Thanksgiving Events....

We had an eventful Thanksgiving. Mom was being served Thanksgiving lunch at the hospital, and we wanted her to have her feast from home. So I got up early in the morning and started preparing our feast. We finished it for lunchtime and got to the hospital by 1 PM. Mom had been given a snack, but her blood sugars were clearly low, as she was a bit disoriented. When she ate she cleared up and was more like herself. I made tomato salad, hoping it was enough like her recipe. She said it was good! Whew!

They had removed her nitro drip because her vein collapsed again, and her IV was failing for the second time. They called an anesthesiologist who was going to put a main line into her jugular vein. It's a bit of a risky procedure, as the carotid artery is right next to the vein, and made us a little nervous. We stepped out so he could do it, and returned an hour later, to find her fast asleep. But we couldn't see the line. The nurse told us that he had a hard time finding it, and had an emergency surgery to go to. He was planning to return with an ultrasound machine to confirm where her vein is. (Everyone's anatomy varies, and he thought it might be hiding behind her artery.)

We also learned that the angioplasty would not take place on Friday, as her kidney numbers have still not improved. (2.9 to 2.7 to 2.8; little change) Now the projected date is Monday or Tuesday. Sigh.

So we went home, as Katie was getting a bit stir crazy, which in turn was driving Kirk and me crazy. I called throughout the night to check on the IV procedure, but when I went to bed, it still had not been performed.

I called mom this morning, and she sounds much better. Blood sugars dipped again during the night but are OK right now. The anesthesiologist came in late last night to put in the main line. The ultrasound revealed that there was good reason for the doctor to have a hard time finding that vein on her right side: it wasn't there. At all. Further investigation revealed that BOTH her jugular veins are on her left side of her neck, one attached to the other. Once he found it, it took 5 minutes and her IV line is in again.

She is sitting up in her big chair and crocheting right now. She is impatient with the delays, but feeling all right. One side effect of all this fluid they are pushing into her veins is that she is retaining a LOT of fluid and has gained a ton of water weight. Her arms, face, and legs are very swollen. They have increased her Lasix (water pills) from 40 mg dosages to 120 mg dosages, to counteract this.

Martin and Jake got Kirk to drive them down to Alyeska today for their first ski day of the season. Much excitement and anticipation!

Here are some photos:


Turkey, asparagus with Hollandaise, corn, tomato salad, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, Mom's fancy china...

Caesar salad, gravy, broccoli..

Yummy turkey!
Beautiful plant from Swan Employer Services (Where Kirk works.)

Amanda brought the lovely flower...

This last photo is Mom and Anne Skyping (videoconferencing.) So cool!

This has been log-winded, so I will close with a few words of thanks. We are so thankful for all of you, friends and family, who are praying for us and offering your support. It is so comforting to have so many of you in our hearts and ready to help at a moment's notice. Although his is a rough time, we are thankful that the heart failure was caught before a major heart attack occurred, and that mom was in a public place and not home alone when her chest pain started. We are thankful that we have such a wonderful family, that we have the resources that we do, and that God is active and visible in our lives every day. I hope you had a wonderful, restful Thanksgiving, and that you will enjoy this weekend, your families, and your blessings.

Love to all....

Change of surroundings...

Mom is no longer in Room 233; she has been moved to a larger room in the Renal Care Unit. I think her new room number is 260. They moved her because they needed the Cardiac room for an open heart surgery patient. It makes sense for her to be in the Renal Care Unit, since the main goal right now is to get her kidney well enough for the heart procedure. Mom had some visitors last night. Sharon from Kirk's office came by, and Gwen and Jessica from church came by too. She was so pleased to have some visitors. Kirk & Jake did the Thanksgiving shopping last night so that we will be set for tomorrow.

Blood Sugar Trials...

I am sitting here in Room 233 with mom, and she is dozing. She is pretty tired; for the third day in a row she was awakened in the early hours with extremely low blood sugar. Today they had to change her sheets, clothes etc., as she was soaked through with sweat. Dr. Tucker is changing her insulin regimen again; she will now take her main dosage at night rather than in the morning as she has been. We hope this will help get her sugars under control.

After another increase in creatinine levels yesterday, there was a slight drop today. This is heartening (no pun intended,) because they cannot work on her heart until the kidney has bounced back. We are still tentatively set for Friday.

Yesterday mom had some chest pain and the nurse gave her nitro pills to put under her tongue for a more instant effect. This helped and she went back to no chest pain after that. Today they took her off the oxygen that she has been attached to since she arrived. After about an hour she is still at 98%, so he is keeping her off the oxygen for now. Yay! We are strongly hoping she will not end up having to be on oxygen at home after she recovers.

Amanda (mom watches her little ones) came by recently and brought mom a lovely plant, and the wonderful staff at Swan (where Kirk works) sent a fantastic plant arrangement as well. They cheer the room considerably; you know how sterile these rooms can be. I have checked out a slug of library books for her, and she has her computer and her crocheting. (Bummer: the hospital Internet filters and doesn't allow games like Pogo.com. Mom loves playing cards with Anne via the Internet.... oh well.) Hopefully these items will keep her from going to crazy when she is here alone.

