Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Change of Plans-- AGAIN! No more Utah

Yesterday morning I called the new surgeon's office in Salt Lake City to ask about how we should take care of the TPN (mom's IV nutrition) once she arrived in Utah.  The nurse seemed surprised and then said that the doctor in Utah had only agreed to have a consultation with her to meet her and look over all her paperwork, not necessarily to take her on as a patient.  This news was shocking to us as we have known all along that we can't move mom from this hospital until she has a bariatric surgeon ready to begin caring for her in the new location.  The Utah nurse said that once she arrived in Utah, the doctor probably would accept her as a patient, but that he might not, and that there was absolutely no way he would consider committing to care for her unless she was sitting right there in his office with all her paperwork.  Of course, this was a huge risk for my mom, because she has to have IV nutrition to survive, and only a doctor can set that up.  So, after another long day of phone calls, we found a doctor in Arizona who knows about her case, who has already looked over her medical files, and who has agreed to take mom on as a patient.  I booked the next available appointment, which is at 2:45 pm on Thursday (tomorrow.)  Anyway, unless something else goes wrong, today will be mom's last full day in St. Rose Hospital in Nevada and today they will start shutting down the TPN and insulin so that she can travel safely tomorrow morning.  The new surgeon's office and hospital in Arizona is about 1 hour away from my older sister Becky's house, so mom will be living with Becky and Becky will be her caregiver when mom is not in the hospital.  Becky will drive up to the hospital in Nevada today and early tomorrow morning they will load mom up in my sister's car and drive the 5 hour drive straight through to the new surgeon's office in Arizona.   We are going on a wing and a prayer here that this will all work out.  Tomorrow (Thursday) is going to be a very big day, so if you can keep praying especially hard that the travel will be safe and the new doctor will be inspired with wisdom to know exactly what mom needs in order to fully recover, we would appreciate that.  Thanks again for following this journey with us.

1 comment:

  1. Hi,
    Continuing our prayers. Our love to Wendy and all her family.
    Thank you for keeping us updated.
    Love,
    Janet and Don

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