One Year Ago Today: 01/04/2013 - Hooray For Soft Foods!

(01/04/2013, Friday) The night was fairly good. Evie vomited in the middle of the night (0300), but that was the only interruption aside from the frequent blood pressure checks due to her blood pressure being higher lately -- it leads one to wonder if her heart can't figure out why all the blood is staying within the circuit now. It makes me think it had gotten used to the "slow leak". We didn't truly get up to face the day until almost 1000. Since dialysis days start so early, it is nice to take a break when we can.

We had lots of visitors today as well. Her nephrologist (kidney doctor) came by first and we talked about her x-ray results (everything is looking better, from lungs to heart) followed by the nurse manager and floor supervisor (who among other things, came by to discuss "weigh-in gate".) We had lunch, and then it was back off to the hospital school for art and math. Afterwords she came back to the room and started to nap, but then they had to check her blood sugar, so the nap ended quite short.

She read through two of her books today and finished her weaving project before her "soft-foods" dinner (we graduated!) which included applesauce, peach slices, beef broth, a dinner roll, and a smoothie. She ate all the broth and the peaches, the rest of it (even the smoothie!) wasn't up to her standard. We spent time with an occupational therapist afterwords, and did some exercises. We had to change the dressing on her PICC line later on this evening, which was a bit traumatic, but other than that, it was a good day. Check out the sunset:

By the Numbers:

• She's required 5 units of insulin on average per day. Still. Worrisome. Blood Sugar range: 97-225.
• Hematocrit: 28.5%, Hemoglobin 10.0, Platelets 122
• Blood Pressure: Range 120/82 -- 139/107 (changing from 2.5g's of medicine twice a day to 5g's once a day.)
  
  
  

  DISCLAIMER: Posts Labeled "One Year Ago Today" are a record of what transpired when Evie first became ill.  The slightly edited text comes from emails which we sent to family to let them know what was happening, and to keep them updated.  These posts are usually long, but if you want to truly understand what life was like for us, and what led to this point, it makes for great "light" reading.