Christmas Part I

Christmas seemed like it took forever to get here this year and it kind of got off to a rough start. We took the boys to school on Monday the 21st and ended up taking Grandma to the hospital later that day. She had gained a lot of fluid over our long weekend and her CHF symptoms had returned. Her home health nurse came by while I was at work (12-5) and after a few texts back and forth we decided to take her to ER. I drove her back to our fav. hospital and we were there for a few hours while they ran tests, did xrays and took blood. They admitted her and started the extra lasiks to pull out the excess fluid. I stayed for a few hours and left to let her sleep.

I got a phone call at 2:30 in the morning (Tues) letting me know that they were moving mom to ICU. She was septic and they were worried about her heart. They wanted her to have more attention during the night but said I didn't need to come back...and then mom's PCP called at 7:30 that morning to say that mom was now stable and doing better. I wasn't told that she was in critical condition but it wouldn't have done any good to get mad after the fact...they diuretics they gave to her really affected her kidneys and her bnp went up and her creatin(sp) too. They realized she was septic and hit her hard with 3 different antibiotics. The Vancomyacin hurt her kidneys too and they stopped that after one day. On Wed. they did a sonogram and saw a dark spot on her heart. That led them to schedule at TEE for Thursday morning. The TEE is a scope that goes down the esophagus that allows them to get a better look at the heart. They had two concerns. 1) That the blood infection had affected the heart and had damaged a valve or 2) that the infection had started in her heart. Either one of those scenarios was bad.

My brother and I both spent Wed. night at the hospital and then were back at the hospital Thur. morning by 8. They weren't sure when they would do the TEE and like the cable company...they said anytime in between 8 and 12....and turns out it was about 11:45 by the time she was prepped and they were ready. The TEE showed NO damage to the heart and that was great news. They think the spot they saw on the sonogram was just a suture....so we were very thankful for that news. They also decided that she had pneumonia even though she didn't really have any signs of it and nothing every grew in the petri dish. Mom stayed in ICU until Christmas Eve when she was moved to a heart room.

So, it was a rough start to the celebrating and our house was really quiet. We really miss the kids when they aren't home and having Grandma back in the hospital was a little depressing. We went out to dinner and a movie on Christmas Eve Eve after we visited mom but didn't really cook at home on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Our under neighbors sent up dinner and dessert on both days and that made it a little easier at home. On Christmas Eve I visited mom and decorated her hospital room. I hung up garland, ornaments, a tiny stocking and set out some Christmas cards and a decoration I had made. I brought Peppermint shortbread tea cookies and some Gingerbread herbal tea and we had a nice little Santa snack. We hung up candy canes and she gave them away to the nurses who were unlucky enough to have to work Christmas Eve.

It was sad having mom back in the hospital for the holidays but we had high hopes that she would make it home for our Christmas celebration on the 29th...but that didn't happen either. She is still in the hospital and the news isn't very good. Her kidneys are not functioning very well and they are having problems pulling out all the fluid that built up during her infection. She is still suffering with the post-neuralgic shingle pain and it is debilitating.  She spends most of her time in bed and now that she is in the hospital they are experimenting with narcotics. If you went thru the hear saga with us and followed along, you know that mom does not tolerate narcotics very well at all. So, the increase in pain meds has made her sleepier and a little goofy. It is not how she wants to live her life and it is painful to watch. She needs to have her gallbladder out but she is not a good surgery candidate. If I am understanding her PCP correctly, this could change in the future. Mom might also need to have surgery on her pancreas to remove the gallstones but that again is dangerous. They have to balance the thinness/thickness of her blood so the valves are not damaged but not let bleed to death during the surgeries. Now that her kidneys are struggling they are not sure if they will ever be able to do the gallbladder surgery. This of course creates other problems because you can't just NOT fix a gallbladder problem either. It seems they are just trying to ease her pain now and drug her while they hope her body balances out again.

She has been at OMC for the past two weeks and I am really missing her here at home. I am just so disappointed in the outcome of her surgeries and how the shingles have taken her down. She survives two heart surgeries only to be taken out of life by shingles. What the hell! I hate the pain she is in and don't see how she can ever get back home...I hate that I have watched her deteriorate and that she looks and acts 20 years older than she is. I hate that she is only 69 but is bedridden. I hate that I don't quite know where to go from here.

My sweet Mom on Christmas Eve...always with a smile on her face...even thru the pain.

Can you see the Christmas cheer that I brought? :)

Here is the final look...

Once the kids came home on the 27th, our Christmas really started and we had a great time with everyone home. I have a lot to share/record about our 2010 Christmas but I wanted to get this hospital stuff off of my chest first. It still weighs heavy on my heart and I tried my best to bring Christmas to Grandma too so I will share that later.