The last post ended with me dropping off some pain and anti-nausea medicines at Mom's house after her visit to the emergency room the afternoon of Saturday, June 8. It's a good thing I did not give up on finding a late night pharmacy on Saturday, because my sister Laura stayed with Mom that night and said Mom woke up in pain around 2:00 AM and Laura had to give her a pain pill (hydrocodone). She only took one more hydrocodone Sunday morning when she got up. I spoke to her before noon and she sounded pretty good. She was not 100%, but she was definitely better than she was Saturday afternoon and evening.
June 10, 2013: So Monday morning comes and Laura takes Mom to dialysis for her 6:00 AM appointment. In case you don't remember from the previous post, the dialysis clinic was supposed to have been notified on Saturday about Mom needing some additional antibiotics at dialysis Monday morning. Well guess what. That did not happen. (I suspect the dialysis clinic was already closed on Saturday when all that was decided.) Fortunately, as a backup plan Mom was also given a piece of paper when she was discharged from the emergency room that said she needed a certain antibiotic at dialysis on Monday. Unfortunately, the dialysis clinic does not keep that antibiotic on hand. Also unfortunately, they left it up to Mom to call around and get all this straightened out. Wonderful.
So Mom starts trying to contact someone in Dr. K's office, since we know the emergency room doctor spoke to someone there about the procedure Mom would need on Tuesday to take care of the infection. Eventually she spoke to Dr. K and filled him in on what was going on. It was his first day back at work after having surgery himself, so he understandably did not know anything about the emergency room visit or the procedure that Mom was scheduled for on Tuesday. He said he would find out about this antibiotic situation and also contact their scheduler when that person came in later that morning. He called Mom back and told her when the procedure would be Tuesday morning, and he also called in a prescription for some antibiotic pills she could take in lieu of getting some antibiotics at dialysis. Ok, we can breathe a little easier now.
June 11: Laura took Mom to the hospital early this morning for her 9:30 AM surgery. The emergency room doctor had described the procedure as guiding a needle down to the infection site and draining it, but I guess Dr. K decided to just do surgery instead. It still would not be an overnight stay in the hospital. Once they were at the hospital Laura told me Mom didn't seem to be doing well (very tired, slurring her words) and she did not want to leave Mom alone before surgery. Laura had to leave for work, so I went over to the hospital and caught up with them when they were doing the final prep for the operating room.
The anesthesiologist was asking Mom the usual routine questions, and she was doing ok answering them but I helped answer a few. After the anesthesiologist left Dr. K arrived and spoke to Mom briefly. He explained where he would be making the incision, and that he might need to make two incisions depending on what he found once he went in. I did not ask any questions at that point because it seemed like they were in a hurry to get started. I found out later that there had been a cancellation, which is why they were trying to move Mom's surgery earlier.
They rolled her away to the operating room about 9:00 AM, and I went back home. Cathy had a prior appointment and would not be able to get to the hospital until later, so we did not have anybody in the waiting room during surgery. I spoke to Dr. K on the phone when the surgery was done around 10:00 AM . He said it went well, with no complications. I asked him if the surgical felt was removed now, and he said it was. Hooray, the remnant is gone!
Cathy arrived later that morning and stayed through lunch. Mom was discharged a little after 1:00 PM and my sister Amy took her home. When Mom checked her mail later that evening she found a letter from the pre-transplant group informing her if she did not find a living kidney donor within 90 days she would be removed from the transplant list. Although that news was not totally unexpected, it is a bit depressing and does make us face the reality that Mom will likely be on dialysis the rest of her life.
Next up: Some miscellaneous happenings, and some interesting extended family news.
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