Wednesday Update

June 25, 2008

by Judy

Today Doreen seemed bright and alert when Judy and Carl arrived. But they found out that she had eaten very little breakfast. They tried to encourage her to eat more English muffin, and they filled each other in on the happenings of the previous day. When the mail came, Doreen read her own cards, although slowly. It was exciting to see her using her vision and processing the things around her by herself.

At lunch, she ate with a lot of help and encouragement. She did fairly well. When the occupational and physical therapists came, it was a struggle to get Doreen to participate. She leaned heavily on the support they provided, and she struggled to sit up and maintain her own balance. The goal was to get her to take a few steps with the walker (as she apparently did the day before), but she did not have enough strength. She kept saying that she wanted to lie down. The therapists finally got her to standing and had her take about two or three side-steps to move up futher on the bed, and then they let her rest. Doreen said that maybe she could cooperate more if she knew ahead of time that they were coming. They said that was very hard for them to do, and they also pointed out that she had done very well the previous day, and that was without any warning either. We hope this will get better in the future!

One thing that may have contributed to the poor performance was the discussion that Doreen and Judy had just before the therapists came. Doreen said that she really needed to go to the memorial service for Sandra, their good friend, on Sunday. Judy had to explain that it just could not happen. She would not be released from the hospital before then, and her needs would be too great. Doreen is a person who has always been able to make things happen when she wanted them. This disappointment is very difficult for her. Added to that is the brief discussion they have had about how unlikely it is that she will be able to live in her former home.

Shortly after all of this, Dr. Kachmann came in. When he saw the Doreen was listless, heard that she was not eating well, and heard that she went in and out of being alert, he instructed the nurses to put her on the schedule for Thursday morning to have the shunt put in. He explained that people of this age are not likely to become unconscious or totally unresponsive as an indicator that they have problems with the brain fluid build-up, but instead would show the pattern of being more and then less alert as she had shown. He also had another CT scan taken. We understand that it showed no change.

Please keep everyone in your thoughts and prayers as Doreen undergoes her fourth surgery on Thursday morning.