Friday, October 31th

Day 17 in the ICU ... Happy Halloween! Some of the nurses and doctors are dressed up. Dianne is entertained by them.

Condition 9:00 pm:
  • Dianne stayed awake during the day - actually, even when I dozed off. She would continue talking but would confuse words and phrases. Sometimes she would know answers to questions, but later could not answer the question.
  • She says that she has had dreams and confuses what has happened in the dreams with what is actually occurring.
Condition 12:00 noon:
  • Dianne is quite talkative, but not making sense. This is common until the drugs clear from her system. She has not spoken to us for 14 days.
  • She keeps saying things like - "Promise me ..." -and- "I need you to ..." -and- "I think it's important to ..." -and- "I need to make a list ...". What follows usually doesn't make sense. She said that she is a neat freak and wants the room cleaned. I know that many of you are chuckling at this remark.
  • Kidneys are still not functioning. Dialysis (Al) was done from 7:00 am to 10:30 am.
Longmont United Hospital - Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
RN: Amy D (day) / Gladys (night)

Thursday, October 30th

Day 16 in the ICU

Condition 6:00 pm
  • Today was an eventful day. Dianne was opening her eyes more and trying to communicate with her hands. She wanted to talk but was unable to because of the respirator. She was getting very frustrated trying to communicate, and her hands weren't working well enough to hold a pen or point to objects.
  • Dr. Tangel approved the removal of the ventilator. Once the ventilator was removed she seemed to feel a lot better. She is still struggling with communication but was trying very hard to whisper and point to things. She said a few sentences that didn't really make any sense, and she was asking what day it was. She wanted to know right away when her feeding tube, oxygen tube and all the other IV tubes could be removed. She also wanted to know when she would be able to come home.
  • Dianne seemed to get pretty worn out quickly. We tried to leave her to nap but she wanted someone there in the room with her. Then she quickly changed her mind and decided she didn't want any visitors, but did inform Jeff that he needed to return to her room later on tonight.
  • She seems to be getting back to her spunky self, but still has a lot of recovering to do. Her nurse, Amy, did mention that she was surprised how fast she improved today. She expected todays steps to take a few days so being that Dianne progressed so quickly today did surprise her, but this is good!
Longmont United Hospital - Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
RN: Amy K (day) / Claudia (night)

More Thanks!

We continue to thank everyone for the thoughts and prayers. Also for the mysterious gift bags that occasionally show up in the ICU waiting room. Everything is sincerely appreciated.

We know that many of you would like to help the family. Be assured that we will take you up on offers of help when it is needed.

Right now, our appreciation goes to the nursing staff and doctors who are treating Dianne. They are all doing an exceptional job in helping Dianne and aiding the family with this difficult situation.

Wednesday, October 29

Condition 9:00 pm:
  • Dianne continues to show progress with little increments of improvement. She's more consistent in opening her eyes and has nodded her head for 'yes' several times this evening. She does not move her hands or fingers. She seems to recognize family members.
Condition 3:00 pm:
  • Dianne started to open her eyes and has been more responsive. She seems to blink when asked certain questions. She has not been able to squeeze anyone's hand. Her hands are still tied down so that she doesn't pull out the tubes as she awakes.
Condition 12:00 pm:
  • Dialysis from 7:30 - 11:00
  • Dianne is responding to voices, but still coming out of the sleep medicine.
  • They have replaced the tube that goes into her stomach (through her nose) with a smaller one. They will start to put liquid foods into this later today. This one will go directly into her intestines, to get her intestines to start digestion.
  • She has also recieved a medication in her IV to help her calm down a bit. The process of waking up out of the sleeping medication can be tramatic for her, so they want her to calm down a bit, lower her heart rate, while this is all happening.
Longmont United Hospital - Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
RN: Amy K (day) / Fran (night)

