Back to ICU

Well it's been a rough few days. My mother in law has been in the hospital for over a week now and this past Friday spiked a fever of 103.1 and was admitted to ICU again. They had to put her on a ventilator and has been sedated pretty much the whole weekend. She had 10 yes I said 10 IV'S hung that they were giving her with fluids, antibiotics, insulin etc. They did take her off the ventilator today which is good but things are still not looking good. They have her on oxygen but she is not able to say anything or swallow right now. Tonight they did put in an NG tube which is a tube that goes in the nose and down to the stomach. They are not feeding her right now but needed to put it in to give her some of her medications that are not available in liquid form. She is still alert and even laughed at a couple things however it is a big, big weight on my husbands shoulders right now on what to do next. He is the power of attorney and so the doctors are asking him about things in case she would need the ventilator again or possibly a trach. It is so difficult. If she was in a coma, brain dead or 95 and had severe Alzheimers I think my husband could deal with these decisions not easier because it is all hard but he would know what his mom would want. But when she is still 100% alert only 68 years old but just can't speak or write it is so difficulty. He knows his mothers wishes are not to be kept alive on machines however some of these machines have been used temporarily and have saved her life. What do you do? He is trying so hard to make the right decisions and hopefully she will continue to improve so some of these bigger issues the doctor brought up he won't have to be deal with right now. Before I sign off tonight and go to bed I would like to encourage all of you no matter what your age is to have a discussion with your family about your wishes. Anyone of us could end up needing life saving measures no matter our age and have you discussed with your loved ones what you would want done? Have you assigned a Health Care Power of Attorney to carry out your wishes when that difficult time would come? No none of us want to think about this but trust me talk about it now your family will happy you did. Believe me my mother in law did talk about it, has it all in the Power of Attorney and her Living Will but even with that you can never discuss every issue that would come up. Just don't be one of the families that a tragedy happens and you have to say "I don't know what they would want we never talked about it"

My husband and I would like to thank all of you so much for your kind words and prayers. It means so much to us and my mother in law. She really needs prayers. She is in God's hands right now.

Linda