Bouncing Off the Walls

Mom has been in the hospital in Utah for the last few days, and is currently finishing up a first class stay in ICU where she has been treated to some interesting imaginary people, some very funny statements, and lots of time with her family.

It all started about a week ago when she went in to have some new tumor mass removed. The new mass had been discovered about a week prior to coming to the hospital and she had scheduled surgery for a day last week. During that surgery, the doctors determined that the tumor was entrenched well enough that it was not going to come out, so they stitched her back up and let her go to recovery.

In the mean time, the single stint that has been serving one of Mom's kidneys had been causing increasingly more trouble. During the surgery recovery time, an infection which had been running for several days progressed to a serious infection that made it into her blood, which is making life even more interesting for mom. Her heart rate has crept up again and is holding steady at just under the speed of sound, and her blood pressure keeps bouncing off the floor, which has made for some interesting experiences. A day ago she was starting to see things that weren't there and through the night she had very pleasant visits with several inanimate things in her room.

The doctors are trying to treat the infection while still managing all the other competing concerns, so it feels a little like bouncing around off of several walls. Treat one problem and one of the others starts to be a nuisance. But things look like they are stabilizing now and hopes are that mom will be back in the general population soon, although we're certain she will miss one of the more friendly chairs and a curtain in her room, who she has become close friends with.