Home again
Dear Friends and Family,
Well we are finally home again. The doctors had consulted the results of the blood work taken this morning, did some final doses of IV potassium and antibiotic, began to get results from cultures taken on tuesday and wednesday and decided that Nan could safely be released. A big factor was todays creatine, a measure of the kidneys ability to remove toxins. Yesterday it was 3.6, the day before 3.7 and today was 3.2. They were encouraged by the trend. Nan has continued to eat well. She had a huge breakfast, huge for her standards and a good lunch, lots to drink and is tolerating the food well. She aware that to stay off TPN she will have to continue to do her best to consume a variety of foods to get her nutrition. Nan likes the idea of being off TPN because it allows her to begin to consider a bit of travel which is near and dear to her heart. She wants to go spend time in Texas so much so this is a positive step and we hope to be able to vacation a bit in a couple months.
A nurse practiciner, whose name escapes me, was very instrumental in getting us ready to leave. She wrote prescriptions for pain meds, antibiotics and after more cultures are fully grown tomorrow they will be calling in even more antibiotics. Nan was growing several different bugs in her urinary tract and most can be treated with a variety of antibiotics. In an effort to take away all possible sources of infection they did remove her picc line this afternoon. It seems strange to see Nan's arm with no picc line. She has had one of one kind or another for nearly a year now. This means that blood work on mondays will have to be done with a new stick each time. And any future transfusion will require an iv to be inserted yet they feel strongly that Nans arm needs to be free of a picc line for a couple weeks just in case there is infection there.
We received very good care at Mt Zion UCSF. The routines are a bit more relaxed than at other hospitals, they are willing to allow a patient to sleep most of the night without interuption and make a real effort to keep things quiet, low light and soothing. We did have one male nurse that really could not be bothered with mundane things like emptying the colostomy bag but he talked a nice talk and was interesting. Our nurse practiciner is from Boston, loves the people she works with here but is only filling in while the original nurse practiciner is on maternity leave and that is over soon. So she may return to Boston to work and we gave her Dr. Steeles card, he is the main urologist at Brigham and Womans in Boston and the person she would be working with. She was glad for the personal contact and knowledge about him. We think he is great, gave us good attention last spring.
When we finally were checked out of the hospital Mom wanted to stop at Crate and Barrels to look at a few things, using the GPS we found one downtown in SF. Then we stopped at the new Cheese Cake Factory in Pleasanton and ordered out some alvocado egg rolls for nan and a cheese sandwich for me which we ate in the car, then home to find Nan's heated cover was freshly laundered and dried and ready to supply warmth. Thank you Loree for yet one more kind thing you have done this week. Nan has been nodding off in her chair and she has her viberating / heating shoes on that Nikki gave her for Christmas. I build a little fire and Steve had delivered tons of kindling for the fire, great stuff, almost lights its self.
In retrospect we are thankful for the way this week has turned out. By the time we met Dr. Bergsland Nan had several negative things going on, heart rate was 137 resting, creatines were 3.4, there were several areas of infection slowly growing, she was very tired and worn out. The doctor wisely admitted her and placed her under Dr. Meng's care. He is the head urologist and outstanding, kind, retentive of facts and faces and proactive. He has a team of other disciplines which he relies on for input, the nutritionist who interviewed Nan and raised the idea of quitting TPN, the IR team who replaced the nephrostomy tubes, a pharmacist who goes to great lengths to make sure any drugs used don't overload the weak kidneys or have a negative interaction with Gleevec or Rapamune. Also a biology department who searches for bugs and trys to identify them for treatment. Thats why I appreciate a teaching hospital, a big hospital, you tend to get the best in their fields and they have lots of exposure to difficult cases and are not threatened by someone like Nan who has experienced many challenges medically over the past 10 years. From now on copies of the blood work reports will be faxed to Mr. Meng and Dr. Bergsland directly so they can know what is going on in Nan's body and can quickly to it.
It is so good to be home now. I took Nan up a few minutes ago and changed the dressing and tucked her in. She had been in bed enough that her feet are getting little sores on the sides of her ankles so we are trying a pillow under them. Nan was asleep by the time I left the room and Starr is so happy to have her home again.
Nan arranged for me to take Keanna in the morning to SS in Tracy. If Nan wants me to do it then I am sure willing because I like to see Keanna interact with the Bible Stories and the other children. I think Nan will probably sleep in, she sure deserves it.
I thank our Heavenly Father for the privilege of once again having Nan home. I thank Him for His direction and good care and I certainly praying that He will continue to guide in her recovery.
I also thank you, Art, Sharon, Dana, Irene, Nikki, Jason, Jo, Loree, Mary, Pam and others I might have missed like Jan for their encouraging calls this week. And of course Nan's favorite phone buddy, Keanna. When Nan told her tonight on the phone that I was taking her to Sabbath School in the morning, she said, that would be nice. Cute.
