Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Well that went quickly!

Too quickly, in a way.

I had spent a good deal of time talking to Teena yesteday about Estelle's tube. She is as frustrated as we are with the current situation. I had mentioned to her that the surgeon at the hospital had brought up a "button" tube which he felt might work better because it does not stick out and there is no tube attached. He did not want to put one in Estelle at that time, however, for two reasons: !)The site needed to be clean, i.e. not infected, and 2) he was unsure the nursing home would be familiar with them.

Teena assured me that they are familiar with them and that she thought it would be a great idea to try. She feels that the tube is simply in a "wrong" place (it is in the folds of her skin and, because of that, it is never exposed to air and gets caught whenever she is moved.) She said if Estelle was stronger she'd even go so far as to recommend a new total surgery to change the site but she thinks Mom is too fragile to withstand such an ordeal at this time.

I called Dan and talked it over with him and the three of us decided that we'd ask the doctor to put in a button tube this time around if at all possible. Because I cannot sign for that kind of change, Dan arranged to take a few hours off this morning to go with me to the hospital.

We got there at 8:45 (procedure was scheduled for between 9 and 9:30) only to find that she was already in the OR room. The nurse ran in to try to make our wishes known but, as it turned out, they could not do it today as they did not have the right size internal tubing on hand. They did say they would order it, however, and that, if the tube falls out again, they will have everything they need to make the switch.

The insertion went well and by the time they called us out of the waiting room Estelle was already on the ambulance stretcher and ready to go home.

Good news, however, she was awake and alert again. She seemed to recognize us and said,"Hello, Good Morning," and answered a few questions.

Because Dan is so under-the-gun at work we did not go back to the nursing home with her and I took Dan to the train station instead.

So, once again, the antibiotics seem to be working their magic and Estelle is no longer agitated, restless or lethargic.

All in all, a good day. I wish we could have changed the tube type but at least we know that if it falls out again we can take care of it.