Resting at home

We finished a long day Friday in the hospital time warp, finally having Thursday morning’s MRI on Friday at 4pm, getting discharge instructions at 6:30, and actually leaving UCLA at 9:30.  Susan is resting at home now, receiving IV antibiotics and oral antivirals for the next several days.  She’s still tired and headachy as she recovers.  This episode will be summed up under the immune-compromised department, with dual infections of the nerve roots with shingles, and the urinary tract with e. coli or proteus or whatever the little bugger was.  Friday’s MRI was clear of any new threats for bleeding or aneurism, so we assume the blood in Susan’s spinal fluid was from having to poke her several times and manipulate the needle to get fluid moving.  We remain thankful our meningitis concerns were a false alarm that led us to discover and treat the real issues.
Our next steps will be follow-up visits with various doctors to treat infection, kidney stones, diabetes, and the brain tumor.  I think that about covers it.
 

While in the ER this week, a doctor from the internal medicine team wanted to clarify Susan’s “code status” after reviewing the advanced healthcare directive we have on file.  Thanks to Attorney Mark Doyle, Susan and I completed our will and trust documents in 2003. They include a power of attorney so each of us can act on the other’s behalf, and advanced directives that outline what life-saving measures we’d like performed if we’re seriously ill. Our chat with the doctor brought the idea from the legal to the practical. 
While the document dictates Susan’s desire that no extraordinary measures be taken to prolong her life if there’s no hope of recovery, the doctor needed to know what they should do if she “coded.”  Should they perform CPR? Should they intubate for breathing? Defibrillate her heart? Well, yes, of course, they should try to save her life.  These actions, the doctor pointed out, could leave Susan alive but unresponsive and lead to another decision families don’t like to make – when to “pull the plug.”  Wait – that’s different.  What we really want is to be revived if everything’s going to be okay afterward, but not if it won’t.  That’s the document we want to sign.
So with a brief incursion into the world of bedside decisions and medical ethics, Susan and I clarified it for the doctor – we want try to save her life. Her status is “full code.”  This is just another instance of our lame attempts to control the uncontrollable, leading us to recognize our lives are in God’s hands.  I returned to the document where all this stuff was already worked out and once again found the real peace of mind we seek, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be…Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139: 16, 23-24.