So, I guess there's a lot to talk about...
Jen's doing OK at the moment. The Dexcom continuous glucose monitor has been installed and has been runnning for the past couple of weeks with varied results. One of the problems is that there is only really one person in the hospital qualified to operate the device and fix it if something goes wrong. All of the nurses try to learn how to operate it but are operating on average at about an Iraq invasion success rate.
The Dexcom unit itself is pretty nice and simple. I have a feeling that it works better than is being demonstrated at Kaiser, if you do the calibrations correctly and on time I think that the unit will help her out quite a bit. Of course, we'll have to buy her one of her own...because Kaiser bought the current one just for the hospital. How nice.
At this point the Gastric pacer is off the table, due to Jen's ability to eat on her own for the past couple of months. I think that this is great news, as the less surgery, the better. Jen is nervous that she will fall back into her previous state, but her doctors think that if we keep her blood sugars under tight control than we can stave that off.
They are thinking of releasing her soon. Obviously it depends on how well her blood sugars are controlled, and switching her to oral medication...but that is the only criteria. That actually scares me at this point...she is very medicated and I am just not comfortable leaving her at home alone. If I did at the state she's in now I know that we'd have a bad scenario very quickly. Kaiser does not have a program that helps people out once they're released that is covered by insurance. I'm looking into what to do.
More later...
