specialty care

[Ashleylk91]

hello! I’ve posted before about my mom being intubated and getting a trach and worried about a lot of stuff. Well we have come so far. She was in ICU for 40 days and now has been at select specialty for 2.5 weeks. She’s been weaned off the ventilator with just oxygen mask covering her trach with no issues. Our main issue now is her malnourishment and her wounds needing healed. Her large stomach wound from her colon resection then emergency surgery is still open with a fistula. In 2 weeks it shrunk from 23 cm long to 20 cm. So it IS healing. She also has a sacral pressure ulcer that was stage 3 bordering stage 4. It’s having trouble healing and has had a debreidment. But it’s not getting worse. She’s slowly getting stronger but still bed ridden but they put her in a chair daily. She watches tv with her glasses and talks to me.

I have two questions

Is this something anyone has experience with and the healing and what to expect?

second and most importantly - they called me last week wanting to set up a meeting with my mom and I to make sure they were doing what ky mom wanted. When I questioned further they said well technically she could go home on hospice if she wanted, I said but she’s not dying. They said no not actively but she’s very sick and critical. I got VERY upset. Later her surgeon went to see her for the first time since she left the ICU. He was shocked they said this to me and said “She’s rockin it” doing so great and so much better. Said he would 100% continue treatment.

I left a message this morning for her to call me as I think this is now absurd and am going to deny this conversation being allowed/had. Does anyone have any experience with something like this or why they would be doing this?

[Lux95]

I really think most physicians and nurses working in intensive care are so conditioned to seeing low survival rates, they have a hard time offering hope. Only one nurse believed I would recover. The rest were surprised, but happy when I did. Maybe some of the staff need to see your hope as much as you want them to give you hope.

It seems very encouraging that the surgeon was so positive! It seems to me that is worth more than the negative views from the general care team. The only real advocates we have as ICU patients are our families because our families know us best.

Be encouraged! It does sound like your mother is improving significantly. Healing takes a long time and a lot of patience, especially when we are older, and especially after going through everything she has been through. It takes a serious toll, and I am sure the trauma alone can slow the healing process. Giving your mom hope and encouragement can only help!

[Rdance]

hello,

Wounds take an incredibly long period to heal when they cannot be stitched up. They often get very small and look like it won’t take long and that is frustrating as they do! It’s important the lower levels of tissue heal up first before the top layer closes over or you can get pockets of infection occurring.

What is really really important for wound healing is nutrition. Hopefully that can be improved and then things will move a bit quicker for her.

[Ashleylk91 in reply to Rdance]

Yeah it seems her malnourishment is what’s really holding us back. She neglected her car for so long and worried about everyone else. She was 93 pounds when she came in currently now 91. So thankfully even after 7 weeks in hospital she hasn’t gone down much. She’s experience some confusion right now but I think it’s related to no sleep and IV pain meds (long story and got it nipped in the butt) so hoping she’ll be less confused soon.

I’m just really scared for her healing

[Sepsur]

every aspect of recovery is prolonged the older you are,( even a common cold) whether you have been in ICU or not.

My trachy wound took weeks to properly scab let alone heal.

The only insight I have about hospice care is in the U.K. & generally hospices are better at helping people manage long term pain.