Physical Therapy
Brain surgery doesn’t slow down physical therapy. We’ve attempted physical therapy every day. But, today, was a first. Today, with assistance, Lidia was able to stand.
Note from author: Sorry the pictures are lame. I could only take pictures from the front because if I took pictures from the back, Lidia would kill me, if you know what I mean.
No Room In the Inn
This morning we were notified that we will be moving out of ICU to Acute Care. This is a short move down the hall. Lidia will have a private room with a private shower and toilet. Instead of being 1 nurse for two patients, Lidia will be part of a group of 5 patients for 1 nurse.
Unfortunately for Lidia, there are not any rooms available yet. So she is still in her ICU room but is no longer considered Intensive Care.
Stuffed Up Nose
Lidia is a nose breather when she sleeps. It is against her character to breath out of her mouth. I asked the nurses on staff overnight that if they wanted Lidia to be calm and sleep without fighting against high blood pressure, that they should figure out a way to keep her nose cleared from mucous. (I said snot, but wanted to be a little more sophisticated while writing this blog.) They went above and beyond to make sure Lidia was comfortable breathing out of her nose so that she could rest.
Officially out of Neuro Critical Care (ICU)
About 3 o’clock in the afternoon, Lidia was led out of the ICU to the Neuro Acute Care Unit. Now that we are situated, I think we will find our routine. We checked every 4 hours for a couple things.
- Bladder – We need to check every 4 hours if Lidia needs to relieve herself. They do this with a portable sonogram machine. (I have no idea what it is called, but that is what it reminds me of.) They are able to view the contents of her bladder non-evasively. When she reaches a certain point, they do what is called a straight cath. (Again, I have no idea if I’m saying this right)
- High blood pressure – They check her high blood pressure. We are starting to learn Lidia signals for discomfort. When she rubs her hand over her head and winces, she’s in pain. When she wiggles her leg around or tries to adjust herself, she is feeling the need to relieve herself.
Neuro Acute Care
The biggest thing that I noticed on our first day with Neuro Acute Care Unit. 5+ PATIENTS TO 1 NURSE IS TO MUCH. Each nurse has an assistant, but the assistant isn’t able to give meds, diagnose issues, etc. However, I think this could be solved by having 1 or 2 floating nurses that aren’t assigned to any patient in particular but will go where they are needed. We waited a little long to get Lidia relieved with a straight cath. It took 3 hours for our night shift nurse to come and talk to us because she was busy with other patients. Another thing that I noticed that was a big difference between Neuro Intensive Care and Neuro Acute Care is that there was always somebody asking if they could help the other nurses. Somebody would come in and introduce themselves and state that they were helping our primary nurse.