Outing to Rosie's

Freddie and Ken and me and Mandy met up with Kristan today for an afternoon visit. Then we kidnapped her (legally) and took her over to Rosie's Diner nearby for dinner. Not much of an outing, but better than staying in the Life Care facility all the time. K was alert and interactive, which I really enjoyed. Amy took a side trip to Innomax to get more bed info, then met us at Rosie's for a slice of pie. Then after we got back to her room, they started chatting about bedroom furniture, but I got sleepy and had to head home.

I am *NOT* looking forward to having the presidential debate here on Wednesday evening. They're closing I-25, *THE* major North-South interstate highway through Denver, from 5-10pm, in the name of security. Unbelievable. Seems likely that traffic is going to be miserable around here that evening, so I'll probably just skip going to see K after work that day.

The challenge of choices

Stopped by the Apple Store last night, before going to see K. They're sold out of new phones, of course, for the foreseeable future. When I asked about getting a MacBook for K, they steered me toward the iPad. Seems like a reasonable alternative, since it's smaller and lighter, and especially considering the new apps available that allow access to Flash-enabled websites. I got through the first of the choices ok, then ran screaming, when faced with the choice of carrier and data plan. Aaaiiieee! My experiences with Verizon, T-Mobile, and now AT&T have been less than stellar. I can only imagine Sprint has their own troubles. What to do...

Lousy night

K reported that she'd had a lousy Thursday night. She seemed somewhat recovered, when Mandy and I visited her this evening.

Field Trip and Status

I'm not sure whether to categorize K's first field trip out with me (to Innomax), as a partial success, or a flat-out disaster. The goal was to let her try out the power lift bed, that Amy and I found on Saturday, and then to look at some of their headboard designs, to see if we could agree on one for home.

Her PT started and ended late. Then she spent a lot of time getting her boot on the left foot, and trying to get the prosthetic on the right leg. She thinks her right leg is too swollen, for the fitting to get to that final "click" that indicates it's safely attached. So we took the facility's wheelchair

We finally left her room at 4pm. With the store closing at 5pm, there wasn't much time. We got her, the wheelchair, and Mandy into the car, and to the store OK, but she was so tired from lack of sleep, that she was pretty useless once we got there. She kept asking questions, then falling asleep when the salesman would try to answer her. She didn't want to leave when the store closed, so three of the employees stayed around, as I tried to whisk her around to the various headboard displays, as she continued to ask questions and fall asleep during the answers. I finally convinced her we had to leave at 6pm, but she wasn't happy about it.

Getting her back into the car was problematic, as she had a hard time waking up to transfer herself from the wheelchair to the car, but we finally got it done.

Then we ran into awful (standstill) traffic on both I-70 and I-25 -- on Sunday afternoon, would would've expected that? -- so it took almost an hour to get back to Life Care.

She was really knocked out, after all that time riding (sleeping) quietly in the car, so it was another big challenge, transferring her from car to wheelchair, to the room, into bed, and undressed for the night. Her CNA had saved her 5pm dinner for her, so she perked up a little, and wanted to stay up to check that out. By that time, I needed to leave for home, so I asked her CNA to stay with her until she laid down.

Within an hour of arriving home, K called to say she had fallen off her bed, and hit her head hard on the floor. She had trouble understanding me, with us talking on two cell phones, and called back from the room phone, but still had trouble understanding me, and hung up. I called her back at both phones, and got no answer, nor from the nurse's station. After a few more minutes, the nurse called with a summary of the event. She had fallen asleep sitting up, and went over onto the floor, but she had no new pain, and all her fingers and lower appendages were working as expected. They called the doctor, who ordered an X-Ray, but she appeared to be fine.

Overnight visit

Mandy and I packed up an overnight kit, and came to spend the night with K. She had a miserable night (not our fault!), and only got to bed around 6am. She graciously shared her breakfast with us, and then I took Mandy for a short walk around the block. Our plan for a short field trip to Innomax may be thwarted by her everyday schedule here. I don't want her to miss her OT at 10am, and PT at 1pm. — at Life Care Center of Aurora.

Outing complete

She's back. And she's tired. Long day. The ENT thinks the ear pain may be related to a TMJ problem. The good news is, the Neurosurgeon says she can start sleeping without the collar, IF (big if) she promises not to fall out of bed overnight. He also thinks the ear pain could be neck related, need to wait and see.

Out and about!

K called me from the van just now. She's out and about for the first time in 6 weeks, and very excited about it. "I'm on I-25, passing your office right now!" as they passed by the new Ikea store near us. They're running her around to two doctor's appointments -- the neurosurgeon to follow up on the neck surgery, and an ENT to investigate the sharp pain she's had in her right ear the past few weeks, that Kindred's doc did virtually nothing to resolve.

