I need support

[Mikkel]

She must be a tough lady (and perhaps been lucky with her doctors ).
Great news.

[lordlundar]

Well, she's a farm girl in the 50's and the youngest of 5 children. She's been through a lot over the years and is still here. So yeah, she's tough and she's a fighter, even if it doesn't look like it.

As for doctors, her ICU doctor and who she has now is very good. Her previous doctor however is little more than a pill pusher. Not much more I want to say about that.

Yesterday my dad and my sister was with her and she was making jokes and in good spirits. Still not ready to come out of ICU yet but it's mainly a matter of time.

[Crossbow]

Every little bit of recovery is a good thing. Sounds like she's on her way to getting back to normal.

[lordlundar]

Just got back from visiting. She can drink fluids on her own, she's been off dialysis for two days so far (that's being handled on a day by day), she had beef broth for lunch and she'll have soft food for supper. She's still tired but she's getting arm exercises and she's slowly feeling better.

Her back is hurting again (this was a long standing issue that we were hoping she would be able to have surgery for before all this happened) and had some sporadic sleep last night though, so it's not all happy news but it's also nothing unexpected.

[XCashier]

It is sounding very good. Recovery takes a while, but your mom is tough, she's fighting this.

Do take care of yourself as well.

[lordlundar]

Sorry I haven't posted about this in a couple of day, been busy with work.

She's still off dialysis and is now heavily urinating so her kidneys are improving. She's sitting in chairs doing physio (she's still not strong enough in the legs to walk under her own power yet but she's exercising them) and she's having solid foods now. To add she's getting better meals than I had when I had my appendectomy.

She's still in ICU but she's in the final stage before she gets moved to a ward.

[csquared]

That sounds like great progress. Will keep the prayers coming just the same.

My last stay at the hospital, when I was promoted off soft/bland, I was eating pretty good for a couple of days. Then they decided it was time I should go to the Cardiac/Diabetic diet. I do have to say, my local hospital has a good kitchen.

[XCashier]

I do have to say, my local hospital has a good kitchen.

Despite all the old jokes about hospital food, a lot of them do have quite good kitchens. The one I used to work at, the cafeteria was always busy. If you're not stuck on a bland diet, you can dine quite well there.

[lordlundar]

Well her physio occurred on the side of her bed and she's able to support herself while doing so. She's also quite alert as she stopped dad from stealing her lunch. This is better than when she went in as she couldn't even do that at that point. The infections are going down as well going by the blood samples. Right now the bigger focus is getting her strength up and mobility.

She had a rough sleep due to the person in an adjacent room having the TV up loud and late at night.

[lordlundar]

Well, the hospital staff are very good, but short handed. To that end Dad has had to feed her supper for the past few days. She's getting strength back so she should be feeding herself after a few more days. Still of dialysis (the machine wasn't even in the room when I last visited on Saturday) and still in (relatively) good spirits.

[lordlundar]

Been dealing with work and other stuff for the couple of days.

Bad news first. It apparently wasn't meningitis, it's an e.coli infection, which given her already weakened immune system had a field day with her.

Better news is it is subsiding but she's going to be weak for a while and given the kidney issue her kidneys will probably never fully recover but that was expected. She's been moved out of ICU but is in a private room until the e.coli runs it's course. Basically the doctor is more concerned about her kidney recovery than the e.coli and her kidney's are still improving.

[April]

I'm glad she is improving! She is in my thoughts for continued recovery

[lordlundar]

Well, the catheter's out so she's on bedpan. Dad tried to get her to try to stand but her legs are still too weak for that. That's going to be a while yet.

[Tama]

Do they know where she got the e. coli or is that a nonissue at this point?

[lordlundar]

Fecal matter from a poor wipe that she did before she was in hospital is the theory. As it is, the larger concern is her kidney operation as there isn't much to do about the infection apart from keeping fluids up and replenishing vitamins and minerals.