Carlos was in very good spirits this morning considering he had spent most of the night on the toilet! I guess they brought him a bedside commode so he could watch TV while he was ....uh...evacuating his bowels. But he has the 'all-clear' *snicker* for his colonoscopy today. They should be taking him to the GI lab shortly. I'm really envious of the good drugs he gets to have. I kinda feel like caregivers should get to share when having to be 'in the hospital' with their loved one. No fair.
Will drop a few lines later, once we here the results.
Carlos' weight today? 191. *grumble* His numbers are wonky.
Showing posts with label colonoscopy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label colonoscopy. Show all posts
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Back to the Mayo
So Carlos has been doing well at home aside from minor issues. They managed to get his INR therapeutic two lab draws in a row! That was just in time to stop the coumadin in preparation for this admission. He's had some fluid status issues, as well, so they have been playing around with his lasix dose also.
So this is the hospital admission to re- begins this evening. check his colonoscopy. They need to follow up on the area that was ischemic (poorly oxygenated area) and check out a possible polyp that was mentioned in the previous pathology report. If everything is good, then he will be reactivated on the waiting list for transplant.
It sucks that they can't do this outpatient. Such is the life of an LVAD patient - nothing is ever simple any more. He has to have a heparin bridge, which is where he stops the coumadin a couple days prior, gets an IV (which they have attempted to start three times thus far without success - waiting now for the PICC nurse to come have a stab...haha), and gets heparin to keep him anticoagulated until the procedure is done. Heparin is very short acting so this enables him to keep his blood thinned until the last possible moment. If you recall, the risk of developing blood clots in his pump is high if not adequately anticoagulated. Then those clots can break off and pinball around his body, potentially leaving him a drooling idiot. While part of that equation is in effect already, I cannot handle drooling....haha, jk.
Carlos enjoyed a lovely gourmet liquid lunch. His enthusiam was very overwhelming. Not. The Golytely prep begins this evening. You can imagine how excited he is for that. My chat with him about maintaining a positive attitude during this hospitalization quickly was forgotten by the second IV attempt. The PICC nurse just showed up to give it a try. Will update tomorrow.
So this is the hospital admission to re- begins this evening. check his colonoscopy. They need to follow up on the area that was ischemic (poorly oxygenated area) and check out a possible polyp that was mentioned in the previous pathology report. If everything is good, then he will be reactivated on the waiting list for transplant.
It sucks that they can't do this outpatient. Such is the life of an LVAD patient - nothing is ever simple any more. He has to have a heparin bridge, which is where he stops the coumadin a couple days prior, gets an IV (which they have attempted to start three times thus far without success - waiting now for the PICC nurse to come have a stab...haha), and gets heparin to keep him anticoagulated until the procedure is done. Heparin is very short acting so this enables him to keep his blood thinned until the last possible moment. If you recall, the risk of developing blood clots in his pump is high if not adequately anticoagulated. Then those clots can break off and pinball around his body, potentially leaving him a drooling idiot. While part of that equation is in effect already, I cannot handle drooling....haha, jk.
Carlos enjoyed a lovely gourmet liquid lunch. His enthusiam was very overwhelming. Not. The Golytely prep begins this evening. You can imagine how excited he is for that. My chat with him about maintaining a positive attitude during this hospitalization quickly was forgotten by the second IV attempt. The PICC nurse just showed up to give it a try. Will update tomorrow.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
His INR is what???
Carlos had an appointment at Mayo today for a check-up. His INR was 4.77! Holy bleeding batman! So he will hold the coumadin tonight and restart at half the dose tomorrow night with a recheck on the lab on Monday. His INR never did this before so I asked about it. He had picked up about 5 pounds over the weekend that is slowly coming off and this may have caused liver congestion which is now improving....take a breath...which improves his liver's processing of medication. But no bleeding from any orifices so it's all good.
They tweaked a couple other meds but nothing major. His mean arterial pressure (MAP), which is all that is left of his blood pressure, is still trending to the higher side. So they increased his carvedilol just a bit to try and get that down (it was 90). That will help with his mildly tachy heart rate too.
We are opting not to go to Vegas this weekend due to financial constraints. instead we are gonna do something local...not sure what yet, will figure it out later tonight.
Next appointment is Friday the 30th :) Carlos starts cardiac rehab on Monday. The only two things keeping him from being relisted are needs a follow-up colonoscopy, which will probably get scheduled in the first week or so of April, and being able to walk 1100 feet in 6 minutes in rehab. I'm betting he can do that in the first session :D
They tweaked a couple other meds but nothing major. His mean arterial pressure (MAP), which is all that is left of his blood pressure, is still trending to the higher side. So they increased his carvedilol just a bit to try and get that down (it was 90). That will help with his mildly tachy heart rate too.
We are opting not to go to Vegas this weekend due to financial constraints. instead we are gonna do something local...not sure what yet, will figure it out later tonight.
Next appointment is Friday the 30th :) Carlos starts cardiac rehab on Monday. The only two things keeping him from being relisted are needs a follow-up colonoscopy, which will probably get scheduled in the first week or so of April, and being able to walk 1100 feet in 6 minutes in rehab. I'm betting he can do that in the first session :D
Monday, March 5, 2012
Eleven
Eleven. That's how many units of blood he has had so far. Getting plasma now because his INR keeps creeping up. Possibly he might have some sort of genetic blood weirdness that is causing his blood to be so all over the place. This morning, seems like the bleeding may have stopped. GoLytely fixed him. Woohoo. Who knew! I asked if we could go home now. They said no :p
I did open up the Take Them Meal calendar again so anyone is able and willing to help out, we are deeply appreciative! Meals
There was a great debate between Kim and I about how the pronunciation of hematochezia. I won. Here's a link to how to pronounce it...pronounciation. Remember Kim, it's not hemato-cheesyah.
Carlos wasn't quite as crabby as I thought he would be when I got here. He's not cracking jokes either but has smiled a tiny bit.
Colonoscopy is at three this afternoon.
Libby's birthday is today. She's 9-years-old. She gets to go to Build-a-Bear today and we will have a little party tonight for her. Carlos and I are giving her a gift certificate for a day with mom and day to include lunch, mani and pedi, and a little shopping. I posted a picture of her on Facebook :-)
I did open up the Take Them Meal calendar again so anyone is able and willing to help out, we are deeply appreciative! Meals
There was a great debate between Kim and I about how the pronunciation of hematochezia. I won. Here's a link to how to pronounce it...pronounciation. Remember Kim, it's not hemato-cheesyah.
Carlos wasn't quite as crabby as I thought he would be when I got here. He's not cracking jokes either but has smiled a tiny bit.
Colonoscopy is at three this afternoon.
Libby's birthday is today. She's 9-years-old. She gets to go to Build-a-Bear today and we will have a little party tonight for her. Carlos and I are giving her a gift certificate for a day with mom and day to include lunch, mani and pedi, and a little shopping. I posted a picture of her on Facebook :-)
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