The rest of the family is doing fine; I am splitting my time between home and the hospital and trying to get some of my work done from both places. Luckily I have Internet access in many places, so I can take my work with me. Martin had a bout of the 24 hour stomach flu Sunday night, and spent the entire night vomiting, but he is back to school today. Kirk spent the day yesterday at our church helping with the Thanksgiving Blessing. This is a city-wide project where several churches combine to help provide entire Thanksgiving meals to the needy. At our church from 1 Pm to 9 PM yesterday, 925 families received all the fixings for a Thanksgiving dinner. And that's just our church. Wow. Kirk was wiped out and crashed soon after getting home. I took Katie swimming last night; she just loves being in the water and had been asking for several days. We are making every effort to keep life as normal as possible for her. Yesterday she spoke with Ingrid on the phone, and asked her when she would be retiring. I could hear mom asking her what she meant, and after several repeats, it became clear that by "retiring," Katie meant "when will they release you from the hospital." :-)

Well, I am going to head back to my work email to get some more work done. I will update more when I have news. Please pray that mom's kidney bounces back quickly and that her blood sugars get under control. Thanks....

We have a plan.

The angioplasty is our planned course of action. The doctor who performs these procedures came to speak to mom after we left this afternoon, and he told her that the doctors have agreed that the angioplasty is the best option. I admit that I am relieved that they do not have to open mom's chest, sternum, and stop her heart to perform surgery. We pray that this course of action will prove successful. Unfortunately, they do not plan to complete the procedure until at least Friday, as they want her kidney to be in top condition. Although most people go home very quickly after and angioplasty, mom may have to stay in the hospital afterward as well to allow her kidney to get back up to speed. We will see.

Mom wishes she did not have to stay at the hospital to await the procedure, but we were given an example of why she must. Her IV was not working properly this evening, so they took her off her medications until the IV nurse could put a new line in. After about 20 minutes, mom began to have some pain directly below her heart area. We got the nurse, who put her back on the nitroglycerin, and the pain went away. Clearly, being here at the hospital is the only option until the procedure clears those blocked blood vessels.

Interestingly, the pain she was experiencing was the exact pain she had about two weeks ago. She started having this "stomach ache" early one evening, and it her hurt her most of the night. She thought it was a stomach problem. It now seems clear that she was having heart trouble, and did not recognize it. We are very blessed that she did not have a full heart attack.

Thank you to all who are leaving comments for mom, and for all your prayers. I will try and post a picture of mom later...don't have the camera cord here right now!

A Visit with the Heart Surgeon

I spent the day with mom at the hospital. She is feeling better, and the doctors allowed her to get up and move around. They brought a nice big chair into the room so she can sit up and crochet/read. The bed is quite uncomfortable after a while.

Our goal right now is to get all the information needed to make a good decision about what we should do next. Diabetes and a kidney transplant add to our complications and make this decision a bit harder than it might otherwise be. Mom's nephrologist, Dr. Tucker, came by to speak with us briefly. He made some adjustments in her insulin requirements to get her blood sugars under better control, and he told us that our next step is to get her kidney functioning at its baseline level again. The dye they had to use for the angiogram is toxic, and her kidney has to work hard to filter it from her blood. Her creatinine level was 1.8 when she arrived at the hospital on Thursday, and after this procedure, it is now at 2.5. This is evidence that the kidney is working hard and not functioning at its best. Any procedure that we decide on must wait until the kidney is back in proper working order. So it will be a while before she leaves the hospital.

Dr. Tucker says that his first instinct is to lean toward an angioplasty and stints to solve the blockage problem. It is the least invasive,which is best for mom in her condition.

Later this afternoon, the heart surgeon, Dr. Curtis, came by to talk to us. He had consulted with mom's cardiologist, Dr. Finley, and Dr. Tucker earlier in the day. He is an experienced heart surgeon who worked extensively with transplant patients in WA. He detailed what he would do if he did surgery, and explained the risks to us. He emphasized that mom has options. He wants to hear from Dr. Kramer, who would perform an angioplasty, to see how comfortable/confident he feels about the procedure. If he thinks it can be done, then that will be the first choice.

One neat thing about the afternoon was that I used my computer to Skype Anne in from Atlanta. We spent about 2 hours video chatting and she was able to join our meeting with the heart surgeon. It was so wonderful to have her there in the room with us!

Mom is in Room 233 at Providence, and she can take phone calls. Feel free to give her a call and help her break the monotony. Or leave us a comment here now and then, and I'll make sure she gets them. Thanks for all the prayers and good thoughts. We truly appreciate them.

Prayers welcomed...

Ingrid (Oma) has given us all a bit of a scare. She recently began an exercise regimen at the AK Club with a personal trainer to get into better shape. On Thursday, she couldn't make it through her water workout and had to call me to pick her up. She had chest pain and could not get her breath. We raced to Providence Hospital, where she was treated for congestive heart failure.(This has apparently been building for some time; it was not due to her workout.) An angiogram revealed three blocked blood vessels in her heart, two of them 90% and one 80%. We are currently talking with doctors to determine whether she will need bypass surgery or angioplasty. Her diabetes and kidney transplant complicate matters a bit, so we are gathering as much information as we can before making a decision.

She is in good spirits, feeling just fine, and anxious to make a decision and move forward. I (Martina) am spending most of my time at the hospital with her to help in getting info and everything else involved. Luckily, my job and boss are extremely forgiving and allow me to focus completely here. In addtion, Kirk and the boys are holding down the fort at home...