What a difference a good nurse can make in the hospital!

It has all become clear why Mom (and Aunt Tina) have made nursing their chosen profession. My two favorite angels today are Colleen and JeLinda at Hillcrest.

Mom has had some good days and bad days, but none worse than Friday night when I came to see her after working all day downtown. On Thursday the doctors removed the IV fluids with the advice that she needed to eat and drink on her own and this was hindering not helping her progress. For those of you who know Mom, you would never describe her as thin. But at entering the hospital for the colostomy she only weighed 126 pounds and on Friday was 122 pounds. Believe me when I tell you she doesn’t have a single more pound to lose.

Colleen had a long talk with Mom explaining that she felt nauseous and terrible because she was not eating, not that eating was causing the nausea. The cycle in continuous in colostomy surgeries – if you don’t eat, you feel sick. Once you start eating (and drinking liquids) you start to feel better and your newly designed interior system (i.e. the redirected colon) will start working properly. Colleen has a way with words and really got through to Mom. If she didn’t eat and drink soon, they were going to take some drastic measures and they were ones Mom wouldn’t like. I didn’t understand any of the medical terminology they discussed, but it sure scared Mom. The next day, the doctor came in and saw how weak she was and put her back on IV fluids.

I had to leave the room a couple of times because I was incredibly scared about what was happening to Mom. She had no strength, she has hanging skin on bones and as much as I like seeing the nice folks at Hillcrest, you can imagine, this is not an image I want to see anymore. I want her to improve, go home and give the colostomy a chance. I think she will be able to ‘get used to it’ as much as you can, and her life will be so much more comfortable! She is already saying how it has eased the pain. We’ll see what happens next.