So are you with me? I'm not sure I am. I have the permanent cast on now for 3 days and then comes Mom's problems. Its Friday night and Mom is having stomach problems (will not go into detail). Saturday rolls around and Mom is still having stomach problems but is now pointing to her stomach and letting me know it hurts. Sunday rolls around and things are getting worse not better. Its very hard to gauge a person's pain when they cannot come right out and tell you. By knowing her facial expressions and normal routines (mentally and physically), I can usually know something is going on. So I call the Dr's. office. I explain all the symptoms and the Dr. says I should take her to the emergency room to get checked out as we were both concerned about dehydration.
We get to the emergency room and I already know they are going to keep her. She was somewhat dehydrated and her stomach still hurt. They did an ultrasound that night which showed nothing. On Monday, it was decided that a colonoscopy would be done because of one of the symptoms she was having. The colonoscopy turned out fine-spastic colon and non- cancerous polyp-Yes! Dr. says Mom may very well go home Tuesday morning. Tuesday morning comes around and Dr. calls me at 7am and says Mom is vomiting so she won't be going home. We had the same Dr. who did the colonoscopy do the endoscopy (I asked for him). Unfortunately, we could not get it done until Wednesday. Test results came back with an inflamed esophagus and an ulcer-Yes we have gotten to the problem! So, we get to escape on Thursday with new medications and diet restrictions-not so fast!
Thursday morning rolls around and Doc calls me again around 7am (she called me every morning that Mom was in the Hospital-Thanks Doc with gratitude), says Mom's liver count is extremely high and that she won't be coming home. At this point I am tired, easily agitated, running out of patience, and wanting Mom home. Now, poor Mom, the whole time all this is going on they won't give her anything but liquids-Mom likes solid food! She chokes easily and holds liquids in her mouth, but only liquids. I tried to tell them to let her have regular food-to no avail! They did at least have her up and walking around with a physical therapist every morning, but she was getting weak eating liquids and laying around. So the Dr's. put their expertise together and decided we are going to get a CT Scan of Mom's abdomen. This happened on Friday. We get the results very late on Friday and Dr. calls me that night after conferring with the other Dr. that Mom has gallstones. Now, Mom has been prone to kidney stones throughout her lifetime and both Dr's. knew this and the emergency room did too. So looking back, we could have discovered this on Sunday night in the emergency room had they did a CT instead of an ultrasound. As I look back on all of this, I try to be grateful, because now I do know a few more items that need attention on Mom's behalf.
So, what's next? Surgery. I told Mom she just wanted matching scars! We could not get surgery scheduled until Tuesday. So there was poor Mom drinking her food and bored as heck! They still would not give her solid food! The surgeon came out and talked with me about the gallbladder removal. He said he removed a stone the size of a dime with her gallbladder, so Mom got a little bigger hole in her. She was pretty much out of it until Wednesday afternoon. Mom's Dr. asked me if I wanted to take her home or have her go into a rehab. center for a while. Mom was weak and in pain and I was in a cast. I told Doc rehab. I needed Mom to get her strength and balance back. I figured a few days and she would be home. I asked for a specific rehab. Mom got transferred on Thursday to the rehab.
I learned through this experience that I have many concerns, number one being that most medical professionals do not know what FTD is. They think Alzheimer's. They automatically assume that Mom does not understand what is going on because she does not talk much or they are too busy to wait for the answer. What scares me is Mom is so quiet that she will not let staff know what her needs are. I decided after this ordeal that if I ever have to place Mom in a facility that she will go down quickly. She would be the quiet one that never gets out of the room, but would be the staff's favorite because she does not complain and smiles all the time!
So until next time and the rehab story-Be Happy and Hang Tight!
No comments:
Post a Comment