Not much new today...Mom is still in the hospital and will be there at least until Friday. Her white blood cell count is not climbing yet, and her platelets dropped a bit today. They will not release her until her levels come up and they see an "upward" trend in her numbers.
Today was a quiet day at home - Micah and Maya slept until 8:30, and Megan arrived at 9. Mom called this morning - she told us that the caretaker we hired dropped her, so we worked on finding an alternate person for tonight. The service was quite concerned, so they arranged for us to have a LNP instead of a CNA for tonight. Megan took Micah to his class, and I stayed behind with Maya. I took care of a few odds and ends, and then Maya and I left for the hospital around 11:30.
Mom seemed pretty good today. We spent the day talking and relaxing and sorting through a few more points with the hospital staff. We finally got to the bottom of the incident last night - according to the nurse on duty, Mom slipped and the nursing aide barely had her on the bed, but she never actually dropped her to the floor. Not much comfort, but the good news was Mom was not hurt. I also got some answers about how to get Mom any future transfusions without jumping through all the complicated hoops - it turns out, there is a client services center at the outpatient blood bank, and they will come to the house to do the type and cross blood draw for patients like my mother.
My Dad kept telling a stupid story today...but he kept saying the word "willy" instead of "wedgie." I told him the next time he got the words mixed up, I'd give him both a wet willy and a wedgie, and then I was pretty sure he would learn the difference!
We did have one semi-serious discussion. My mom is now eligible for another rehab visit after this hospital stay. She has maxed out the benefit from our private insurance, but she now has Medicare Part A, and she is entitled to additional days of rehab through her Medicare plan. I asked Mom if she wanted to just come home from the hospital and continue with the in-home rehab or if she wanted to check back into a nursing home for a few weeks to do more intensive rehab. I told her the decision was fully hers - that we would be thrilled to have her back home, and if she wants to try rehab, we would support that, too. She isn't sure yet what she wants to do, so she'll spend the next few days mulling it over. I told her that no decision was permanent - if she tries rehab and would rather come home, we can check her out at any time. If she comes home, she has three days to check into an inpatient rehab center. So, we'll see what she decides. I can see the pros and cons of both...part of me wants to just bring her home and enjoy this time, but the other part of me thinks she could make some more progress, finish up those rehab days that were cut short, and perhaps rebuild her strength if she goes to rehab. She may be able to accomplish those goals with home therapy, too. I am worried that she has become weaker in the hospital, and it may be harder to transfer her and take care of her at home if she is now weaker.
Today, we had a nice change of pace. The cancer wing had a tea hour, and at 2:00 we headed down to drink tea, eat cookies and relax. My Mom's friend and my father showed up while we were at the tea, and we had a lovely afternoon. Dad got some good information from the social worker that he needed, and I got a list of oncology massage therapists that visit the house.
After tea, Mom was tired. I left for the afternoon around 4:30 and headed home. I played with the kids for a few hours and then DH sat with them while I prepared dinner. Just as dinner was ready, DH decided to run up to our friend's house to pick up a dining room table they offered us.
Dad, Micah and I ate dinner together - noodle kugel and tuna cheese melts. DH arrived home in time to put Micah to bed, and Krystal called to give us an "end of the night" update about Mom. Dad and I ran back to the hospital to check on Mom and the new caretaker. Her name is Anna, and she seems perfectly nice - we'll have to see if Mom feels she is able to help out. We only stayed a short while, but everything seemed fine. If Anna works out, we could try her out at home, too. I have a few other names of caretakers, so I think I'll be interviewing a lot over the next few weeks.
Maya has been quite uncooperative - it is 12:15 and she is still wide awake. She is definitely my daughter, no question!
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