There is no place like home!
Sharon returned home from the hospital late yesterday morning. She spent much of yesterday afternoon resting. She gets happy and weepy over the spring flowers. She slept well last night and remains afebrile today (max temp of 99.6), which is a great relief. She is taking ciprofloxacin for her infection and oral pain medications for her continuing flank and bladder pain related to her large kidney stone and/or the large plastic pipe (stent) that is in place. She still has bilateral pleural effusions (Water in the space between lungs and it’s lining, the pleura). She is sort of like an insulated thermal cup. With the fluid and infection it is very important that she maintain her “pulmonary toilet. This is a process of coughing, and positioning herself to assure that her lungs drain, get lots of air and do not become infected. She practices inhaling deeply using her inspirometer, which she named “Steve, Too” after her brother who is an unrelenting and effective advocate that this breathing stuff is a priority activity. Fortunately, it fits in with great yoga techniques too and is good for all sorts of ailments.
Today she was eating meals at the dining room table and had visitors and calls. Her appetite is good and to raise her serum albumin and iron she has relaxed some of her eating practices (Happy meat and plant based diet). She appears to have lost most of the extra fluid that she accumulated during her illness. People are not as inclined to call her “lumpy” or “sausage girl”. I am not sure anyone was ever brave enough (except mayber our children) to ever call her that really. It appears that she will not need to take more diuretics at this point. During her last day in hospital her body decided to sweat — a process called diaphoresis. She sweated at least a liter of fluid off in what she says was like the worlds longest hot flash. No one is entirely sure of the mechanism for this but at one point Sharon said that maybe her body was wise and decided it needed to increase the loss of fluid or alternatively, her body was responding to seven solid days of adrenaline. When they were all pondering this she said “I don’t know, I have been a little stressed”. This was met by silence and then followed by a hearty laugh all around.
Sharon and friend Margaret Caudill-Slosberg were reflecting on life in the hospital and she wondered about what could be learned from a qualitative study of the language used and names applied to a patient as a reflection of how sick they are. Sharon says she was called honey, sweetie and dear for 4 full days and only when she was mostly out of the woods and on the road to recovery did people begin to use her name. Maybe this is something woordle or the like could illustrate — if not for science at least for fun.
It is hard for her to be home and not be involved in all the things she normally does here. She is a slow moving guest trying to keep her whims within reason and yet not forget to ask for help. I am deeply grateful for all of the offers of support and help with grocery shopping, garden clean up, and dinners. On day 3 of Sharon’’ illness I came down with an impressive sinusitis and upper respiratory infection which has been annoying and persistent. Perhaps I have been stressed. Sharon likes to have me around for naps being someone seldom inclined to take them otherwise. We turn into a puppy pile (with cats). We have not had to send Natalya out with a bow and arrow yet due to the largesse of our friends and family. Morgan has even offered a mercy visit home next week sometime.
Tomorrow morning, Sharon has an appointment with Dr. Nisbit, the urologist, to discuss surgery to remove the stones in her left kidney. Based on our meeting with him yesterday morning prior to Sharon’s discharge, its possible that she might have the surgery next week. We will continue to make updates available on the blog and please feel free to share them with others and leave comments and suggestions. Good articles, books, podcasts or entertainment shows are all of interest.
Understandably our friends are shocked to learn of our latest adventure. They just turned away for a moment and next thing they know the whole shooting match has gone crazy.
Stay in touch, thanks for your kindness to our family and enjoy the spring.
Sharon returned home from the hospital late yesterday morning. She spent much of yesterday afternoon resting. She gets happy and weepy over the spring flowers. She slept well last night and remains afebrile today (max temp of 99.6), which is a great relief. She is taking ciprofloxacin for her infection and oral pain medications for her continuing flank and bladder pain related to her large kidney stone and/or the large plastic pipe (stent) that is in place. She still has bilateral pleural effusions (Water in the space between lungs and it’s lining, the pleura). She is sort of like an insulated thermal cup. With the fluid and infection it is very important that she maintain her “pulmonary toilet. This is a process of coughing, and positioning herself to assure that her lungs drain, get lots of air and do not become infected. She practices inhaling deeply using her inspirometer, which she named “Steve, Too” after her brother who is an unrelenting and effective advocate that this breathing stuff is a priority activity. Fortunately, it fits in with great yoga techniques too and is good for all sorts of ailments.
Today she was eating meals at the dining room table and had visitors and calls. Her appetite is good and to raise her serum albumin and iron she has relaxed some of her eating practices (Happy meat and plant based diet). She appears to have lost most of the extra fluid that she accumulated during her illness. People are not as inclined to call her “lumpy” or “sausage girl”. I am not sure anyone was ever brave enough (except mayber our children) to ever call her that really. It appears that she will not need to take more diuretics at this point. During her last day in hospital her body decided to sweat — a process called diaphoresis. She sweated at least a liter of fluid off in what she says was like the worlds longest hot flash. No one is entirely sure of the mechanism for this but at one point Sharon said that maybe her body was wise and decided it needed to increase the loss of fluid or alternatively, her body was responding to seven solid days of adrenaline. When they were all pondering this she said “I don’t know, I have been a little stressed”. This was met by silence and then followed by a hearty laugh all around.
Sharon and friend Margaret Caudill-Slosberg were reflecting on life in the hospital and she wondered about what could be learned from a qualitative study of the language used and names applied to a patient as a reflection of how sick they are. Sharon says she was called honey, sweetie and dear for 4 full days and only when she was mostly out of the woods and on the road to recovery did people begin to use her name. Maybe this is something woordle or the like could illustrate — if not for science at least for fun.
It is hard for her to be home and not be involved in all the things she normally does here. She is a slow moving guest trying to keep her whims within reason and yet not forget to ask for help. I am deeply grateful for all of the offers of support and help with grocery shopping, garden clean up, and dinners. On day 3 of Sharon’’ illness I came down with an impressive sinusitis and upper respiratory infection which has been annoying and persistent. Perhaps I have been stressed. Sharon likes to have me around for naps being someone seldom inclined to take them otherwise. We turn into a puppy pile (with cats). We have not had to send Natalya out with a bow and arrow yet due to the largesse of our friends and family. Morgan has even offered a mercy visit home next week sometime.
Tomorrow morning, Sharon has an appointment with Dr. Nisbit, the urologist, to discuss surgery to remove the stones in her left kidney. Based on our meeting with him yesterday morning prior to Sharon’s discharge, its possible that she might have the surgery next week. We will continue to make updates available on the blog and please feel free to share them with others and leave comments and suggestions. Good articles, books, podcasts or entertainment shows are all of interest.
Understandably our friends are shocked to learn of our latest adventure. They just turned away for a moment and next thing they know the whole shooting match has gone crazy.
Stay in touch, thanks for your kindness to our family and enjoy the spring.
