By the time Mom arrived at the place where they were going to do the cath test she had worked herself into an absolute nervous wreck. She was still insisting that all those chest and back pains were nothing but gas and she really didn't need to go through all of this nonsense. As soon as she got there they gave her a valium to try to calm down. It worked somewhat after an hour or so. Brenda and Beth deserve some gold stars in their crown for having to deal with BOTH Mom & Dad. She got through the cath procedure fine and that cardiologist said she would need two stints. She had to lay completely still for an hour and that was pure torture for her. She says she never lays flat out on her back because it hurts to lie that way. They let her eat lunch but said that would be it until the stints. She was still drugged up quite a bit and was ready to just get it over with.
From there we headed over to the new heart hospital, TexSan, with the procedure scheduled for 5:00. She napped for a while and we just waited around. The drugs started wearing off and she started to get anxious again but they said they had to wait until the procedure to give her anything. Well, 5:00 came and went, and so did 6:00. By this time if she could have found an escape route she would have been long gone. At 7:00 they assured us that it would be soon. They had a back up and that was the reason for the delay.
Finally around 7:15 they took her down. We were told it was only a 45 to hour procedure. By 8:30 we're wondering what's happening. By 9:00 we were all starting to worry. Finally at 9:30 the doctor came out. This was a different cardiologist from the one who did the cath test. He said he disagreed w/ the first doc's assessment and determined that all she needed was one stint. The reason it took so long was because it was very hard to get to and he had to work his butt off getting that stint in there. He said she has to quit smoking because he didn't work his butt off just have her continue smoking.
She got back in her room and was told she had to lay flat and still until 10:00 the next morning and that someone was going to have to stay with her all night to make sure she did that. Beth and Lisa went to the hotel to get some sleep and Brenda and I stayed and took turns w/ dad helping to watch her through the night. At 3:00 Beth came and took over for Brenda and I and we went to the hotel to sleep.
Mom didn't get hardly any sleep despite the pain meds they were giving her.
Got back at 7:30 that morning and Mom was not having a good time. Her back was killing her from lying flat and still and she begged us to just let her move or roll over or get up. Finally it came time that she was able to get up. She was very weak and was nauseous from some pain killers they had given her. She's very sensitive to most of them. She was able to walk a little and was at least able to at least sit up. Then she threw up a little and laid back down and slept for 2 hours. Catching up on all of that sleep we were all hoping she'd get during the night I guess.
It's 2:00 and they're fixing to get her up again to walk and make sure she doesn't get sick this time. I guess if she doesn't they going to spring her. I'm not sure what their plan is if she does get sick again, or if they even have a plan. It's not that it's a bad hospital, but we're not real impressed with it. Considering it's a heart hospital they're not very hands on and attentive. It seems they pretty much rely on family members to take care of the patients after the procedure. And the cafeteria definitely leaves much to be desired.
Hopefully this will be all she'll ever need to have done because she told me this morning she was pretty much done with doctor's appointments and that once she got back to the creek she wasn't leaving it. I can't blame her on the last one -- I want to be back on the creek myself.
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