Tuesday, October 28th

Condition 4:30 pm:
  • Dr. Burnham gave us an update, saying that they are going to try to start giving her food into the intestines, rather than through her IV. She currently has a tube that goes into her nose, and down into her stomach. This is to suck out any gas/blood or anything that is in the stomach and should not be. Her stomach is not as decended as it has been so they are going to remove this tube, and replace it with a smaller one that will eventually weave it's way into the intestines. Then they will start feeding her though that tube, to see how her intestines handle liquid food. This will be better for her nutritionally as well.
  • Dr. Burnham also gave us the plan for the respirator. They are still waiting for her to respond more, (blinking, movement, respond to basic commands) and then they will start to check and make sure she is able to breathe on her own, without the respirator. The sedation has been slowly wearing off. She will move her head and hands around a little bit every so often.
  • Her temp and heart rate are high but they say that it might be because she is coming off the medications and her body is having some stress.
  • Dr. Tangle came in and asked her to open her eyes (well he actually yelled DIANNE) and she did open them. We stood around her bed for a bit and talked and she kept trying to look at us, so we know she is responding to our voices. We did ask her to squeeze our hands and she can't do that yet.
Condition 3:00 pm:
  • Dianne is starting to come off of the sedation.
  • Doctors want her to be responsive, open her eyes and be able to lift her head before they will pull the respirator out.
  • Blood pressure and heart rate are high, but blood pressure recently dropped lower.
  • Urine out put is very low.
  • Dialysis was done this morning at 7:30 (Susanne). Her vital signs were fluctuating when there were visitors in the room so we tried to keep our voices down during the dialysis.
Longmont United Hospital - Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
RN: Brandon (day) / Katie (night)

Monday, October 27th

Condition 10:00 pm:
  • Dialysis (Ariel and Lisa) from 11:00 am to 2:30 pm.
  • While doing dialysis, there were fluctuations in Dianne's vital signs that caused them to start sedating her again. The sedation was stopped this evening.
Condition 11:00 am:
  • Dianne was taken off sedation this morning. Because of her kidney condition, it will take longer for the sedation to wear off. She must be fully alert and responsive for them to remove the intubator and ventilator.
  • Urine output is down during the last 24 hours (20 ml).
  • White blood count is 17,000.
  • Found increase of yeast in her system.
Longmont United Hospital - Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
RN: Amy K (day) / Katie (night)

Sunday, October 26th

Condition 4:30 pm:
  • Dialysis (Matt) from 6:30 am to 10:00 am.
  • It's been a quiet day because Dianne is heavily sedated from yesterday's procedure that removed 2 liters of fluid from the abdomen area. She's intubated and on a ventilator. We're hopeful that they'll be able to remove this tomorrow.
  • Producing about 100 ml of urine. The nephrologist continues to tell us that the kidneys will restart after everything else is working.
Longmont United Hospital - Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
RN: Amy D (day) / Jamie (night)

Saturday, October 25th

Condition 8:00pm:
  • Dianne's blood pressure and heart rate are good. Nurses have decreased her levels of sedation and she starts to wake up. This is a good sign showing that she will come out of her sedative state quickly. They want to keep her sedated at least through tomorrow as far as we know. This is to keep her resting
  • For those who try to contact Jeff and are unable to get a hold of him during this time, feel free to call Rebecca at 303-250-7756.
Condition 3:00 pm:
  • Dianne's procedure went well. Dr. Burnham said that there is no major leaking in the intestines/stomach area. The bleeding in the kidney's has stopped. They were able to clean some of the old blood from the hematoma as well as other waste out of the kidney cavity. He checked liver, gallbladder and every other internal organ in that area and there is no sign of infection. He did send off some fluid samples and blood samples to the lab to find out if there was an infection within the fluids.
  • Dr's wanted to leave her intubated until Monday. They want her body to rest and recover without the stress of having to breathe. Someone in her condition can be burdened by the simple act of breathing so he thought it was best to leave her sedated while intebated.
  • Dianne has a tube coming out of one of the incisions that is draining any additional fluid from the hematoma. Not sure when this will be removed.
  • She did have a dialysis treatment when she arrived back in ICU from her procedure. As far as I (Rebecca) know, this went well.

