Happy New Year's!

Doug and I went to the hospital and visited Mom, most everyone was there today. Her Gall Bladder scan came back and the doctors found nothing wrong with it. She was really sick again this morning. She hasn't had much of an appetite as it is. We've asked the nurses what's up with the nausea, but they just say it's because of the medicine she's taking. Right now, the only medicine she's on is the antibiotic. She only had one pain shot yesterday morning after the scan, but she continues to have an upset stomach. In fact, this morning she ate some oatmeal and she couldn't hold it down. By lunch, she was afraid to eat for fear that she might throw it up as well. Ugh! She's about sick of Ensure because that's all she's lived on for the past few days. We did get her to eat a cup of apple sauce. Plus, she says the hospital food taste terrible. I have to say just by looking at it, it looks terrible. We've tried to get her to tell us what she wants, from an outside restaurant, and we would get it for her. We've brought in chocolate pudding, DQ Blizzards and chocolate milkshakes, but she'll only eat just a little bit or nothing at all. We are all real worried because she is so weak. Another thing we're concerned about is, she won't keep her eyes open. She can hear us and she'll respond, but she tells us that she just can't keep her eyes open because she's so tired. Today, all of us have kept her eyes open. We wouldn't let her keep her eyes closed until we felt like she needed a rest.

Her Cardiologist released her this afternoon from the CVICU to be moved into a room. I'm hoping she'll improve a lot being in a room. After moving Mom from the CVICU to her room, a nurse came up to us and told us that we needed to get Mom out of the bed ASAP or she won't leave this hospital. How do you respond to that? My word, she's been in ICU since Thursday and we can only visit for so long. A PT came in her ICU room for the first time and had her sitting on the side of the bed for 5 minutes yesterday. We don't mind one bit helping the staff getting Mom up and at 'em, but we're afraid to move her the wrong because of the back surgery or too soon. We really liked the nurse, Stacey, Mom had this afternoon. Stacey said, they were going to try and get Mom to sit up on the side of the bed later this evening. She said she would be her nurse for tomorrow and she would be glad to show us what we could to do to help with her therapy. I ran into Mom's PT, Amanda, in the hallway. She recognized me from yesterday and told me she would work on Mom tomorrow. Amanda told me yesterday that as soon as they get Mom into a room, she would work with her twice a day, which is good news to me.

Sandy made it in this evening. Bless her heart, the airlines has lost her luggage. She hopes to get it tomorrow. I think she was a little relieved when she saw Mom for the first time. She said she wasn't as bad as she thought she would be.

Doug and I are planning to go back to the hospital tomorrow. I'm really hoping to see or speak (by phone) to Dr. Barnes about her progress. We would love to find out what they've ruled out and what to expect, plan, next. I think Dad, Sherry and Sandy will be there as well.

Millard and Peggy didn't want us to miss out in the New Year's Day dinner, so they brought the traditional meal over this afternoon. We had cabbage, greens, blackeye peas, meatloaf, slaw, and macaroni and cheese. My stomach was all in knotts that I wasn't too hungry, but I wanted to eat a little because I knew I would be getting hungry by the time we got to the hospital.