General Update #3

Insulin administered by nurse to Joyce at 12:53 p.m. 

Nurse stated that when people are injured it tends to cause a rise in blood sugar levels. 

Dr. Brown followed up with Dusty at ~1:05 p.m. via phone call to reassure that Joyce has not been forgotten. Orthoapedic surgeon (Dr. Soloniuk from St. Joe's) is possibly in middle of a surgery (which is taking longer than the posted schedule says it should) and this is causing a delay in response to her queries about treatment plan for Joyce. Also awaiting return call from Dr. Deborah Collins.

Blood draw occurred for Joyce at 1:16 p.m. 

At 1:25 p.m. Dana, the case worker for Joyce, arrived to discuss her stay at Gritman, obtain signature for Medicare paperwork, and potential discharge planning. Joyce is currently going to remain in Gritman under a 24-hour "observational" stay (Medicare's classification). The overall goal at this time, given what is known of Joyce's condition and information from doctors, is to have Joyce's pain levels at a 4 out of 10 (or less on the scale) with use of oral painkilling medications for the discharge to occur tomorrow. Joyce signed the observation notice for Medicare, confirming above. Dana is on site at Gritman and can be reached via the nurse station staff if any questions arise. Dana will return tomorrow to check in with Joyce and follow up with discharge process or if plans change post-conversations with the orthopaedic surgeon. 

Nurse arrived at 2:11 p.m. to check pain levels and if more painkiller is needed. Joyce stated that at this moment she "does not feel any pain." Joyce was dosed with pain killers. Nurse asked Joyce how often Joyce takes blood pressure medication at home. Joyce stated twice per day. Nurse stated that the refill intervals for the blood pressure medication don't appear to indicate a twice per day usage. Blood pressure was low this morning when taken by hospital staff according to the nurse. Joyce questioned nurse about being able to go home. Nurse said that primary benchmark for Joyce's release would be pain level management and ability to walk. Still waiting for Dr. Brown to receive call back from Dr. Soloniuk at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center as he needs to look over Joyce's spinal X-rays. Once this occurs they will begin testing Joyce's mobility and if she is able to get up and back into bed. 

Saline bag's level and Joyce's comfort was checked at 3:50 p.m. by the nurse. Multivitamin, Vitamin C and iron supplement pills were provided to Joyce.

Brief naps of 5-10 minutes in duration continued throughout the afternoon with Joyce sometimes passing out mid-conversation. Sometimes Joyce would wake up and have momentary disorientation, stating that she thought she was asleep out at her house in her chair. 

Message(s) from Joyce:

Joyce marveled that with four boys raised, only one had to spend time in the hospital. Phil had his appendix out at 3 years of age, staying overnight. The doctors initially did not believe Joyce's diagnosis of appendicitis when she brought him into the hospital. The doctors "humored her" and discovered that he actually did have appendicitis. When she returned home with Phil, he wanted to have apple pie. Joyce just happened to have made an apple pie the day before. Alice and Vernon were spending the winter with them at the time and thought it was ridiculous Phil should have an apple pie. "They were from the old school, being in the hospital was serious business to them." Joyce doesn't think that Alice or Vernon ever went to the doctor in their earlier years. They didn't even have their tonsils out until they were elderly.

Vernon would do construction in the Dakotas most of the year and then he and Alice would come back to Idaho to live with Joyce and the family. Joyce would take the boys (Craig, Tim, Skip) to basketball practice. Vernon and Alice felt that such extracurricular activities were a waste of time. Again, old school, they believed that the boys should be doing trades or more useful endeavors instead of playing. Joyce's brother, Skip, really appreciated Joyce taking them in for basketball practice. He really wanted to do it, but didn't make the high school team, even though he was tall enough. 

Joyce and her friend Shirley would travel to Lewiston, Idaho for years to purchase grapes to make juice and jelly respectively. Joyce's grape vines at the farm were planted as a result of buying bad concord grapes one year, which made the resulting juice taste like "potato juice." Joyce is almost sure there might still be jars of it entombed in the basement at the farmhouse to this day. Joyce imagines there are all sorts of weird things to be found in the basement. The large refrigerator in the basement was purchased for the purpose of storing grapes (and storing food for feeding the family). The family lived in the basement for quite a while (years) as the upstairs portion of the house was finished so it was handy to have that large fridge there for use. 

