Hey to all,

Just wanted to give you an Aunt Jay update. Sorry Tom and Mary, I forgot to give you the update on Wed.

On Wed (Aug 3rd), they took Jay to the cath lab for her test (finally)! Got great news. She doesn't have any issues with her heart!! She does have a little blockage in some of her arteries, but not anything we have to worry about. One has about 60-70% blockage, another one has 40-50% and the last one is 90%. The one with 90% is a small insignifant artery according to the cardiologist. He said that even if she was 30 years old, he wouldn't do anything to that one. So nothing needs to be done with the heart. The cardiologist also did the legs and found three spots in her right (the bad one) leg that needed angioplasty. The left leg was ok and didn't need anything done to that one.

After the angioplasty they moved her to a different unit, 10th floor in Dunn building (she was on 11 in Fonderen). She is still there this am.

The doctors have decided to move her to a L-TAC unit (I think it stands for Long Term Acute Care Unit). They suggested 2 here in the med center, but Anna and I decided to bring her to one near the house. It was the same as one of them in the med center. So she will be taken by ambulance (today I think) to the new LTAC.

It seemed ok to both of us last night. I did look at the ones in the med center and they were ok, but they would have to get her all new doctors, because none of her current ones worked there. So Anna and I thought that we want her to keep with Dr. D and she does that LTAC. Dr. D also suggested that we take her there for her wound care before she got put into the hospital. So that is the main reason we made that decision.

I went to see her this am and I of course had to get the nurses straightend out. They weren't giving the pain meds like she needs them and they had her bad ankle on the bed and they didn't have pink ankle protectors on her. So I got the nurse "on board" with what Jay needs and got Jay situated. I will have to do it at the new hospital when she gets there. I had finally got the staff on 11 trained, so since she got moved to 11, I had to do it again.

I spoke with a lady at the Med Center who does the discarge planning etc and told her where we wanted to take Jay and she said she has sent a few patients there, and hasn't heard anything negative about them. Frank the PA for the cardiologist, said that he thought it was a good choice and to have Dr. D. was great. So I feel pretty good about the choice.

Now today, they are giving her another unit of blood. Her haemoglobin was in around 7 today, Frank thinks she is bleeding in the GI tract (ulcers in the stomach) because of the anticoagulants they are giving her. He said it was a slow bleed and that maybe they needed to adjust the anticoagulant (it's not coumadin, and I can't remember the name). He also said that they would up the ulcer medication to 2 times a day instead of once. Oh, and inquiring minds wanted to know her blood type, B pos, just like dad.

I decided to take her "personal" items home with me and manually transfer them to the LTAC. I found the other slipper today and didn't want them to loose her glasses. So I have her clothes, sweater, slippers, glasses, Aunt Rita's card, and the plant (from Jo and Dolores). The other stuff can get lost or not taken, it is all hospital supplies and they can get more at the LTAC.

I will continue to keep y'all up to date when I know something new.

Oh, and Mary Liz, if you need someplace to recover from your sugery, we have a spare room at the "Dombrowski Manor"!!

Love and hugs to all,
Mary