Dianne Engelman

Saturday, November 1, 2008 - Day 18

Day 18 in the ICU

Special Note! Jeff apologizes for missing Katie's Bon Voyage party. We will see you in the spring! Enjoy your winter.

Condition 6:30 pm:

Dianne ate her first meal tonight! She had turkey, peas, mashed potatoes and gravy, and even ate some pumpkin pie.
Amy informed us that when Dr. Tangel is back on Monday he will most likely move her to the regular part of the hospital. Once she is there she will have 2 sessions of physical therapy a day. She is down to only 2 IV drips and oxygen. Her vital stats have been stable for a couple of days.
She is talking more but will occasionally say something that is random. These are not happening as often as earlier. We did get her some puzzles to help her with her hand coordination.
She also stood up by herself for a couple of minutes, and took a few steps. She did have a session of physical therapy today too.
Kidneys have still not started. Dialysis (Shelly) from 7:00 am to 10:30 am.

Condition 9:00 am:

Dianne stayed awake most of the night. She has been awake most of the time during the past 2 nights and yesterday. They say this is common after coming off the ventilator.
Her speech is clear, friendly, but doesn't make sense. We're told that this is common after being on high levels of medications.

Longmont United Hospital - Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
RN: Amy D (day) / Gladys (night)

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)