Condition 12:00 noon:

  • The last few days were a step backwards. The doctors are very concerned that there is no progression in her healing. At best, she is maintaining condition. At 11:30 am, Dianne went for microscopic surgery to drain the blood in her abdomen area that's infected. This is mainly around the kidney's and the back muscle. They will do some other exploratory investigation to help determine why she is not getting any better. They wanted to check bowels and intestines. They mentioned that they might remove her gallbladder. Other than that we will wait to see what the doctors say.
  • We will give an update as soon as she is out of surgery.
Condition 7:00 am
  • Sleeping when I arrived
  • Urine has increased (~80 ml) during the night shift
  • White blood count is still high (21,100)
Longmont United Hospital - Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
RN: Amy D (day) / Jamie (night)

Friday, October 24th

Condition 9:00 pm:
  • Not much change since 5:00 pm. She tried to talk a bit more but couldn't deliver an understandable message.
Condition 5:00 pm:
  • The hematoma in the area of her abdomen and kidney is no longer bleeding but the extra fluid is still a concern.
  • Urine output was slightly up (~30 ml) from the last 12 hour period.
  • She has not been alert. She has been sleeping most of the time.
  • Overall, today appears to be a set back, although her heart rate and blood pressure are improved from this morning.
Condition 10:00 am:
  • Dr Pavot did some testing ... Dianne recognizes me. Did not know who is president. Knows her last name. Repeated last name for all other questions.
  • Dr Grossman has concerns about high white blood count and that she is very lethargic.
  • Dr Burnham ordered another CT of the abdomen. Concerns about operating.
Condition 6:30 am:
  • She had a pretty restful night
  • Lungs X-rays look better
  • 20 ml urine output overnight ... this is down from previous reading.
Longmont United Hospital - Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
RN: Amy D (day) / Katie (night)

Thank You!

We would like to thank everyone for the thoughts, prayers, and hospitality. We sincerely appreciate it!

Thanks to the secret senders of the snack basket yesterday. That was very much appreciated!

Reminder:
  • No flowers are allowed in the Intensive Care Unit, but we have been taking pictures of the flowers that have been sent so that Dianne knows what they looked like, and who sent them.
  • Visitors in the ICU are limited to immediate family
  • Family members may be visited in the ICU Waiting Room

Thursday, October 23rd

Condition 8:00 pm:
  • Dianne slept much of the day. After the activities of the last few days, this quite day was a greatly appreciated.
  • Started TPN.

Condition 4:30 pm:

