Margaret is Home

Yesterday morning I was at the hospital by 9.30 pm. Margaret was sitting in a chair occupying the space where her bed used to be. Her room mate, also Margaret, was quite ill during the night and they had moved our Margaret to another room for the night to get some sleep. After her shower it was decided that she could sit up until it was decided whether the came home or not. She had had another blood test at 8.00 am and the results were being rushed through.

G Pavilion was in chaos. Those patients who were not going home were all being moved to D Pavilion as there were so few that it was not worth keeping the ward open. The other Margaret disappeared at about 10.30 am and by 11.00 am there were only two other patients on the ward also awaiting discharge. Finally at 11.30 am the specialist dropped by with the test results. They were not too great as her sodium levels had stabilized at 127 mmol/L, still well below the 140 normal low. The specialist said that he thought Margaret would be better of at home for a few days on certain conditions. One was that she went on a restricted fluid intake of 1.2 L per day - that's everything tea, water and alcohol. This is equivalent of 6 cups of tea a day Margaret's normal tea intake! The next is restricted walking as her boot hasn't arrived yet and finally not to over tire herself.

I queried her kidney function and he said it was normal for Margaret and above the level requiring dialysis! Her kidneys are shot and a eGFT of 30 is good for her. As I have said before above 90 is good below 60 is some kidney failure ,below 30 chronic failure, below 20 acute failure and below 10 dialysis is required. Margaret's were below 20 on admission and had clawed their way up to 30 on discharge. He was more worried about her sodium levels. She will have more blood tests on Jan 4 and a follow up visit to the specialist on Jan 6. If there are any signs of increased confusion it's back to emergency and on a saline drip. Happy Christmas!

We got home at 12.30 pm to a rapturous welcome from Louis. He wouldn't let me wheel Margaret in her chair from the garage and just stood there with his paws in Margaret's lap licking her face. Margaret has been resting up as much as possible and watched the Carols by Candle Light on TV before going to bed.

Today she is quite bright but has had two cups of tea before 8.00 am! I will help her get showered and wash and set her hair (it's very short) before going out to Christmas Lunch at the Reef Hotel at 11.30 am. I will take my camera and try and get some photos.