Pretty clouds from Lee Gulch

Nice moist evening. Pretty post-storm sunset clouds. Happy bubbling creek flowing along the Lee Gulch Trail.

K needs a CT scan

Kristan will be on her way to a hospital soon, not sure which one. She fell early this morning, and is concerned about her nonhealing broken neck. She spoke with several medical people today, and they all recommended that she go to an ER and have it checked out.

Update 9pm: Argh. Deferred. We were unable to get going, after hours of trying. Decided to let her have a quiet night at home. Will try again tomorrow morning.

Update 2pm Friday: Sigh. Reframing… now the plan is to have a doctor write a prescription for a CT scan at a nearby radiology lab, and stop there on the way to Dialysis. If successful, this will make for a much more reasonable day, and she won't have to worry about the ER holding onto her for too long.

What a week

What a stressful week. K has only been home since Saturday the 10th, and has already had four days of off-scale-high blood glucose (BG), Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. We brought it down each time, with multiple large insulin injections over the course of the day, until it finally came back on scale, and then it would jump back up the next night. I suspect late night eating while I was sleeping. She went for so long with terrible hospital food, that I think she was inhaling the good food we had at home. Then she went low at 4am this morning, after trying to get more aggressive about BG management, and taking insulin for food she hadn't eaten yet, and never did eat. She didn't wake me up until it was getting bad, so before I got it under control with apple juice, she went into some of those jerky spasms we had seen at the hospital, when they really let her BG crash. Her caregiver texted that K just told the dialysis folks she had a seizure this morning (not true), and now they don't want to dialyze her. Heavy sigh...

Update a half hour later: Things are looking up. The dialysis nurse has decided to dialyze her after all. She had already decided, before I called and gave her the entire story from the previous hospital stay that *did* include a seizure.

Nice mountain view

Happy mountains this morning...

Nice view

Nice morning, after yesterday's big snow.

She's Home!

Kristan is home! Our friend Claudia from Omaha is in town, and just drove down to visit, after competing her dogs up near downtown Denver. Now Claudia and I are running out on an errand, to drop off yet another missing prescription at the pharmacy, pick up dinner at Tokyo Joe's, then pick up the filled prescription. We thought we were clever to plan this, to minimize wasted time. Hope it works!

Planning to go home

They're planning Dialysis for Kristan tomorrow morning. Then home! I decided to advocate for skipping the stay at yet another nursing facility, before bring her home. I think her complicated case is beyond the abilities of any nursing facility. Their difficulties (and ultimately, their lack of success) managing her food, pills, glucose, pain, outweighs the advantage of having full-time care available. Not to mention the disappointments of being away from her own home, and her "pack". — with Kristan Attardi Hushing at Littleton Adventist Hospital.

Perm Cath Installed

Lorene says Kristan is awake and alert. They say the PermCath installation procedure went well. — at Littleton Adventist Hospital.

Heading to IR

She says they just came to take her to Interventional Radiology (IR) on the second floor.

Moved her

They moved her off the ICU floor, which is a measure of their confidence that she is doing better. The Perm Cath procedure is deferred to Friday 10am. Lorene will be here with her. — at Littleton Adventist Hospital.

Painfully Funny

I had to laugh, when I got this in my fortune cookie with my Chinese dinner tonight. "The heavy chains of worry are forged in idle hours." I've been quoting/paraphrasing it all evening. So I wouldn't worry so much, if I just got off my ass and did some work to keep me busy... eh??

Coming around

She finally just got her first dose of Humalog fast acting insulin tonight, since the big event yesterday morning. Her BG has been drifting up, since the Lantus finished acting last night. Very nice to have them ask me to recommend the dose. She goes NPO (no food) at midnight, in preparation for a procedure to install a new temporary catheter, that can be used for dialysis after she leaves the hospital. I'm already campaigning to have them discharge her to home from here. Especially after the lost-belongings episode, we don't think the nursing facility was all that helpful.

Update 7:30pm -- She is awake and chipper, and gorging herself on delicious Chinese food, before the NPO no-food order kicks in at midnight. She has a Catheter procedure tomorrow, not sure when.

