You can read about his whole fiasco here, or here, or here.
I had honestly given up. Not on my mom, she will fight. But given up on the whole medical establishment. They kept doing two things that made no sense to me.
The first was she has already had three operations. They didn't want to do a fourth. So to stop the bleeding in her small intestine, where they removed a few feet, they kept using a scope and clips. They have done this four times, cause each time they could not clip everything they needed to stop the bleeding. This made no sense to me. I get surgery has risks (why she is here). But if we can transplant a heart we ought to be able to stitch up some intestines. Open her up and get it done.
The second was her diet. She can't eat so they have her getting these "packs" of food injected into her system. At first I thought it was kind of "neat" when I learned they mix them at the hospital for her individual need. But they keep giving her insulin shots (my mom isn't Diabetic) cause her blood sugar is too high. I am like why are you giving her so much sugar in her food you need to give her insulin shots? They told me for energy. I was like we can feed folks in a space station, are you telling me that pumping her up with sugar, to the point she needs insulin, is the best we have.
But below the fold, happy thoughts.
In the last few days she is now moving around. First just in her room. Now down the hall. Oh and her sense of humor is back. Told the nurse the other day if she looked away she might make a break for the elevator. I was like you go mom, try to escape, I totally get it. Almost three weeks in the ICU has to suck.
Also starting to eat. She was on a "clear" diet and as I got updates on what they were feeding her I was like WTF. Jello, pudding, and popsicles. She didn't just have her tonsils removed. Appears my mom said the same thing. That she wanted some REAL food. She is getting it and keeping it down. I never thought I'd brag about my mother's bowel movements, but she is having them with no blood in her stool. No small victory.
And in what I think is the best development my mom asked my father to give her, well her makeup kit. My dad was like "Joyce there is no need for that." She told him it wasn't a request. She wanted to be presentable to the nurses.
You go mom. A week or so ago I didn't think she was making it out of this hospital alive, it just seemed like a comedy of errors that would kill her. Now there is a bright light at the end of this all.