Saturday June 20

Ariane and Walter send an email to Julie and me to say hi during this time.
I answered a bit in German, followed by explanation of Mom's status in English...

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dave Ruden
Date: Sat, Jun 20, 2009 at 12:08 PM
Subject: Re:
To: Walter & Ariane Roy


Hallo meine lieblich Familie,
Danke fuer deine Email. Ich bin derzeit mit neue Arbeit und Kuemmern-nehmen(?) fuer meine Freudin, sehr beschaeftigt. Ich habe zu wenig Zeit meine deutsch zu ueben. Julie ist jetzt zurueck von Hotel. Ich schlief gut gestern, und folglisch kann ich Heute wenig Arbeit tun.

Also, nur eine kleine Brief auf deutsch "Hallo" zu sagen.
Bitte, kanst du mir die Email-addresse fuer Horst und/oder Florian schicken. Ich moechte gelegentlich ihnen schreiben. Ich hoffe dass Florian ganz-geheilt wird!

Als die bestimmten Daten ueber Mom's Bedingung kompliziert ist, ich beschreibe es fuer Euch auf englisch...
Chuess!
---Dave.

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Mom's doing really well. She slept through the night with only a couple short exceptions. As I've been taking the 'night-shift' while she's in ICU, I'm much better rested this morning than I was yesterday :).

Starting to get some of the IV's and probes out today. She sat up in the chair yesterday for more than an hour. Complaint about pain is much reduced. Complaint about difficulty breathing has subsided as well this morning. Eating easily. Still pretty sleepy, but when she's awake she is very awake. Also her feet, which almost always feel cool, feel luke-warm - and that's not wearing socks! Still in Atrial-Fibrillation (mostly in the 70 to 100 bpm range), yet they are less concerned about that, given that it is not in a life-threatening status - blood pressure is still good, and she doesn't feel badly from it. Still, they're likely to prescribe some kind of anti-fib medication for it. I really hope we get her moved to private room today. Would hate to leave tomorrow while she's still in ICU. Dr just came in and said he'll keep her in ICU for another day. Going slow to be cautious. So it's not today but she's real close to getting out of ICU.

Doctor also said that she's got a bit of fluid in her right lung ("odd cause they didn't do anything there"). They're watching it, getting up and down - being a bit more active - might very well help clear that up. If not, they'll aspirate it maybe tomorrow. Mom hears about fluid in her lung and she starts thinking fatalistic again. I was in for my collapsed lung operation 25 years ago, and similarly had fluid in my lung and a chest-drain tube for a good handful of days afterwards. So fluid is not what we want, but it isn't the sign of the beginning of the end like she can sometimes be looking for. I relay my experience to her, and she asks the nurse and doctor about it. Everybody is telling it straight, and they're saying that it's related to having such surgery and being in bed for several days, and it should clear up on its own. And if it doesn't the aspiration will take care of it. So after chewing on this for an hour or so, she starts to feel more up beat.

She also finally had a bowel movement, on her own, this morning. That's really good. Unfortunately, the exertion subsequently had her feeling very fatigued. That coupled with thinkng again about the doctor's note of fluid in her lung started her thinking fatalisticly again. So we keep reminding her that it is part of the process. Julie is good at forcing her to stop talking in fatalistic terms. I'm good at giving he time to express herself, ask questions and giving her answers at a technical level that she appreciates - she is into "explanations". Also, I can give her insight that comes from my own very similar chest-operation experience.

So she's back in bed now and resting. In a couple hours or so, she'll get her energy back and be more cheery.

Love to all.