Feeding 60cc/hr, Still throwing up PO food

Today was a fairly uneventful day for Denise in the hospital. But yesterday's mail sure was exciting. Here's a portion of a letter I received from PacifiCare. Notice that the DOS (Dates Of Service) were from just three or four days that Denise was in a regular room at USC. I've heard that an ICU room could be double or triple the cost of a regular hospital room. I was in the company of other teachers when I opened this up and we were all stunned to think that three or four days in the hospital could cost more than a year's pay. In my mind, the insurance plan that my school offers immediately became an even larger blessing. Now, the letter stated that the insurance company is awaiting itemization before the claim can procede, so I hope that this is nothing more than a paperwork issue. Still, pray. Now, on to the important person that this blog's about:
Denise's feeding tube was cranked up to 60ml per hour today. The GI doctor told me yesterday that this amount should allow Denise to begin gaining some weight. She's not been holding anything down that's been taken PO. Yup. PO. I know it means "by mouth" but I don't know why. Maybe it's Latin... "per oral" or something like that. I was thinking that if it means "by mouth," then maybe they should do it in plain English and use BM. But that one's already taken for the other end of the GI tract.
She threw up today at least thrice. This morning she tried to take a pain reliever in pill form (darvocet), and she threw up, but the pill stayed down. In the late afternoon she threw up right after taking an anti-nausea med. Nausea actually hasn't been a problem until just a couple days ago. Up until that time, food sounded good, but would just come up all of a sudden, or she'd gag on a pill. The other time she threw up was at night when she tried a liquid pain reliever (lortab). Water, bile, gastric acid... it's all there.
Denise's folks left for home and my aunt arrived today. She'll be here for a couple of days and her presence will be very handy in the event of a transfer to a SNF. We brought Gracie & Jacob by after church this morning. Gracie was fairly comfortable around Denise, but Jacob was a little more standoff-ish than he'd been previously. Denise said that was OK with her. She had an upbeat attitude about that. By the way, last night she refused her antidepressant (Lexapro) and didn't feel any better or worse from it, other than the relief of not throwing up after taking the pill.
Vitals: temp 98.4, pulse 97, bp 133/72.

Posted in: