Another Miss (and Info)

First Alison has moved to room 304. They did this so she would not be constantly stimulated by people walking by her room.

Allison was deep asleep today. I did have a chance to talk to the head nurse, Stephanie. Stephanie said that the Zeprexa is beginning to be effective as Alison's mood is stabilizing. She only has fewer periods of calling out and only for an hour. Per the nurse, when Alison is awake, she is able to respond to communications. And she took her Meds as requested. On tues, the nurse said she even knew the name of her pt person. But we are not seeing long periods of detailed discussion nor physical movement like 3-4 weeks ago. I hate the trade offs.

Today Allison was awake most of the morning and they say she is sleeping at night. But before I arrived, she had fallen asleep after being given pain meds for her bottom (but not the optional haldol or Ativan). The C-Dif still has not cleared. It can take multiple weeks.

Yesterday they did an xray of Alison's lungs and found Atalectasis. This is where she is not using her lungs sufficiently and they are shrinking. They tried to start therapy today to reverse this but Alison was too asleep. I also learned that Alison has refused PT enough times that she is no longer receiving it (again). Without the feeding peg, Alison needs to eat. But she is not always awake to eat. I worry about her nutrition. The hospital does have Boost Plus in her room to help supplement her nutrition.

I asked if there was some better time in the day to come and visit, where the probability of Alison being awake would be better. They said that generally the mornings are better than the afternoons, but one never knows whether it's early morning or mid morning (if at all). I will try to better plan my visits around her pain medication.

As I left I said "Alison you know how much I love you." She responded in a mumble "I love you too".