Fell but OK

Got a call this morning from a nurse at Life Care. K slipped off her bed and fell at 4:30am this morning, ended up sitting on the floor. She was perched on the edge of her bed, not sleeping well, took a sleeping pill, and it seems she delayed too long getting safely into bed. No apparent injury, but they have a protocol to check regularly and call the Dr after an event like this.

K at Life Care

Mandy and I met K at the Life Care Aurora SNF this afternoon. The goal is to have PTs and OTs help her get stronger, while RNs and CNAs are making sure she gets the right meds, all under the watchful eye of the staff MD, so she can come home and be as safe as possible.

K moving

I just heard from Leslie, backup case mgr at Kindred. K will transfer to Life Care Aurora Skilled Nursing Facility at 2pm. 14101 East Evans Ave, Aurora, CO, (303) 751-2000. Getting ever closer to you, Karen! She's in dialysis now. I have to put together a pkg of clothes for her to wear for her xfer.

iPhone 5

I'll be wanting one of them iPhone 5 devices they announced on Wednesday. Our 3GS models, which were snappy when they were new, are excruciatingly slow these days, like 20 seconds to wake up from screen lock mode. Probably due to the "extras" in the OS updates since we got them three years ago. Glad to see they upsized the battery, since battery life alone would tip the balance for me. The new CPU is many times faster than the ones we have, which seems like a great thing. And the camera, while about the same as the 4S model, is way better than ours.

Minor victory

K has been asking for weeks, about removing the steri-strips that were put on her neck after the surgery on 8/13, and Kindred RNs keep saying things like "they'll just fall off on their own." Well, after nearly a month, Amy called the neurosurgeon's office, and was told they would have taken them off after two weeks, during the follow up appointment that K never made, because she was at Kindred. They said to get them off immediately, since they're just growing bacteria after all this time. I repeated that to the Kindred RN and she removed the strips tonight. The good news is, the uncovered wound looks pretty good back there. Had to cover it with something again, to protect it from the neck collar, but at least those strips are gone.

Evaluated SNFs

Amy helped me get out today, and evaluate two Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs) for Kristan. Littleton Care and Rehab Center, and Azura Lakewood Rehab Suites. Both looked and smelled clean and new, had very pleasant rooms, good looking rehab and dining facilities, even wifi (which Kindred doesn't have). Now we need to figure out what, if anything, Kindred is doing for her, that would prevent her from being discharged to such a place.

Perky

K seemed pretty perky when I got here this afternoon, sitting up and interacting with her collection of items on her bedside table. Barbara the PT came and helped her do some exercises with her remaining leg, and transfer from bed to wheelchair and back. She says she had a hard time waking up yesterday, and the RN "started flippin' out." But she kept asking the RN "how her respirations" were, and they admitted all her vitals were fine. The case manager Gloria said a few days ago, that the "tentative" discharge date (based on the typical 25-30 day stay) would be the 14th, but they'll do an evaluation before setting the real date. Not sure where she'll go from here -- either home or a Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF).

Recap of K's Broken Neck Event

I've created a Blogger side page, containing a recap of K's fall, broken neck, and heart events. I was able to include a bunch of links to references about some of the medical technical details. Check it out, and feel free to remind me if I forgot to mention something. It's a long story, after all.

Executive Director!

My sister Mikele is now the proud holder of the title Executive Director of the San Luis Obispo Winds Orchestra! I'm so proud of her.

Dog Lockdown

Kindred is on dog (and other) lock-down because of a new patient isolation policy caused by C.diff and (and other) infectious issues. K doesn't understand (or maybe doesn't remember) and keeps asking when I'm bringing Mandy to visit. And Mandy keeps looking at me, wondering when I'm going to take her in again. Breaks my heart. I'm not clear on how carrying Mandy in, so her feet don't touch the floor, setting her on the bed, and restricting her to that spot, can be a risk, but there it is.

No Narcan dammit!

Had a quiet afternoon and evening with K today. She was very sleepy at first, but perked up pretty quickly after I arrived. We had a long and interesting conversation with her nurse Vallorie, who casually mentioned the Dr had just reduced the dosage on her pain med, because she's not waking up until 11am. The word Narcan also came up, which drove K to tears. Bottom line, is that K needs to make waking up a very high priority, when people come to talk to her, if she doesn't want to be (figuratively) thrown into a tub of boiling water. Their concern is not about her being social. They worry that her respiration may also be suppressed when that happens. I told Vallorie that I want a phone call before they give her Narcan. And they need to measure the end function -- O2 saturation -- before they get too concerned.

