MaryAnn Back in the Hospital

Well, here we are again doing something I hoped we wouldn't have to, but it looks like it's all good.  She had the shoulder surgery at about 5:00 this afternoon.  The procedure went well.  He found a pocket of pus that he had missed the first time that definitely was causing a good part of her shoulder problem.  She got back to her room at about 7:30 and had a good dinner. There are some good things that will come out of this.  The infection status will be evaluated and they will see if the antibiotic she is on is doing the job and also they are playing with her insulin dosage to see if she can get along with less.

The one down note after the surgery is that he put in some absorbent material in the cavity where the pus was found and he will have to go back in and remove that probably on Friday. As you know I'm terrible on predicting discharge dates, but I don't think it will be before Monday.

MaryAnn is Home

MaryAnn arrived home early this afternoon.  We both got a course in administering her IV antibiotics.  This could be going on for up to 30 days so we need to get into a routine.  She is pretty tired as you might guess, but very glad to be home.

MaryAnn Status 3/31

Well the time has finally come!!  She's coming home tomorrow.  We're not totally sure of the exact time, but it will probably be later morning or early afternoon.  Obviously she's in sufficiently good shape to be home.  I have been working to get things ready.  For local folks we'll be in touch about help needed.

I am going to stop the daily updates unless something significantly changes.

Hopefully MaryAnn will be able to personally do the next update

MaryAnn Status 3/29

Progress is being made.  Her doctor told her that her white blood cell count was 13000 yesterday - a drop of 2000!  If that trend continues it is good news indeed.  I'm sure the infectious disease doctor will weigh in on Monday.  Our Aaronic Priesthood youth came and gave her the sacrament today.  She certainly appreciated that.  She had another workout from the physical therapist and is making progress there.  Her spirits are great.  She had quite a bit of company today.

Tomorrow should be a day with lots of information and potential decisions.

MaryAnn Status 3/28

We saw two of her three doctors today.  Her internist is concerned that the antibiotic that she is on is not doing the job they would like, so they will probably switch her to a different one. She still runs a low temperature occasionally.  The orthopedist looked at her shoulder and noted that she is healing well from the surgery and the swelling is less.  She continues to walk and do her right shoulder exercises.  Her movements seem to be definitely improving.  She really enjoys phone calls  so take a few minutes and call.

I am going to stop predicting departure days.  When I get told she is going home tomorrow I'll let everyone know.

MaryAnn Status 3/27

Things went well today.  The doctor came in and removed the drain and talked to us for a while.  Everything still looked good.  He feels that it will just take time for the antibiotics to work. He gave an order for her to start physical therapy and that started today.  She did various motions with her right arm for about 10 minutes, which she was able to do without a lot of pain. That will go on every day.  She also went walking for a while today.  The main thing that seems to be keeping her from being discharged is high white blood cell count.  It is still hanging around 15,000 (less than 10,000 is considered normal).  They want the count to start going down which it hasn't yet.  Right now I think the earliest day she could go home is Tuesday.

MaryAnn Status 3/26

The surgery happened today, rather late.  She actually got back into her room at about 7:30.  However, she had a great appetite and ate most of her dinner.  I talked with the surgeon a little while ago and he said everything went as expected.  He cleaned out the shoulder and found a small amount of cloudy liquid, but no pus deposits and no evidence of anything that would require orthopedic surgery.  He put in a drain as planned, which he will take out tomorrow.  She will have her arm in a sling for the next few days, but that is somewhat academic as she had very little use of the right arm anyway.  Physical therapy will start in a few days.  As I've said before the IV antibiotics will go on for quite a while and everyone feels that eventually that will fix the joint problems.  I think we're getting close to discharge, but we'll know better tomorrow.