Sending our love,
Tim and Nan
Well we are finally home again. The doctors had consulted the results of the blood work taken this morning, did some final doses of IV potassium and antibiotic, began to get results from cultures taken on tuesday and wednesday and decided that Nan could safely be released. A big factor was todays creatine, a measure of the kidneys ability to remove toxins. Yesterday it was 3.6, the day before 3.7 and today was 3.2. They were encouraged by the trend. Nan has continued to eat well. She had a huge breakfast, huge for her standards and a good lunch, lots to drink and is tolerating the food well. She aware that to stay off TPN she will have to continue to do her best to consume a variety of foods to get her nutrition. Nan likes the idea of being off TPN because it allows her to begin to consider a bit of travel which is near and dear to her heart. She wants to go spend time in Texas so much so this is a positive step and we hope to be able to vacation a bit in a couple months.
A nurse practiciner, whose name escapes me, was very instrumental in getting us ready to leave. She wrote prescriptions for pain meds, antibiotics and after more cultures are fully grown tomorrow they will be calling in even more antibiotics. Nan was growing several different bugs in her urinary tract and most can be treated with a variety of antibiotics. In an effort to take away all possible sources of infection they did remove her picc line this afternoon. It seems strange to see Nan's arm with no picc line. She has had one of one kind or another for nearly a year now. This means that blood work on mondays will have to be done with a new stick each time. And any future transfusion will require an iv to be inserted yet they feel strongly that Nans arm needs to be free of a picc line for a couple weeks just in case there is infection there.
We received very good care at Mt Zion UCSF. The routines are a bit more relaxed than at other hospitals, they are willing to allow a patient to sleep most of the night without interuption and make a real effort to keep things quiet, low light and soothing. We did have one male nurse that really could not be bothered with mundane things like emptying the colostomy bag but he talked a nice talk and was interesting. Our nurse practiciner is from Boston, loves the people she works with here but is only filling in while the original nurse practiciner is on maternity leave and that is over soon. So she may return to Boston to work and we gave her Dr. Steeles card, he is the main urologist at Brigham and Womans in Boston and the person she would be working with. She was glad for the personal contact and knowledge about him. We think he is great, gave us good attention last spring.
When we finally were checked out of the hospital Mom wanted to stop at Crate and Barrels to look at a few things, using the GPS we found one downtown in SF. Then we stopped at the new Cheese Cake Factory in Pleasanton and ordered out some alvocado egg rolls for nan and a cheese sandwich for me which we ate in the car, then home to find Nan's heated cover was freshly laundered and dried and ready to supply warmth. Thank you Loree for yet one more kind thing you have done this week. Nan has been nodding off in her chair and she has her viberating / heating shoes on that Nikki gave her for Christmas. I build a little fire and Steve had delivered tons of kindling for the fire, great stuff, almost lights its self.
In retrospect we are thankful for the way this week has turned out. By the time we met Dr. Bergsland Nan had several negative things going on, heart rate was 137 resting, creatines were 3.4, there were several areas of infection slowly growing, she was very tired and worn out. The doctor wisely admitted her and placed her under Dr. Meng's care. He is the head urologist and outstanding, kind, retentive of facts and faces and proactive. He has a team of other disciplines which he relies on for input, the nutritionist who interviewed Nan and raised the idea of quitting TPN, the IR team who replaced the nephrostomy tubes, a pharmacist who goes to great lengths to make sure any drugs used don't overload the weak kidneys or have a negative interaction with Gleevec or Rapamune. Also a biology department who searches for bugs and trys to identify them for treatment. Thats why I appreciate a teaching hospital, a big hospital, you tend to get the best in their fields and they have lots of exposure to difficult cases and are not threatened by someone like Nan who has experienced many challenges medically over the past 10 years. From now on copies of the blood work reports will be faxed to Mr. Meng and Dr. Bergsland directly so they can know what is going on in Nan's body and can quickly to it.
It is so good to be home now. I took Nan up a few minutes ago and changed the dressing and tucked her in. She had been in bed enough that her feet are getting little sores on the sides of her ankles so we are trying a pillow under them. Nan was asleep by the time I left the room and Starr is so happy to have her home again.
Nan arranged for me to take Keanna in the morning to SS in Tracy. If Nan wants me to do it then I am sure willing because I like to see Keanna interact with the Bible Stories and the other children. I think Nan will probably sleep in, she sure deserves it.
I thank our Heavenly Father for the privilege of once again having Nan home. I thank Him for His direction and good care and I certainly praying that He will continue to guide in her recovery.
I also thank you, Art, Sharon, Dana, Irene, Nikki, Jason, Jo, Loree, Mary, Pam and others I might have missed like Jan for their encouraging calls this week. And of course Nan's favorite phone buddy, Keanna. When Nan told her tonight on the phone that I was taking her to Sabbath School in the morning, she said, that would be nice. Cute.
Sending our love,
Tim and Nan
Labels: Nan's recovery
posted by Tim Mustard @ 9:41 PM
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