  • Amy gave her more pain medicine, insulin and carafate to protect the stomach (acts like Pepto-Bismol). This was only her 2nd intake of pain medicine today.
  • Rated her pain a 6 on a 0 - 10 scale
  • Dianne is sleeping a lot, but wakes up every so often to ask for either water or ice.
Condition 1:00 pm:
  • Dianne seems to be averaging 10cc of urine every 2 hours.
  • Dr. Mooney (kidneys) decided that they will look at her in the morning and determine if she needs dialysis tomorrow. If not they may wait until Saturday for another dialysis treatment.
  • He asked if she has any pain and she just said in her legs.
  • She drank some water out of a straw, and says that it feels really good in her mouth.
Condition 11:00 am:
  • Dr. Burnham (surgeon) popped in to check on her, and see what updates we had for her over the last 24 hours.
  • He says he is going to start her on TPN, which is a concoction of electrolytes and vitamins, from what we understand. He wants to start her on this tonight, to get her body in a little better health, in the event that they need to operate.
  • Dr. Burnham talks about operations whenever he is in the room, but that doesn't mean that they are going to operate (so we've learned). It just means that he is always trying to prepare her in the event that she would need an operation. So when he talks about this it's not indicating an operation.
  • Amy checked her urine again, she has had 20cc more since last update. This means that her kidney's are starting to work again, so this is VERY good! They keep doing the "irrigation" process where they fill her bladder with fluid to check the pressure of her abdomen. They do this every 2 hours, and from what we understand, this helps flush the bladder too. They are subtracting the amount of irrigation fluid from the full amount that she gets out in the catheter, so this tells how many cc's of fluid she is filtering through her kidneys.
Condition 10:00 am:
  • 100 ml of urine last night. This is good news!
  • Dr Grossman is still concerned about pressure in the bowel. He is checking with the surgeon to approval to remove the nasogastric tube (from nose to the stomach area).
  • Physical Therapist came to move Dianne's arms and legs. They are just working working on range of motion for now. She says that they are most likely going to do therapy 3 times a week for now. This depends on how she does, as they don't want to cause any more internal bleeding.
  • She recieved a shot of insulin because her blood sugar levels are still off. This is helping to regulate her blood sugar but doesn't mean she will be on insulin after she leaves the hospital.
Condition 6:30 am:
  • Peaceful night, sleeping about 90% of the time. Asked for pain medication once.
Longmont United Hospital - Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
RN: Amy K (day) / Katie (night)

Wednesday, October 22nd

Condition 9:00 pm:
  • Dianne is alert, but has some problems with communication.
  • She says that her pain is an 8 on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest. She continually asks for pain and relaxer medications.
Condition 5:00 pm:
  • Dr. Burnham checked her stomach again. He talked about operating, in the event that there is too much air in the abdomen, most of which would be in the intestines. He was not sure if the intestines were leaking and a CT would rule out that possibility. If there is a leak they might need to operate.
  • Because CT was performed yesterday Burnham decided to wait until tomorrow, possibly perform another CT to see how the intestines are doing. Her stomach is so distended that he wants to find the cause either in the intestines or stomach. More updates on this tomorrow.
  • Dianne was awake a lot more this afternoon, requested pain killers and ice, as well as Oprah. She told Rebecca she had a birthday present for her. She is much more aware of what is going on and where she is, as well as what day it is. She has been sitting up more and just mentions the pain in her legs. This might be from not moving her legs for such a long period of time. She has been sleeping off and on throughout the afternoon/early evening.
Condition 2:00 pm:
  • Pulmonary reports that the numbers are gradually getting better.
  • GastronIntestinal (GI) has concerns about the bowels in that they are not moving and have been distended. There is a chance that they might rupture. This is related to Ileus.
  • Nephrology (Kidney) reports that the numbers continue to improve. Matt did dialysis from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm without complications. No dialysis will be scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday).
Condition 9:00 am:
  • Cardiology visit was positive. Normal results from the EKG and Echo cardiogram tests from yesterday.
Condition 8:30 am:
  • Everything is good from the Neurology standpoint. She's responding well. Recognizes me, knows that she is in the Longmont hospital, responds well to questions. Does not know the month.
  • She says that her pain is a 10 on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest. Dianne's pain threshold has always been remarkable so this is really unusual.
Condition 6:30 am:
  • She had a stable evening
  • Blood count has dropped. She is being given additional blood to help stabilize.
  • The kidneys are still not functioning
Scheduled procedures:
  • Dialysis is scheduled for 10:00 am
Longmont United Hospital - Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
RN: Rachel (day) / Chris (night)

