The End of the ICU and Outside of Visiting Hours

My Mom has recovered pretty well.

She has been out of the ICU for almost a week now.  She did not spend a lot of time in there.  We have had some remarkable nurses that were in the ICU.  They worked night and day to ensure my Mom was comfortable and well taken care of.  Even though we had family members round the clock with her, the nurses were super awesome in filling in the gaps.

All Nurses that kick ass.. our family salutes you.

She has been on the 7th floor of the hospital for a while.  A family member has always stay the night along side her during the day and night. After all the time we have spent with her, we have noticed some changes in her sleeping and senses.

The part of the brain that was damaged is the pons. It’s part of the brain that regulates sleep, paralysis during sleep, taste, eye movements etc.. My Mom has developed irregular sleep patterns while she sleeps. She will sleep but she will not be sleeping normally.  She will make motions with her hands and almost sleep walk. She also has a change in taste or lack thereof along with some facial numbness. This is all very normal considering pons controls all of that.  We have had family members stay at her side to ensure that she didn’t pull all the wires and leads off in her sleep.

In the past few days, we have seen her become more mobile and active.  She has demonstrated that she can stand, talk and interact.  She does have difficulty eating though. Things don’t taste as they should, and she can only eat a few bites of any type of food before she is overwhelmed by the taste or nausea.  It’s also possible that she has developed dysgeusia from her medication, but we don’t know at this point.  Time will tell.

We expect her to be out of the hospital by the morning.  It’s up to the doctors though. She’s using a walker now and is eager to get home.  So are we.

For everyone who has responded, emailed, txted, pigeon courier’d and otherwise contacted us regarding my Mom, Thank you.  You have all been very kind and touching. I have relayed every single message from you guys and she thanks you for your support and thoughts.

I expected this post to be longer but I think I got lazy and tired.  More to come i’m sure.