Really Scary

She just had the worst blood sugar I've seen. I showed up around 7:30am to stop by and say hi, on my way to work. She was jerking uncontrollably, almost unconscious, arms flailing and almost damaging her head. I called for the nurse to measure BG and a CNA showed up. BG was 39. Then she started foaming at the mouth, eyes rolled back, and passed out. They gave her IV D50 and BG came up over 200. Moved her to ICU 554. I won't be going to work today! — at Littleton Adventist Hospital.

Admitted

She was admitted to a room on the 6th floor in the North tower last night. They have her on an NPO (no food) order, as they're hoping to repair her fistula today. Had a low BG 31 this morning, fixed it with IV dextrose. — with Kristan at Littleton Adventist Hospital.

Kristan to Littleton Hospital

The DaVita dialysis center just called me at work. Kristan's fistula (the beefed-up vein in her arm which provides dialysis access) is clogged, again. It has already failed 2-3 times this year alone, and it's supposed to be good for years after a repair. She has been losing weight the past few weeks, and with the C.diff, maybe she's too dehydrated for it to work. They want me to pick her up and take her somewhere (where?! Who's open now?!) to get it fixed. But the Azura Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) is in control of her care and transportation right now. I told them to call Azura, but now I can't stop shaking from the adrenaline. Waiting for the next phone call...

Update 730pm: The DaVita dialysis people consulted with the Azura SNF people, who told them to call an ambulance and transport her to Littleton Hospital. They should check her potassium (the biggest factor for needing dialysis) and decide what to do after that. Should be at the hospital by 8:30.

Update 830pm: The good news is, she was in good spirits when I got here. The blood test for potassium showed that she doesn't need Dialysis urgently. They'll keep her overnight, since the fistula repair people only work days. She's also eating, and keeping it down so far, so that's good news too. I'm going home to take the dog out and then get some sleep. — with Kristan Attardi Hushing at Littleton Hospital ER.

Bad Fistula

The DaVita dialysis center just called me at work. Kristan's fistula (the beefed-up vein in her arm which provides dialysis access) is clogged, again. It has already failed 2-3 times this year alone, and it's supposed to be good for years after a repair. She has been losing weight the past few weeks, and with the C.diff, maybe she's too dehyrated for it to work.They want me to pick her up and take her somewhere (where?! Who's open now?!) to get it fixed. But the Azura nursing facility is in control of her care and transportation right now. I told them to call Azura, but now I can't stop shaking from the adrenaline. Waiting for the next phone call...

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/419393-overview

I do not perform well, when my honey is in trouble. And for the past decade, it's been a continual barrage of things not going well, so I pretty much fell apart, years ago. I read somewhere that stress adversely impacts memory, and I believe it. I can't even remember where I parked my car any more, much less all the medical things she needs to be doing. We keep looking at each other, and saying, "We need a Mom to take care of us!" And that reminds me, I need to run home and do what I can, to keep the dog alive. At least that's something that's working for us, so far.

Dodged a bullet

I'm SO glad I was using cruise control tonight, for that short stretch on 285 at the east end of Sheridan, where the speed limit drops from 65 to 55 to 45, all in a mile or so. That hidden trigger happy trickster with a laser caught me doing exactly the posted 45, instead of the 55 or so I might've been going without it. It's kinda fun having a radar/laser detector, which doesn't prevent tickets, as much as it contributes to that warm fuzzy feeling, of knowing you just dodged another bullet.

Cherry Blossoms at City Park

Here are some nice pics from this morning's walk around the lake at Denver City Park. We really enjoyed the Spring blossoms on the Cherry trees. There was a nice fellow walking nearby, who mentioned he was from Washington, D.C., and loved the Cherry blossoms, which he said reminded him of home. — at Denver City Park.

Patio lounging

Waiting with Mandy on the patio to meet with Kristan... No more sneaking Mandy in, since she startled the nurse the other day. I was told in no uncertain terms, that the dog policy is "No dogs in the facility, unless they are Service or Therapy dogs." — at Azura.