One Week Later

It's been a roller coaster of a week. Yesterday Mom was finally discharged from ICU at SRRMC back to the skilled nursing facility she had been in for some 6 weeks until just about a month ago. Though she has been understandably bored the past week, the nurses in ICU were great. Awesome crew. I have to admire and tip my hat to anyone who can do that job and still maintain such a great attitude. Tough job! Mom definitely wasn't as bad off as most anyone else there- no ventilator, no traction.

Monday she had been transferred out of ICU to a regular room, but within a few hours her left side was flacid again, and her speech was seriously affected. I noticed immediately when I came in to see her after work. Apparently, so had her neurologist, who ordered another CT scan when he saw her a few hours earlier. Radiology came in to get her for that minutes later, as it happened. Nothing new showed up from it, so the neurologist ordered an MRI Tues. By Tues morning, she was almost back to where she was Sunday afternoon- she could raise her left arm and leg, and the left side of her face was better. The MRI revealed 2 separate and unrelated issues- an 8mm aneurysm and a stroke- both in the stem area of her brain. We go to a vascular neuro-surgeon the first week of May to see what our options are.

So far, she's been holding since Tues. No new strokes, and her Coumadin INR has been at an acceptable level. Hopefully, the physical therapy dept. will cure her boredom for a while...

I'm really glad I can quit collecting these now-