Pressure

Well, they drained the fluid out of Grandma's lungs yesterday. They pulled off half-a-gallon, she said. It's no wonder she was having trouble breathing. I still don't know what they're going to do about her kidneys. The doctors may not have decided yet. One thing did turn out to be correct in my mom's ramblings yesterday: Grandma's left foot took a turn for the worse. In fact, the whole leg up to the knee started swelling up rather badly. So they put a pressure sock on it and they're (right now) taking her to the hyperbaric chamber at the other hospital to try and get it to settle down. If things go well there, she may be able to come home today. If not... *shrugs*

I don't know exactly what's happening with her leg, so WARNING: NONMEDICAL GUESSES AHEAD. As I understand it, the circulation to it has been poor for several years. They put in a stint to increase circulation. It worked. So her leg is finally getting all the blood it needs. But her leg's been deprived for so long it doesn't know what to do with all that blood, and so it's swelling up and causing problems. There's probably an actual, technical explanation, but my admittedly handwavey argument makes sense to me if no one else.

Random bit of weirdness: Grandma's hospital room has a dry-erase board. So naturally I drew a fishbowl with a fish in it (the fish is decent, except for the mouth; the bowl is rather lop-sided). The nurses have come in to update the board (change the date and put the current nurse's name up) several times, and left the fishbowl up. Grandma told them they could erase it, but they said they liked it. :-) (Note: this says nothing about my artistic abilities. I'm sure they like any positive change from the routine.)