- Joined
- Jul 18, 2009
- Messages
- 8,838
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- Location
- Rogers, Arkansas
- First Name
- Mark
- Last Name
- Drumm
My thoughts remain with you two.....
Ours too......
My thoughts remain with you two.....
CaringBridge said:Back home - but not for long
By Brian Thorn — 4 hours ago
Brenda was discharged about a half hour ago and we're back home and she's in bed.
That's the good news.
The not so good news is that she will have another surgery on Wednesday. They will start with an angiogram to determine the amount of the blockage. It is 55mm long and the longest stent is only 40mm so they may need to use two of them. If the blockage is less than 50% they will back out and not do anything. If it is in the 70 - 80% (or higher) they will change to an angioplasty and put in the stent(s). There is a conflict between what the ultrasound shows and what the cat scan shows so until they actually reach the blockage they won't know how much is blocked.
The surgeon feels that they are dealing with scar tissue from the two prior surgeries so there is a "possibility" that when he inflates the balloon to widen the artery the scar tissue may not give way sufficiently to allow the stent into that area. If that happens he will withdraw and go to Plan B which is nothing at this point. While he did state this in front of Brenda she really did not pick up on that part of it, so those of you who speak to her should not bring it up either. She is stressed enough about this and I don't want to compound things and deal with this topic unless it becomes absolutely necessary.
If all goes well this is only about a one hour operation with a discharge the following day. Her recovery periods are typically longer than most people so I would be surprised if she comes home earlier than Friday afternoon.
On the plus side, after the initial crying she has been in fairly good spirits. She talked to her baby sister Patty several times today including after getting the news and after getting into bed at home. She also spoke with her sister Debbie and her sister Isabell will be calling tomorrow morning. It always brightens her day to speak to them.
She was able to walk with her cane into the house with me holding on to her so tomorrow's goal will be for her to get out of bed and go to the bathroom by herself with me just standing by. I have the weekend off so hopefully by the time Monday rolls around she will be self-sufficient again and I'll be able to go to work. We will probably have to do pre-op stuff on Tuesday and then be at the hospital around 5:30 on Wednesday for a scheduled 7:30 surgery.
That's it for now. As always, thank you for your comments, wishes and prayers.
CaringBridge said:Surgery in the morning
By Brian Thorn — 3 hours ago
It's Tuesday evening and we're going to watch a movie and then go to bed. We'll be up at 4:45, at the hospital at 5:30 and then her surgery is scheduled for 7:30 Cross your fingers and toes for a good result.
CaringBridge said:Not good, not bad
By Brian Thorn — 53 minutes ago
Challenging day today. It started out fairly well and we thought she'd be coming home today after the cardiologist saw her, but fortunately he didn't see her until early in the afternoon and less than an hour prior to that her BP crashed. The machine read 75/51 and sounded the alarm so I grabbed the nurse and she had the machine check it again and it was 60/40. Brenda was sleeping / groggy but felt okay so the nurse flattened out the bed instead of having her head raised.
For the rest of the day the BP continued to fluctuate with the last reading before I headed home being 129/63. The pushed two bags of fluid into her as she hasn't been drinking a lot, nor eating a lot. She probably slept 20+ hours in the past 24.
No fever, no infection at the wound site, minimal pain at the wound site, but she's had a headache since early this morning. They gave her morphine at 9 this morning and then a 5-325 Hydrocodone at 8:30 tonight and that's all the pain meds she's had. The headache was still there when I left and she was dozing off to sleep again. No stroke symptoms either which is a big concern for me because she had a severe headache just prior to the bleeder stroke last year.
Hmmm... I wonder if it's caffeine withdrawal? She only drinks 1-2 cups of coffee a day and when she rarely drinks soda it's not caffeinated, but she hasn't had anything since Tuesday morning.*
At this rate I don't see her coming home tomorrow either unless they get her BP stabilized. She is very upset about being stuck in the hospital another day. If she has to stay yet another day tomorrow she is going to be even more upset.
She refused Ativan tonight because she finally recognized what is was. This is the same med that they gave her mom about 30 minutes before she passed away. Brenda had it several times yesterday but I don't think she really knew what they were giving her and I didn't tell her about it.
Sisters, I know you want to speak to her but she hasn't even called Justin. She has just been too "out of it". If she is able, I'll get the phone in her hands tomorrow but no promises.
Continued prayers for healing and better health.
Thanks for the update Brian! Hopefully a radical diet change has helped.
I guess you could also consider a side-car for her if she has a hard time riding as a passenger on the back.
RB