Facebook has more details

I'm posting far more updates and pictures to Facebook. If you want to see them, but are afraid to create an account for yourself, ask me about the "friend" account I setup in Mandy's name. You can view all of my posts that way, without giving away ANYTHING personal about yourself, not even your name. If you're interested, please call me, and I'll get you started.

Chilly

A little chilly on the patio at Egg & I this morning. At 59°F and with a light breeze, I need a flannel shirt, and our little shorthair Mandy needs a blanket. I'm looking forward to my raisin bread French toast and hot coffee! Today is a mini-milestone day for me - two new things in my life of the last three weeks: 1) I finally can wear a shoe! and 2) I finally got a shower! Enough with the sponge-baths, already. 

The Gauntlet

This is the main lobby that Mandy and I will have to pass through, to get into the Kindred facility tomorrow afternoon. The papers are in place with Kindred, so we're good to go, except for these few steps...

This panorama picture was taken while standing at the main entrance. We have to get through the glass doors on the far right, past the receptionist desk. I'm calling it, "The Gauntlet". I gave the report from the Vet (healthy, has her shots, not a threat) to the charge nurse at Kindred last night. When I told her that I realized it was my responsibility to find a way past the MCA people on the first floor, she said, "If they give you any trouble, call me, and I'll come down and talk to them." I can't really ask for any better support than that.

Dialysis this morning

They said K is in dialysis this morning. Judging from my visit last night, she's still overwhelmed and not ready for stimulation from visitors. But I'll keep bothering her every night after work. It's my job.

Miserable

K says she had a miserable day, got meds 4 hours late, asked to talk to case manager, but never saw her, lots of that kind of stuff. The good news is that she seems alert and moving better, in spite of the bad stuff. They still say "no dogs" because they're leasing this part of another company's facility, and that's the rule. But we may have found a chink in the armor. — with Kristan Attardi Hushing at Kindred Hospital Aurora.

Missed a chemo dose

Kristan finally got her chemo med last night. The nurse at Littleton Hospital had handed it to the ambulance driver, who didn't give it to the Kindred people when they transported her on Tuesday. Then the ambulance company called the house yesterday (luckily Jen was there), said Kristan had "dropped her pills in the ambulance", and arranged to deliver them to the house. So, I made a detour back home and picked it up, before visiting her last night. Sigh. I thought the Kindred pharmacist had gone home for the evening, so I gave her one pill, and told the nurse, as I handed her the pill bottle. Then the pharmacist came to the room and bawled me out for messing with her meds. Like water off a duck's back...

K at Kindred

Kristan was moved to the Kindred Aurora facility, room 2019, Tuesday afternoon. It's at 700 N Potomac St. The main entrance is at the southwest corner of the Aurora Medical complex. Once you're in the Kindred area, take the elevator to the 2nd floor. She called me this morning - the first time she's had the energy to initiate a call. They should be giving her dialysis sometime today, not sure of the time. Check out this virtual tour of the facility.

Tired

I fell asleep 3 times during the drive home from Kindred on Tuesday evening. Dumb. Luckily all three times, it was at a stoplight. I woke up at the green light, with nobody in front of me any more...

Monday morning dialysis

They took K for her regular MWF dialysis this morning. Should be coming off sometime after noon.

Beautiful morning

I'm sitting here at our kitchen nook table, enjoying some plump sweet blueberries and luscious strawberries, and watching several multicolored hot air balloons rise over Chatfield Lake in the distance. Very cheery sight. Nice way to start the day, before we walk with Ken down to Blueberry's for breakfast. Kristan has been sleeping a lot, which I'm pretty sure is a good thing. She was very suppressed by the pain meds yesterday, rambling on about things she was imagining, and I'm not sure she fully appreciated that her brother and my sisters were leaving when they did. I am hopeful that she's feeling a little better, since she's been moving around a bit more. Amy and I were able to kidnap her in a wheelchair last night, and run her around the hospital. We stopped by the hospital entrance, and finagled a way to get Mandy in through the one-way-out doors that late at night, so they could visit for the first time in two weeks. We noticed her telemetry RF link started beeping, not long after we left the floor, no doubt complaining about being out of range of the collection hub. I figured they would come looking for us soon, so we kept moving. Her nurse finally found us, as she was cuddling with Mandy in the downstairs lobby of the North tower, and broke up the love fest, but we would've been heading back soon anyway.

Grand Exodus

My sisters, and K's brother and sister in law, all left today. Sad to see them all go, especially on the same day, but that's the way it happened to work out.

S still protecting the toe

Took a fun walk in my new Chacos with Mikele, Otamay, Ken, Freddie to Blueberry's. John and Mel met us there. Sad to think all our visitors are leaving tomorrow. I will definitely be having family withdrawal tomorrow night.