Sorry for the delay.
The hospital was unable to schedule a tube replacement yesterday and so it was done at 8AM this morning....well, the appointment was scheduled for 8AM but the actual procedure did not happen until nearly 9:30.
All went well - it took less than an hour and this time it was done in an actual surgical suite under flueroscopy instead of at the bedside as they've done in the past. I was not allowed to watch this time but they assured me that everything was fine and that Estelle did not require sedation or anything else during the procedure.
It took another hour for the ambulance to return to bring her back to Woodbine and so it was nearly noon by the time she was settled back in her room. I stayed another hour to make sure she was not having any ill effects before leaving. I got a chance to open her cards and letters and read them to her while I was there and she seemed to enjoy them. She particularly liked a picture that Viv sent of her children and husband.
Estelle was very awake and talkative today. The most talkative I've seen her in a long time - but she was confused. She was quite convinced that her sister, Marlene, had driven her to the hospital and was upset that I would not go and find her and bring her back. She was also insistant that I hurry up and have "the baby" pretty soon because it was time and she'd been waiting forever. On the other hand, she knew who I was today (which is unusual) and she answered all questions appropriately, even being quite cooperative and conversant with the nurses and doctors.
She is moving her right arm and hand much more - which is both good and bad. It is good for the obvious reason - but the downside is that she keeps pulling at her feeding tube and that may have been why it fell out this time. She is also inadvertently and randomly scratching her left arm quite badly. Her nurse wants to get an order from the doctor to place an abdominal binder on her midsection so she cannot get to the feeding tube but that contradicts the hospital order to leave the site open to air because it is infected again so I asked her to hold off on that until Dan and I can discuss other options. So far we have come up with two possible suggestions. I thought that perhaps the tube can be anchored in several places with tape - making it flush against her skin and harder to grasp at random and pull on. Dan thought that perhaps they can start putting the hand/finger splints back on and then she cannot easily grab at the things. A combination of both might work out best.
We'll talk it over with the nurses and see if either of those things will be possible or even advisable to do. Any other ideas would be appreciated if anyone has a suggestion.
Other than that - that's about all I know. Estelle seemed pretty content today. Not at all agitated and quite interested in her surroundings and the people and things in it.
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