Ruth.....

An update on Ruth....



Ruth was home from the hospital for 2 weeks and seemed to be doing good and getting stronger every day...til new years eve - I went up to relieve Bev at 4:00pm and she said that Ruth had been cold all day and was coughing. So we asked how she was feeling and felt her for fever..she seemed a little warm. So I ran home and got the thermometer. When I checked her she had 102.4 fever and when she got up to use the bathroom she was so weak I had to hold on to her - I wasn't sure I was gonna get her to the bathroom....so we called the home health nurse and she said to give her Tylenol and that we were probably would be making a trip to the ER....I then called Judy to come see what she thought we should do. Judy came out and we decided to head to the ER about 6:30pm....Judy thought that she had maybe picked up the H1N1 virus being that it had come on her so quick and that she was so weak. When Judy and I got her down there they did blood work, a flu test, an EKG and a chest xray and then we waited.......when they got her blood work back they told us her blood count was up to 19,000 and that she had a bladder infection. Then as the rest of the test came back the doc also said that she had pneumonia and CHF again and that she was going to be admitted. They finally got her to her ICU room about 10:45 pm...yeah we have learned that there isn't anything fast about an ER visit!! They jokingly said that 2nd floor said that ICU could have her..I guess she had scared the 2nd floor staff the last she was in!!

She stayed in ICU until Saturday and then was moved to 2nd floor...then when Dr. Cullen came in Sunday he asked her how she was feeling and she said pretty good and he asked her how good and she said really good! So he said that he was going to release her! They increased her lasix and also sent her home with 2 antibiotics. She seems to be doing really well since she is home and her strength seems to be as good or better as before she went in this last time.

Ruth has been talking about wanting to stay by herself at night for awhile....so yesterday we had a lifeline installed and she stayed by herself last night....we had stayed and helped her get to bed and then was back up there at 8:00am this morning and she was still in bed. I guess we will see how it goes.....hopefully everything works out!