Craig, Tim and Loyal were logging over at Deary, Idaho one time and Joyce would make them sandwiches to take along for their lunch. She discovered later on, as young Tim slipped up one day in conversation, that they just buried them out in the woods. Joyce had always wondered why they never just told her right off that they did not like the sandwiches she made. If they would have told her, she would have sat down with them and decided what kind of sandwich they had wanted. Perhaps it was the turkey roll lunch meat that she had found and sliced. Maybe they just weren't fans of turkey? It was pre-seasoned, so maybe it was not seasoned right and so that was the reason? Or its dryness? 

Ansel Fleener would stop by to visit on occasion, sitting at the kitchen table they had then (a little homemade table with a drawer) with Joyce. She wishes he could remember what he said with more clarity. He would recount a lot about his childhood and memories of playing with Indians. He lost his mother and so his dad raised him. Joyce isn't sure if he did that with anybody else, including Dora, or allowed him to be himself and just talk. At the time, Joyce didn't realize how important it would have been had she jotted down notes about what he said. Ansel had a great gift for being interesting, in the way he talked and what he said. People don't often give credit to older people and let them talk and ramble, which is a pity. Joyce expressed that she needs to sit down and give it some hard thought to see if she can recall what they visited about specifically. At the time she didn't realize how valuable that would have been. The same for Vernon. He could tell the best stories about his work with mules. The mules had a mind of their own and would do the most foolish stuff that was interesting to hear about. They were tricksters. She can recall how fantastic the stories were but can't recall specifics...with time they are all disappearing out of her head.

A couple times Joyce went with her family to see Vernon's work locations in Dakota. They didn't travel to be with Vernon very often. Vernon only completed the 8th grade but was offered a job teaching school. He was an absolute genius with math. He could do it all in his head and that probably made him so good as a grade foreman setting stakes for how the slopes should be made. Joyce has a suspicion that she might've been the only one in her family that found his stories interesting, as June and their mother might have thought them nonsense. 

Bambi, a family friend who was living in Moscow at the time, found and rescued baby magpies one year. The mother magpie must have been killed or something. When the magpies got bigger and became problematic (as people didn't want magpies around in where she was living), she knew she either had to get them out of town or the magpies might be killed. So Bambi brought one out to the farm to live and be free. The magpie took to Joyce. It knew where the bedroom was and the magpie would sit on the swamp cooler at the farm (the swamp cooler used to be installed via a window where the sliding door now is) and "talk" to Joyce when she would lay down to recuperate from migraines or a surgery. It would also sit and go down the garden rows with Joyce. While Joyce picked green beans it got curious about what was under those leaves and would tip its head to study the green beans. It never ate any. It kept track of her wherever she went and whatever she did inside or outside of the house. Sometimes it would sit on her shoulder and ride along as Joyce went about her day, "talking" with her. One Sunday afternoon, the family decided to go to Deary for the day and when they returned home the magpie was gone. They thought at the time that somebody took it, perhaps because it was so friendly. Joyce thinks that Bambi had a real talent for working with birds. Bambi later moved to the other side of the U. S. She was a wonderful friend. A very good friend. In the attic of the farmhouse is a piece of nice wood furniture that belongs to Bambi. She hasn't returned to reclaim it. A desk? Joyce has forgotten. One of the trunks in the upstairs of the farmhouse is also Bambi's. Bambi came back to visit one year in the late 80s or thereabout. 

Craig reads the newspaper with Joyce every morning and remarks there is nothing in it. It is nice to have that time with Craig, though. She appreciates their time spent together. 

Current location:

Gritman Medical Center, Room 226.

Current pain level:
3-4 out of 10. A steady pain (about mid-back below the shoulder blade level) as of 3:25 p.m. when asked.

Visiting information:
No change from previous post.
Confirmed with nurses' station shift leader - currently only 1 visitor per day for Joyce, no exceptions. Once current visitor departs Joyce's room, no further visits for the rest of the day. No swapping out visitors (example, Dusty cannot remain on hospital grounds while Craig goes to sit with Joyce for an hour and then Dusty returns to room).