And on a more serious note...
Nov. 29th, 2006 03:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redneckgaijinFor the past couple weeks, my grandmother's husband, Vernon, has been in the hospital instead of the nursing home. His condition has been going back and forth, at least according to the doctors, nurses, etc. attending.
We went to visit him today- he's been moved to ICU because the only way to get medicine and sugar solution into him is by a needle into the jugular. As we were there I watched his EKG... not merely irregular, but more often than not missing beats. The only thing moving blood during those periods was the lesser pulse produced by his ventricular pacemaker.
Tonight we got a phone call from the doctors overseeing his case. In the next day or two he's going to have to have surgery to have a feeding tube inserted directly to his intestine. This is actually a dangerous procedure in his current condition. The doctor said in this phone call that his heart is down to about 15% function.
Instead of picking out gifts for him this Christmas, we're picking out pallbearers. It's that bad.
The most important thing here is that, when Vernon dies, my grandmother will lose a very substantial portion of her income. She's had to borrow money from her brother every month this year for various repairs to the house or to appliances- most recently a huge plumbing bill to fix several ruptured pipes. (Another one happens tomorrow- the thermostat on the central heat is acting flaky. With a hard freeze coming this weekend, this is not something that can be postponed.)
It's a good thing WLP business is picking up, at least in the short term. I may have to pick up more of the load around here.
So there's a lot on my mind today I'm trying to take my mind off of, if that makes any sense.
We went to visit him today- he's been moved to ICU because the only way to get medicine and sugar solution into him is by a needle into the jugular. As we were there I watched his EKG... not merely irregular, but more often than not missing beats. The only thing moving blood during those periods was the lesser pulse produced by his ventricular pacemaker.
Tonight we got a phone call from the doctors overseeing his case. In the next day or two he's going to have to have surgery to have a feeding tube inserted directly to his intestine. This is actually a dangerous procedure in his current condition. The doctor said in this phone call that his heart is down to about 15% function.
Instead of picking out gifts for him this Christmas, we're picking out pallbearers. It's that bad.
The most important thing here is that, when Vernon dies, my grandmother will lose a very substantial portion of her income. She's had to borrow money from her brother every month this year for various repairs to the house or to appliances- most recently a huge plumbing bill to fix several ruptured pipes. (Another one happens tomorrow- the thermostat on the central heat is acting flaky. With a hard freeze coming this weekend, this is not something that can be postponed.)
It's a good thing WLP business is picking up, at least in the short term. I may have to pick up more of the load around here.
So there's a lot on my mind today I'm trying to take my mind off of, if that makes any sense.
