It's a New Day

Yesterday was pretty miserable. It was the first time since my mom's gotten sick that I really just crumbled and had a good, long, sob. The idea of her going back in to the hospital, without my being there for a second time was pulling at my every heart string, and I can't even express how many times I was about to get in the car and drive there. I held back though, because I know in order to take the best care of my mom, I need to take care of myself as well, and once she was at the hospital there was nothing I could do for her that they staff couldn't and more. So we're sticking to the plan and I will be there Wednesday after picking up Gwennie in VT.

I talked to her for almost an hour just now, and she sounds like a new woman. In a single room(thanks c-diff!), slept well, got pain meds 20 minutes before they were due all night long thanks to her SUPER nurse, and is watching the snow fall out her window as we speak. She's feeling so comfortable now, that she actually refused her pain meds at 6am just to see where her threshold is right now- but don't worry, she knows not to let it go if the pain returns, but she also can't be depending on narcotics as heavily as she has been.

The plan for today, providing they can get an interventional radiologist to the hospital, is to place a catheter into the kidney through her back. The issue that has come up is that one part of her kidney is draining just fine, and the other is still congested (which raised the creatinine levels). When I tell people she has two ureters from her left kidney, they ask, "why don't they just cut one out?" That's not an option because both ureters are essential in that they drain two different parts of the kidney. As of now, she has a stent in the "good" ureter to dilate it further and make sure it's draining well. The other ureter they couldn't even find when they went in to place the stent. Dr. G said her bladder looked like a war zone from all the biopsies and surgeries, that they had a hard time finding the occluded ureter. This external catheter will bypass the need to access that ureter for now, drain the kidney, provide some relief, and then hopefully they'll be able to get in there with a stent when everything is less swollen.

She's happy with this plan, and she's happy to be at the hospital. She feels safe, and knows she has access to everything she could possibly need there. It doesn't hurt that when she arrived, she recognized half of the faces and a few staff popped their heads in to say hi. Yesterday she couldn't wait to get out of UCONN and just get home, but now she realizes that she needs to be in the hospital. Personally, I think she's happiest to get away from the stinky detergent they used on the linens at UCONN. I'm glad these are the things she focuses on when we talk- makes me realize she's still, very much herself!

The doctors will call me this morning after they see her, and as soon as I know something I'll post.

Oh yeah- she told me that she developed a career plan for me when she couldn't sleep at UCONN two nights ago. She's going to make me the new Rachel Ray, an Ann Landers of nursing, and she and Tom are going to manage my staff and "all of the fan mail." I'll be marketed as the little pediatric nurse from Boston, who's married, has a cat name Chloe, and nursed her mom through cancer, blah blah blah. She said, "Well, if Dr. Phil can do it!"

Then I remembered, my high school superlative was most likely to become a talk show host....

Maybe. Just maybe.