Thumper
01-25-2019, 10:43 AM
Mom’s condition has been a total roller-coaster this week. It’s been verified she had a stroke and a heart attack last week, as well as two previous mini-strokes. We’re 98% sure we know when they were (I was with her for the second one about a year ago), but we were told it had been a bout of “low blood pressure”.
They rolled her into surgery yesterday and basically didn’t do anything. She had a blood infection, an infection in one of her heart valves and a blood clot. Her veins/arteries are so trashed they can’t really do anything including installing the 3 stints they attempted to put in earlier this week.
Altzheimers is kicking in and she’s getting nasty and violent which makes it super tough on us. Yesterday she started cussing out the nurses/doctors and ended up ripping out her IV as well as jerking all her monitors off. Totally out of character and they’re trying to control her mood with drugs now. They want to move her into a rehab fascility where she’ll have to receive antibiotics via IV for 6-weeks (to fight the blood infection). That is going to be a real battle and she may have to be restrained to prevent yanking the IV out again.
This is turning into some really tough duty and I wouldn’t wish it on anybody. We have put a DNR in place, but she could end up as not much more than a vegetable for a few years (doubtful) or could go at any minute (more likely), but nobody knows. The sucky part is, it’s really wearing us down, both emotionally as well as financially. Medicare will only help for another month, then it’ll basically be out of pocket. We did sell her house, but that $$$ will get drained in a flash with the current expenditures. If my sister and bro-in-law (whom I’m staying with here) were not millionaires, we’d be fubar and dependent on a Medicaid hell-hole.
Anyway, we’re hanging tough and realize the nastiness isn’t really coming from her, but it does add quite a degree of difficulty. I walked in yesterday and I had to tell her who I am. Then she asked, “Why are you here? I thought you lived in Florida!” I guess she doesn’t even know I’ve spent 10 hours a day by her side talking to her and helping make her as comfortable as possible. Oh well.
When Its time for me to go, I just want to go to bed one night and simply not wake up the next morning. Some parts of this getting old stuff really sucks. 😟
They rolled her into surgery yesterday and basically didn’t do anything. She had a blood infection, an infection in one of her heart valves and a blood clot. Her veins/arteries are so trashed they can’t really do anything including installing the 3 stints they attempted to put in earlier this week.
Altzheimers is kicking in and she’s getting nasty and violent which makes it super tough on us. Yesterday she started cussing out the nurses/doctors and ended up ripping out her IV as well as jerking all her monitors off. Totally out of character and they’re trying to control her mood with drugs now. They want to move her into a rehab fascility where she’ll have to receive antibiotics via IV for 6-weeks (to fight the blood infection). That is going to be a real battle and she may have to be restrained to prevent yanking the IV out again.
This is turning into some really tough duty and I wouldn’t wish it on anybody. We have put a DNR in place, but she could end up as not much more than a vegetable for a few years (doubtful) or could go at any minute (more likely), but nobody knows. The sucky part is, it’s really wearing us down, both emotionally as well as financially. Medicare will only help for another month, then it’ll basically be out of pocket. We did sell her house, but that $$$ will get drained in a flash with the current expenditures. If my sister and bro-in-law (whom I’m staying with here) were not millionaires, we’d be fubar and dependent on a Medicaid hell-hole.
Anyway, we’re hanging tough and realize the nastiness isn’t really coming from her, but it does add quite a degree of difficulty. I walked in yesterday and I had to tell her who I am. Then she asked, “Why are you here? I thought you lived in Florida!” I guess she doesn’t even know I’ve spent 10 hours a day by her side talking to her and helping make her as comfortable as possible. Oh well.
When Its time for me to go, I just want to go to bed one night and simply not wake up the next morning. Some parts of this getting old stuff really sucks. 😟