8:00 am - Mom had a fair night. At 8:00 pm last night the nurse increased her feeding tube from 30 ml / hour to 35 ml / hour. After an hour, mom started having increased abdomen pain, so the nurse back the tube back down to 30 ml. At 3:00 am, the nurse turned the pump off because mom has to be NPO for at least 4 hours before she has a test today - gastric emptying study - this test takes about 4 hours as they watch how things move through mom's digestive system.
The team of doctors was in about 7:15 am this morning. The group was much bigger today probably 8-10 interns/students/residents along with 2 attending physicians (the big guys). The report was pretty much unremarkable. They talked about mom's inability to thrive and receive enough nutrition. Also along with the gastric emptying study, they are scheduling an echocardiogram for her - probably tomorrow. This is where a technologist will take images of her heart with an ultrasound machine. I imagine this will be at rest, considering that she has very low energy.
Aside from these two tests, they are going to continue working on her feeding tube rate, and we are going to continue working on her walking time.
3:00 pm - Well, we have been down in radiology since 11:00 am. When we got down here they were talking about mom's test taking 30-60 minutes. We finally found out that it was a test where she was supposed to drink contrast. We mentioned that this did not sound like the correct test; the doctor mentioned the scrambled egg test and I described it to them. After check into it with the doctor, they switched tests that mom was going to be given.
She had to eat radioactive eggs so that the machine could pick up where they are located. The technologist takes one picture at the top of each hour for four hours. So, I fed her the radioactive eggs with gloves on so she could stay covered up and warm -- she is always so cold. If she vomited these up, then the test would be no good. We worked hard and she has kept them down thus far. Only one hour to go. We have also been walking back and forth to the bathroom to get in some exercise which is much needed. Her ankles are extremely swollen and look kind of like club feet.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment or give me a call on my phone.
Good thing you were on top of that! geez
ReplyDeleteGreat that she has been able to keep it down and walking. Do they have her legs in surgical soxs?
Her body just keeps coming up with things. When will you know the results of the test?
Give her a hug and one for all of you as well