Angie & Jim

Exit Strategyby Jim

We’ve reached that point in our stay here that the doctors are talking about discharge.  We’ve heard different things from different doctors about when it will be, but I think it is looking like as early as tomorrow or as late as Monday.  Personally, I think Sunday is likely when we’ll be free to go.  It is hard to say, and it depends on how the next couple days go.  They are transitioning her to oral medication so that it is more similar to what we’ll be doing at home.  That way we won’t lose our balance when we leave the hospital.

This afternoon, some doctors came to talk to Angie and they said that standard procedure for patients with pacemakers in arrhythmia is to send them home on anti-coagulation medication to reduce the risk of clotting and then after 6 weeks have them come back and cardiovert them.  The complication in our case is the fluid and respiratory problems.  I believe in my last post I may have indicated that they were planning on doing the cardioversion next week, which isn’t true.  Dr. Lui wants Angie to come for a follow-up appointment next week, and the week after, and each week until they cardiovert her after 4 weeks.  During that time, she’ll be taking it easy and we’ll be monitoring her at home.  The doctors also trust us to manage Angie’s health and stay in contact with them throughout each week.  It will be lots of work, but I think we can keep things under control and detect problems before they become dangerous.

One of Angie’s IVs expires today, which means they will probably have to replace it tomorrow (they get 24 hours of leniency), which she isn’t excited about.  I think we’ll request that the crisis nurse come to do it, since they’ve already had a few failed attempts on this visit.  The crisis nurse is a special nurse that covers the whole facility that they call when they need some extra help.  They are nurses that have been here for many years and have experience in many areas.  They are the SWAT team of nurses.  The one that came the other night was super nice and very supportive.  She sensed that Angie was stressed and anxious and so she chatted with us and made her feel better.  As she left, she even reached out her arms to offer a hug (which Angie graciously accepted).  I can’t remember any nurse doing that before.  They really have wonderful doctors and nurses at this facility.

Thanks for reading and thank you all for your love and support.