Tuesday October 10th 2023

No Stars In My Eyes · Oct 10, 2023

G'Morning~

The woman across the street can't sit with Nannie and Momo today, but she arranged for her mom to come sit so I can go to the hospital to see hubby and talk with the NP about Palliative Care. Haven't heard from his dgt; she doesn't know about the NP I talked with, or my plan to go see her, though if she read the things on line I suggested, she may just show up. I know when I read all the info I could find on line, it did make my heart sink a little. I just wanted to make sure she wasn't in La-La Land about her Dad's prognosis.

Okay, almost time to get Nannie up, washed, dressed, and into her recliner for her yogurt and meds. Momo has been fed, and is curled up beside me. I am finishing off my coffee first. The lady is coming at 1 PM. I'll have to pick up one of Nannie's refills while I am out, too, and re-stock the supply of yogurts.

Enough dawdling~

I'm quite sure I'll be back here later on to update y'all.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Oct 10, 2023

Good morning!

I've always enjoyed getting out into nature. Not much into birding though.

Stars, hope you have a good meeting with the Palliative NP. With hepatic encephalopathy and acites he certainly has advanced liver disease and that's grim. But sometimes people can live with it for a while. Some people need to go get weekly paracentesis to drain acites. Of course with diabetes, smoking and lung problems it has to be rough on top of cirrhosis. All the best .

I got up around 6:00AM after going to bed around midnight. Was waking up at 5:20 and thought that too early but tossed and turned a bit and may have dozed. I got a lot done in that I've cooked lunches and dinner for the coming days and now prepping some steamed veggies to eat on the side. Swept some and will continue to sweep and mop, and do laundry. Went to hot yoga this morning already. Hopefully will get things done in time to relax some this evening.

No Stars In My Eyes · Oct 10, 2023

When I got to the hospital, the NP was occupied elsewhere. I stayed about 2 hours, but I had to do those other errands, so I left. I can always talk to her on phone or make an appt. for her time on another day. The lady who sat here for me today said she is retired and her time is pretty flexible, so anytime I need her, let her know! What a relief!

Okay, so hubby is better, he is still restless, but not as active. Confusion is clearing somewhat. He can initiate speaking, like, he asked me if I'd spoken with Joey, who is a friend from up in the mtns, who did a major detox a couple of years ago. He said, as he flung his leg over the side of the bed, "I believe I'm going to go upstairs and lay down in bed."! // "I'm not in bed".....when I told him he was in bed already. And he said he was going to go to the hospital, but I said "Surprise! You're already here in the hospital." He still has to have the mittens, which he periodically tries to remove, by putting one mitten under his other arm and pulling at it. He has gotten one of them off before. They still have a sitter watching him. He doesn't have an indwelling urinary cath, they just have him wearing adult diapers. But he does have a rectal cath-type thing, to help drain the results of the enemas. He is still getting antibiotics, potassium, and enteral nutritional feeding, and plain bag of something, I didn't look at that label for that one. I think it was a KVO line. He's got some impressive bruises, this time NOT caused by falling! When I told him I had to get going, he said, "Okay. You be sure to stay safe."

I made Nannie and me some of my special grilled cheese sandwiches, and had some Progresso potato soup. I make much better potato soup, but am not in the mood to do so from scratch. In fact I am quite weary, so I will sign off for now.

No Stars In My Eyes · Oct 10, 2023

Just rec'd a call from an NP at the hospital. She said they were going to have to do another paracentesis 'cause his belly is bloated again. I thought it looked larger today. She also said he has an encapsulated collection of fluid in his lower left lung (the one that collapsed twice and had to be drained 3x a few years ago), she wanted to know if I was okay with having them drain that as well. I said if it would make him able to breathe more easily, by all means go ahead. We don't know if that liquid in the lung encapsulation is part of the infection he is being treated for, so might as well knock it out, if possible.

I probably won't go visit him tomorrow. The NP said she didn't know when it would be scheduled, maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day. She said the encapsulated fluid would be trickier to get at, but there are people there who can do it.

All for now~