December 17, 2007

A New Day

ICU, day 4

My grandmother is improving a little each day. She lost a lot of strength with Friday's heart episode. Today, she had her first physical therapy session. The PT was trying to get her to sit up and dangle her leg over the side of the bed. She still cannot sit up on her own. She needs to continue strengthening her leg muscles with daily exercises. The PT was great, he even got her laughing.

The cardiologist told us yesterday that the medicine Ommie has been taking since 1983 was the contributing factor to the heart block. This is a little confusing to us, since she's been on it for so long without any problems. He wants to keep her in ICU under observation until tomorrow at least, because she had about 6-8 episodes of tachycardia within the last 24 hours.
(a condition in which the heart contracts at a rate greater than 100/min.)

Ommie is fiesty today. Evidently a nurse hurt her arm last night, making it bleed, so she's on a rampage. She's also still quite emotional, weepy, scared, etc.

So are we.

3 comments:

T. Kimberlyn said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
T. Kimberlyn said...

Hi Charmaine,

I'm so glad to hear that your grandma is doing better and I'm sure she'll continue I can see she's feisty ; D

Unknown said...

"The PT was great, he even got her laughing"

♫~♫~♫~♫~♫~♫~♫~♫~♫~♫~♫~♫~♫~♫~♫

That is the best medicine truthfully! Keep your spirits up & if you get sad just remember...you could have gotten this card for the holidays (warning, very strong language):
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=8515464

Major hugs ~ Jenn