Saturday, June 6, 2009

Brown cows and other moooving subjects

Well, Annie's still on IV fluids and Golytely, and we are seeing some progress--she's not as gaggy as this morning when she threw up twice. She also seems to be slowly responding to the Golytely--slowly being the operative word. Of course, I don't think I'm up for an explosive situation, so slow is probably preferable to fast, especially when you take into account her Addison's, and the importance of keeping her electrolytes in a safe and happy range.

This afternoon when her doctor came in to discuss the Plan, I floated the molasses & milk enema idea, and she agreed that a "Brown Cow" might be in order. She wasn't sure, though, if the hospital would have the ingredients readily available, and suggested that I might need to make a trip to Safeway. (I did find some anecdotal information on Brown Cows--or M&M's--on allnurses.com. As my nurse friend, Terri, commented, you never know when you might need this inside scoop, so take a look after you close out of Annie's blog.) Anyway--if Annie hasn't made any great moves in the right direction by tomorrow am, I'll run down to Safeway to get some molasses & milk.

Other than that, she seems to be doing okay--she alternates between being alert and angry at the nurses when they want to check her blood pressure, take her temperature, listen to her heart or brush her teeth--and sleepy and snuggly when we're holding her.

The plan tonight is to keep the Golytely going in, the poop coming out, the IV fluids on, and her hydro dose doubled. Tomorrow--if things have gone well--they'll probably shut off the Golytely, and start her tube feeds again. Then if she is able to keep her food down without throwing up, she might get to come home on Monday.

Thank you again so much for your prayers--God is answering.

Jean

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, get it.....all snuggly with Mom and Dad and snarly with the nurses. Guess I'll never be "poopular".
(Sorry, I couldn't resist.) I have been praying off and on for Annie and everyone all day.

Love,
Terri W

Gretchen said...

Thanks for the update,Jean. I was gonna say, thanks for giving us the poop...er...scoop. But I'd never do that. praying her well and home.

xxxooogjh

Anonymous said...

Hello Annie and all: I hope all is well and she is back to receiving nourishment.
I just looked at that allnurses.com site and read many of the spots on M&M enemas. What a hoot! And verification of everything I said, too. I loved it. One thing I found interesting was that many of the spots said:........"and when all else fails, as a last resort..... an M&M enema will do the trick". Now, I know Annie's electrolyte balance is trickier than the average bear's. That is why I said not to do an M&M without first verifying with the doctor. But like I emphatically told them the morning I went in to be induced with Charly......"If you think you are going to end up doing a C Section, I want it right now!" When they asked me why I said that, I told them I did not want to go through hours of induced labor only to have a C Section when I was worn out and exhausted. If I was going to have a C Section, then I wanted to skip the labor and have it when I was fresh and rested. Well, if I were a contipatee, I would want to skip the: prune juice, Metamucil, Milk of Magnesia, NG golytely, soap suds enema, oil retention enema, suppositories, and manual dis-impaction (talk about pain!) and go straight for the sure cure. Sure, an M&M is not extremely pleasant, but compared to all the aforementioned treatments added together without adequate results, it's a breeze.
Gotta go, before they change my middle name to something that starts with an M or an E.
Continuing love and prayers,
Terri W
PS I am probably not doing anything to alleviate the nursing shortage with this one.

aunt rebecca said...

Grim. I just read the posts at allnurses.com. I will never think of M&M's the same again.

On the other hand - Brown Cow seems like an excellent name for this medieval medical misery.

Make sure you stand out of range :-)

Praying that everything comes out well

did I say that?

Susan said...

How now brown cow.