ValleyRD Mailing List: Fwd: Lila update--Monday, 7/25/2011

[Bob Heiser (w7ikt]

God Bless
Bob Heiser

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Very BAD week.  Nothing good to report.

During the middle of last week, I noticed that Lila was getting weaker each day and was having problems talking.  I feared that she had suffered a stroke.  However, the other signs of a stroke were not present.  By Saturday, she was so weak that she could not get up from a chair or bed without help.  She was having more and more problems with talking, forming words and ideas.    I was talking with the doctors and nurses, but they all assured me that she was getting along just fine.   On Saturday night I went back to the hospital and we watched a movie on TV.  I left the hospital about 9:30.

At 2:45 Sunday morning, I received a call from the hospital.  Lila had a major blood pressure problem (over 200 on the top number), was confused and they moved her to ICU.

I got to the hospital by 3:30 and talked to the doctor.  He said that her blood pressure was very high, but they had reduced it some and her kidneys were not working well.  She was in "critical condition". I stayed until they threw me out at 6:00 AM to do the shift change.  Lila was mostly out when I left.

They re-opened the doors to the ICU at 10:00 AM.  I walked back to Lila's room and overheard a telephone conversation a nurse was having with Lila's daughter, Debbie.  The nurse told Debbie that Lila was doing fairly well, she was a little bit dehydrated and had a minor bladder infection.  The nurse told Debbie that things were going along fairly well.  To say the least, I expressed my disagreement with what the nurse was telling Debbie.

I was in and out of ICU all day Sunday and Sunday evening.  To go into her room, I have to wear a gown, mask and gloves.  They were pumping fluids in to Lila at a high rate.  Her feet, hands and body was already full of water, but she got fuller.  They did get her kidneys working, but not sure if they are working 100%.  They kept assuring me that her main problem was dehydration, not to worry.

I went back to the hospital this morning.  I could not see any change in Lila's condition even if the doctors and nurses all told me how much better she was.  I had a 30 or 40 minute conversation with all the doctors I could find.  One doctor wanted to stop her Plavix, fearing bleeding because of her very low platelets.  The heart doctors strongly objected to stopping the Plavix because of the stint in her heart.  She is still getting the Plavix.

I finally found a Physician Assistant from the leukemia department that agreed that something was wrong with Lila.  She ordered some additional tests. Late yesterday they did a brain scan on Lila and nothing showed up.  This afternoon, they did a x-ray or her stomach.  No results when I left at 3:30 this afternoon.  She is also scheduled for a MRI on her head for 8:00 tonight.  They are also going to do a sonogram on her kidneys.

Now for the better news.   We finally got Lila woke up about lunch time.  All morning, she would wake for a minute or two and go back to sleep.  About lunch time, she woke up and was mostly awake until I left at 3:30.  She drank a little apple juice and chicken broth for lunch.  This was the first thing she had put into her stomach  for at least 30 hours.

Lila went into the hospital on July 7th.  No idea when she will be well enough to get to come home.

Later.   Bob