ChloeWatts.com

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

This wasn’t the kind of day any of us needed. The morning nurse left a lot to be desired as she got behind the pain meds and then left Chloe in a soaked bed for over two hours. With all the frustration she and the rest of us have, we didn’t need that. Then there was an out of control cleaning lady that jumped all over Dana because the laundry basket was too full and the CD player was in the wrong place. Like any of that was Dana’s job in the first place. Then we had a charge nurse that was a bossy b—h.

All in all we are about to bite some heads off. Especially with the kind of day Chloe had! She had pain in the morning after not sleeping most of the night and day. Then she thrashed about most of the day in frustration. They gave her a PCA button to push for pain and it turned out to be too much. Her breathing went to hell.

Dana and I had been able to leave Sandy with Chloe while we went to hear Colin’s play. At the time we left Chloe seemed pretty good after a terrible morning. So we didn’t feel bad about leaving. However, she had so many visits from doctors, nurses, PT/OT, etc., in the afternoon and evening that she just got way over stimulated.

When we got back her blood pressure was higher than I’ve ever seen anyone’s blood pressure. They believe it was a neurological episode and not anything that was caused today. It did come down relatively soon. However, the other problem was that she is unable to cough which means her lungs have some gunk in them. They aren’t terrible but we want to make sure they don’t get that way. They are keeping her on assistance overnight and will re-evaluate her in the morning. We are also withdrawing the bulk of her pain meds in order to see if the breathing comes back to normal. We think this is suppressing it and causing problems.

Chloe is strong. She can pull your arms away from your body and she kicks hard when frustrated. Her coordination is terrible though. It takes a lot of concentration to make her hands go where she wants them to go. The left is what she uses almost exclusively. This is something PT/OT is working on with her.

In the morning we are hoping to see her pass the swallowing tests that will be done. We need to get her to be able to swallow. That’s the first step toward eating. The vocal cords are part of this process as well. They need to come back ASAP!

The other thought is that Chloe is getting too stimulated with too many people trying to help her all the time. It was decided to test out the practice of having just one family member in the room at a time and for that member to sit in the chair and only call the nurse when something seems amiss. At first they suggested we all leave and Dana about came out of her skin at someone. There is no way we would Ever leave Chloe in the room alone. This is just not something anyone should ever do with any of their loved ones at any hospital. Was I clear on that point?

It’s late and I’m going to try and get to the hospital a bit earlier tomorrow. We are all working toward the same goal, a perfectly healthy Chloe. Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, concern, help and love. We will get there.

By the way, Colin was excellent in the play. He was a British marketing man and pulled the accent off to perfection.

Blessings,
Ron