ICU Reflection

Sue's ICU room reflected in the windows overlooking
Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains.

It has been a couple of days of serious reflection and I even captured a photo of this in a literal sense.

We just can't seem to break away from the hospital! We certainly are on a consistent roll between me, Sheila and now Sheila's mom, Sue. The past couple of days have been spent at the hospital with Sue and we expect to do the same through the long weekend ahead. 

Sue certainly has had a rough couple of days and she really had all of us worried yesterday! (And there are a lot of "us" in Sue's life!) The next few weeks promise to be quite rough for her as she continues to slowly heal. On the positive side, Sue is now stable and, hopefully, steadily healing. 

Sue slipped on the ice right outside their garage yesterday morning... slammed to the ground... left with visible bruising, a bloodied head and a relatively small bleed on the brain. She doesn't remember falling but she somehow managed to get herself back up to the house where Will found her a short while later. 

The ambulance brought her to the local hospital and quickly found the bleeding on her brain. They immediately arranged for her to be transported up to the University of Vermont Medical Center which is where Sheila and I happened to be at the time for Sheila's ongoing cancer treatment. At this point, we were all quite worried. 

We're all well aware that traumatic brain injuries are serious business. I, myself, have experienced numerous mild head injuries over the decades so I have firsthand knowledge of how debilitating and serious any head injury can be. Sue's injury is well beyond a mild head injury so I know recovery will be painful as well as painfully and frustratingly slow. 

So, after Sheila's physical therapy, we made our way to the emergency room to meet everyone arriving there to support Sue and get more information on her condition. Shortly after we arrived at Sue's trauma room in the emergency room, Sheila's sister, Amy, updated us on Sue's condition. Within a short period of time, they moved Sue to the ICU. We had a little parade following behind Sue's gurney as we slowly wound our way through the hallways from the emergency room to ICU. The main concern in the ER and for a while after arriving in ICU was stopping the bleeding on the brain while avoiding secondary issues.

Although they felt Sue's condition had stabilized within about eight hours yesterday and the bleeding had stopped, she is still in significant pain even today and she continues to experience double vision. Obviously, the primary source of pain is the trauma to her brain but she is also bruised quite badly on her elbow and back and has a bit of lump and abrasion on the back of her head. She hasn't eaten in days because she is struggling with nausea and, I suspect, the pain isn't helping her appetite at all either.  

An occupation therapist visited her this morning and did an initial exam. I believe this therapy will continue during her stay at the hospital. She is visibly uncomfortable and still in enough pain, however, that there really isn't much that can be done in the way of therapy just yet. Realistically speaking, walking even a few steps on her own is not an option at this point.

As we left her this evening to find some food for ourselves, Sue was being given more medications to allow her to get more comfortable so she could sleep a bit tonight. At this stage of recovery, all that can be done is rest... quiet... more rest... keeping rather still... more rest... while trying to keep from getting frustrated by the slow healing process, relentless nausea and lingering head pain. 

I have to say that we were pretty worried for most of the day yesterday but we are all thankful Sue's condition stabilized relatively quickly. She is still in significant pain and we all wish she wasn't but, as I said, we're thankful that her condition has stabilized and she seems to be beginning the journey to recovery.

Naturally, we'll be heading back to ICU tomorrow. 

Hopefully Sue will have a relatively restful and peaceful night...


Comments

  1. Sending loving, healing thoughts and prayers. Feel better Sue.

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