November 20, 2011
Where have the past 2 months gone? Actually, I know where...to mom, to work, to the kids, to the house, to mom, to mom some more....On September 19, not 12 hours after mom left our house and was fine, she was SICK! Nanette called, I was already at work, I naively thought she couldn't be that bad - probably a cold - since I had just seen her. I got to Meadowlakes at 8:30 and she was so out of it. I will spare you the details, but it was clearly more than a cold!
10:45a - Dr. Bahtia
11:15a - Emergency Room
3:00p - 4th floor hospital room - admitted
5:40p - went to meet family for dinner
7:00p - call from hospital - moved to ICU
midnight - really scared
She was in ICU for about 2.5 days. Moved back to the 4th floor - there for another 5 days. Total chaos trying to make sure she was cared for properly, that I understood all that was going on - static, oxygenation levels, irregular heart rhythm, BIG memory hit, re-learning how to walk, making her do for herself instead of doing it for her, keeping track of the staff (we do NOT like Kim, the evil social worker!), trying to keep up with work....yikes. It was a full 8 days!
And then...
Back to Bishop Davies for rehab, physical, occupational and speech therapy....not again! That took up another 6 weeks - they really aren't very good at what they do. Terrible communication skills, lots of staff with apathetic attitudes, a little too comfortable with something outside the truth, and I think they actually tried to scare me into signing all of mom's assets over to them to admit her to a Medicaid bed....and I nearly bought into it. They had me convinced that if I tried to take her back to Meadowlakes without 24 hour care, I was basically signing her death sentence.
She has been back at her home for 2 weeks now and she is thriving. It's more work than it used to be, but she is happy (content is the word she uses!) and I think she is as safe as anyone who is 84, has Alzheimer's and bad balance and bad osteoporosis can be. We are back to a semi-normal routine. My piece has increased, but I think that's what you sign up for when you choose to be an active part of your family.
I am going to try and find a few minutes over this Thanksgiving week to post up all the pictures I took while blogging was on hold - and I still remembered to take pictures! and then get back on track so my beautiful children will have these written memories of all the special things they did over the years.
L
