after you get to the first page.

Staying longer

It appears the surgeon and ID doc are getting what they want, and she'll probably be here another couple of weeks, to get some attention from the Rehab department. Even if Rehab balks about taking her (and they're hemming and hawing now), staying in the hospital will save her 24 transfers a week, just for the trips to dialysis. — at Swedish Hospital.