Saturday, February 27, 2010

It's Still Broke

It's Saturday and we are still incarcerated at Providence Health Center. In case you don't know, hospitals are not very restful places and Marty has generally not slept well so she naps a lot. That's okay, hospitals do a lot of other good things, they have really good drugs in hospitals.

Marty's white count has trended upward the last couple of days and she had a bit of a fever yesterday so it doesn't appear it's a good time for us to leave just yet. Besides, we would miss the good company of some very good nurses. I told Nurse Stacy and Great and Wise yesterday we have had the best care of any hospital stay anywhere, to date. The doctor we almost expect, the nurses have been above and beyond the call, just great and I mean it. I suspect they hear this from many, but these guys have been good.

Over the last couple of days we have done an EEG, still waiting results, a modified barium swallow study, swallowing slow but okay, and a chest x-ray, some cloudiness in lower right lobe, but it could just be scarring from previous pneumonias. The two most pressing questions; what did we learn from the EEG and why is her white count creeping up again.

Marty's neurologist, Dr.Schwartzee came today and examined her and said he really felt like she needed to be on anti-seizure meds... Boo. They tend to make Marty really sleepy and a bit loopy and tend cloud some of our more obvious diagnostic tools. Oh well, we will adapt, and I agree Marty needs to be on these meds, I just don't like the side effects.  Dr. S will read the EEG, when he finds it.  Hopefully he will let us know what it says, probably nothing.

Great and Wise has decided to add another antibiotic to our arsenal to battle the white count which could be coming fron an upper respiratory bug not affected by the other two medicines. She is going off the original antibiotic today and we are adding one that is from a different family. It's a shotgun approach but I say keep shooting. That's the way I always hunted, shoot enough and the bird eventually runs into the shot.

Marty's arm is still broken (duh) and it still hurts so we haven't had a miracle healing yet. It's swollen and bruised and it hurts for her to even try and use it. She moves her hand and her fingers and she held her Diet Coke a bit last night first steps. Marty will work hard to get use out this arm, she hates being fed, yet she allows it until she can do something about it.

I really appreciate all of the kind thoughts being sent Marty’s way. I’m not sure I understand why it makes a difference but it really does, just knowing people are out there caring. I always make sure Marty knows about all of the people following her life and I read her all of your comments. If you have never had a chance to meet Marty, she really is very resilient, smart and very, very, very stubborn; all of which has helped her throughout our adventures and will help her as we move to a new normal.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello Larry,
I have been reading your posts regularly on fb and I am praying for you, Marty, and the family. I am so sorry about this latest round of trials and will be praying that the doctors get meds regulated and that the arm heals straight and rehabs quickly.

Hey they call me big jim now. Something you would never have thought of in high school.

Jim

Marty's Husband said...

Thank you "Big" Jim -- yeah who would have known. Thanks for the kind thoughts -- always appreciated. LK