Monday, September 14, 2009

Poor LOL

My LOL from last week was due to be discharged that same day, and, indeed, she was. Back to the Sketchy Nursing Home. She was BACK to the unit this morning, however, once again Uroseptic, with abnormal ABGs. Apparently somebody messed with her vent settings, and her pH was something like 7.22. For those of you who don't know body pH yet, 7.22 is QUITE acidotic. Normal is 7.35-7.45, and you really don't have much leeway. Also, it looked as if nobody had really thoroughly bathed her during that time, as her skin was sloughing off in the most alarming way. It took me about half an hour to bathe her, which is impressive, considering she only has THREE limbs. I STILL didn't get HALF the dead skin off, and then my partner and I put an entire TUBE of aloe cream on her, to help with the itching.
Poor thing is quite heavy too, which makes turning her...tricky. The doctor says that she probably won't get better, and he would very much like to get an End Of Life plan for her, but that her family is dead set against a DNR of any kind, so she remains a Full Code.
Oh! and somebody else coded TWICE today, down the hall in the ICU. They remain alive-ish.
Kudos all 'round.

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