Tuesday, October 21st

Condition 8:00 pm:
  • Echo cardiogram was performed, and the tech said that the heart looked good. Have not heard anything from the Dr. as of yet.
  • Has had bowel movements, but urine hasn't increased a lot.
  • Nurse performed a procedure where they filled her bladder up with fluid to see what kind of pressure the abdomen would put on it. The fluid drained from the bladder as it should, and they were able to tell that the pressure in the abdomen was at a reasonable level. They will perform this every 2 hours.
  • Dr. Tangel reviewed results with us and informed us that her numbers did look good.
  • The kidney's still aren't functioning as they should.
  • When she is awake, she will responds to questions and comments. She does mention that she is in a lot of pain when she talks, and asks for pain medication.
Condition 12:00 noon:
  • Dialysis performed for an hour and 1/2 before her numbers started to drop.
  • Blood pressured dropped. They were going to operate on the bleeding around her kidney and the Psoas muscle but decided that an operation would be too dangerous.
  • Vitamin K, FFP (Fresh Frozen Plasma), and Albumin are being given to help the blood to clot in hopes of stopping the bleeding.
  • Cardiologist was called because of fluctuating heart patterns. Performed an EKG, but her rhythm was normal when the test was performed. Waiting for results. Dr. White scheduled an echo cardiogram.
Condition 8:00 am:
  • Internal bleeding around stomach area.
  • Stopping blood thinners (needed for blood clotting) because of internal bleeding.
  • CT results from yesterday showed that the Psoas muscle is inflamed. It will required draining.
  • Dialysis team arrived around 6:00 am (Ariel & Lisa). Adding 2 units of blood during dialysis. Started dialysis at 7:30 am.
  • Knows her name and that she is in the hospital. Does not know her birth date. Knows the month if given options. Seems to respond to my voice. Will open her eyes. Recognizes me.
Longmont United Hospital - Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
RN: Brandon (day) / Chris (night)

Monday, October 20th

Condition:
  • Kidney are non-functioning. Dialysis from 7:30 am to 11:30 am
  • Inserted a nasogastric tube in nose all the way to the stomach area. She was very unhappy with this procedure.
  • x-ray of chest & abdomen areas (no results today)
  • CT of chest & abdomen areas (no results today)
  • She was fed 1/2 of a popsicle, a little juice and tea
  • Cold sores are extreme
  • Responds to questions but did not recognize me
Longmont United Hospital - Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
RN: Amy K (day) / Donna (night)

Sunday, October 19th

Diagnosis:
Condition:
  • Kidneys are non-functioning
  • No dialysis
  • Nurse fed her 2 popsicles
  • Body is puffy - weight is way up they're pumping fluids into her
  • Many cold sores developing
Dr. Pavot prescribed:
  • EEG - A little slower than normal
  • CT - Initial report showed some bleeding in the brain - order MRA
  • MRA - similar to MRI - Everything normal, meaning that CT was unclear
Longmont United Hospital - Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
 RN: Amy K (day) / Gladys (night)

Saturday, October 18th

Condition:
  • Kidneys are non-functioning
  • No dialysis
  • Responded very little to questions - very restless
Longmont United Hospital - Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
RN: Amy K (day) / Gladys (night)

Friday, October 17th

Diagnosis:
Condition:
  • Kidneys are non-functioning
  • Dialysis - 9:30 am to 12:30 pm
  • Very restless
  • No response to our voices
Longmont United Hospital - Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
RN: Tanya (day) / Gladys (night)

Thursday, October 16th

Condition:
  • Kidneys stopped around 3:00 am
  • Dialysis – 12:30 pm to 3:30 pm
  • Sleeping most of the time – no response to our voices
Longmont United Hospital - Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
RN: Amy D (days) / Suzanne (evening)

Wednesday, October 15th

Diagnosis:
Conditions:
  • Dianne was moved into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) around 1:30 am
  • She would talk but mostly slept
Longmont United Hospital - Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
RN: Rachel (day) / Suzanne (evening)

Tuesday, October 14th

@ Home
  • I came home from work around 6:00 pm
  • Dianne was very sick and not responsive
  • Tried to stand her up several times and each time she lost consciousness
  • Called 911 at 7:18 pm
  • EMTs arrive at the house around 7:35 pm
  • Transported to the ER @ Longmont United Hospital
  • Went into shock several times before being stabilized
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