HOME / June 6th: Friday morning was an anxious time. I wanted to be with Kathy, but had to be here to direct everything. A guy from Baystate Infusion called about delivering the suction machine and then someone called about the feeding pump and supplies and wanted to make sure some one was home. They called from the hospital and… Read more →
Author: Peter Lehndorff
We’re sending Kathy home, today. Huh?
HOSPITAL / June 5th: In the morning, before I went to my doctor’s appointment, I got a call from the discharge case manager at Baystate. “We are trying to arrange to send Kathy home today, Thursday. ” I said,”Huh? What about the rehab place?” “No rehab. Dr. Kampe talked with Physical Therapy and they said she is good to go home.”… Read more →
Movement
HOSPITAL / June 4th & 5th: The next two days were consumed with getting the house ready and making sure Kathy was ready for her return trip home. Her feeding rate was gradually increased from 25 ml/hour to 35 ml/hr until she was doing fine with 55 ml/hr. At the same time the nurses were training me to administer her meds… Read more →
A Good Day
HOSPITAL / June 3rd: Tuesday morning Trisha and Mary stayed at the house to do some “rearranging.” They cleaned, folded and vacuumed and they had some ideas of where to put things so that my caregiving might be easier. They were worried that they were disrupting my method of doing things. Not to worry. I think almost everything is where they repositioned… Read more →
Feeding tube
HOSPITAL / June 2nd: I’m writing this from notes and memories. On Monday, they put the feeding tube in. I was actually driving to the hospital when the doctor called. He was trying to say he wanted her in for a follow-up visit in a week or two to take out some stitches. Thinking about the trauma of ambulances to and from… Read more →
Moving and Mowing
HOSPITAL / June 1st: Kathy had a restful night and Sunday Doctor Irani decided to move her from InterCare to a different part of the same department called Telemetry. If I understand it correctly, in a telemetry unit all the patients are monitored remotely in a separate room. A nurse on duty can see or hear when a patient is struggling.… Read more →
InterCare and the Search for the Lost Cord
HOSPITAL / May 31st: On Saturday morning Kathy’s condition seemed to have stabilized. Doctor Irani had given up on the idea of the temporary NG tube to feed her. The nurses and personal care aides were great. Naturally you always want an instant response to buzzes and beeps in your room, but the hospital is like a city that keeps… Read more →