The Oxygen Made Winnie Feel Better
Winnie is still recovering at home from her recent angioplasty. Her incisions are almost healed and she is feeling MUCH better. She has been doing relatively well, except for a scary incident on Wednesday morning.
Mary, Winnie’s home care nurse, came by the house to check on Winnie’s incisions and general well-being. Winnie mentioned to her that she was having a hard time catching her breath and was scared that she might be having another heart attack!
Mary checked her blood pressure and heart rate and both were a little elevated. Mary recommended that Winnie head in to the emergency room to be checked out more thoroughly. She explained that the hospital had better diagnostic tools at their disposal than she did. Even though she was fairly certain that Winnie wasn’t having another attack, it was better to be safe than sorry!
Otto drove Winnie to the hospital and went in to the exam room with her. He said that Winnie was frightened and held his hand tightly the whole time. Otto, in his usual rock-steady way, told her that he was sure everything would be fine.
When the doctor finally came to the room, he checked her blood pressure, temperature and her heart rate. He said that the discomfort that Winnie was experiencing was NOT another heart attack, but it was a very good that they had come in. It could have been something serious.
The doctor said that her medications probably needed to be adjusted and that she should bring that up at her next post-op appointment. Luckily she had an appointment already scheduled the next day. He also recommended that they continue to have their home nurse visit daily, and to continue taking her current medications until the appointment.
The doctor did have the ER nurse set Winnie up in a temporary bed where she was administered oxygen and her vital signs were monitored. After Winnie heard that she wasn’t having another heart attack she let herself relax. By the time they left the ER Winnie was feeling much better.
During the last few days Otto has started to warm up to their nurse Mary. Now, after Winnie’s visit to the ER, Otto is convinced that she saved Winnie’s life. Mary, of course, denies it.. but I know that she enjoyed the chocolates that Otto got her!
We hope this was helpful. If you have any questions or if you know of a senior that could benefit from our vast array of home care services in Baton Rouge, please call us at 225.819.8338 or email us. Most long-term care insurance policies will reimburse us for our services and we have a team of over 200 bonded and insured CAREGivers covering the Baton Rouge, Louisiana area.
