Day 31

Monday; Week 5 (Rehab Day 4), Time for a bad day. Sight regression, exhaustion, pain (and some defensive medicine).

ℹ️ Info

Created: 2023-03-20

2023-03-20 (Monday) - Tougher day; sight regression, exhaustion, pain.

Summary

I got there and Melissa was distraught that she couldn't see, "everything is black" (except for one bright spotlight) and she wanted us to darken the room (so we did). Then complained she couldn't even see shadows and colors. Then a bit later, I put my face right up to hers, and she said, "Oh, hello". And later commented on the nurses teal colored top. So it seems to come and go, and when it goes, she loses it. I don't know if it's blood sugar, fatigue, or just neural overload -- but it seems to come back. (And we've had this scare before a couple other times).
Melissa had done great with speech therapy (they'd already seen progress). And Melissa had done PT earlier in the day, but had been exhausted. But she was also having a high pain day -- all over. Floating between can't get comfortable and just wailing about the pain. Mary took a break, and I just kept trying different things. Melissa was like a toddler that was so tired they couldn't rest. I was having a tough time as my normal technique of find the pain and rub it out, wasn't working. (Touching her was hurting). Then they came back for the 1:30 pm PT, and started talking her through different positions. And getting her on the other side (she'd wanted to lay on her right), but getting her to lay on her left, pull her right leg over, and stretch out the hip/butt, that helped, and she got better. Went down, and did a little PT, before they took her off for a cat scan and ophthalmology.
Because Melissa had complained about sudden loss of vision, they took her off for a cat scan to make sure there was no additional stroke or brain bleed. I wasn't really worried, this felt more like chemical/tired than any stroke symptoms. But they have liability based protocols (defensive medicine) so they made sure, and she was fine. (According to the test). No tPA (brain-draino) required, which is good.
And Ophthalmology called about her vision. They didn't seem to understand how much it was coming and going. (They always thought she was at her worst). So they were actually encouraged by how good it was when it was working. They also recommended me to UH or UT's outpatient stuff when she got out of there; basically rehab for vision -- once they got her to where she could walk and be physically independent.
Melissa isn't normally a huge fan of Panda Express, so I brought her some. She loved it. I figured that with bland hospital food, some fried rice and noodles would go over well. (Along with many packets of flavor like soy/plumb sauce/etc. -- anything that could hack the hospital food into "edible"). Hubby scored!

Defensive medicine isn't all good. In fact, an abundance of caution slowed the process way down -- like getting the vent out, likely resulted in much more infirm immobility and longer vocal and overall recovery. At least one cardiologist thought that the angiogram to check on the heart, might have been what scraped off plaque and caused the stroke. And a lot of the protocols that kept her down and immobile and off foods until thoroughly signed off on, likely meant longer recovery/rehab and is costing her today. They will sacrifice the recovery speed of 99 patients, if it prevents 1 accidental death lawsuit -- and I'm not sure most patients sign up for that. But I'm also not ready to challenge the protocols that had a positive outcome. So this CT scan was likely unneeded, and increased her exposure to radiation (or other complications) by some small amount. But they have a better safe than sorry attitude. I'm not sure that all of these are playing to Melissa's advantage -- and she's an outlier. Younger, healthier, and might have bounced back quicker, if she had been on a faster track. But it's hard to say, and they have developed these protocols based on a lot more evidence than I have. So kinda have to defer a bit. They play the odds -- but that also plays to the middle of bell curves. And Melissa is an outlier. But I don't have the balls to take risks with her, even if it meant an easier recovery later. Reading is always got too many black holes. When I was dealing with Stroke Pain, as Melissa is crying -- it took me into dark places. People that never recover from it and have it for their entire lives, and stuff like that. The same wiht a lot of the vision stuff; you can't read something that implies some percent never recover and not start going down rabbit holes. Then there was all the other stuff I caught by listening in, that I had to force myself to ignore. (The Watchman device she was on, was only 90% effective -- but she likely threw a clot anyways, and there was still more there. Or that she had DVTs in both arms. Or various blood chemistry flags that could imply bad things). So I veer away from in-depth reading and try to have faith. And I can't start diving too deep into the studies and questioning doctors on overly defensive medicine, because it requires me knowing way more than I can handle knowing at the moment.

🔗 More

2023 Heart Attack
Feb 18th Melissa had a heart attack, stroke, and had to have CPR for over an hour.

All
Feb 18th Melissa had a heart attack, and had to have CPR for over an hour.

Tags: 2023 Heart Attack Latest