Just a Quick Update

I can never thank all of you dear cyberspace friends enough for your wonderful words of support and love.  I truly feel your arms enveloping me when I most need it.  Who would have ever known that computers could have given me access to such caring people. 

I stayed at the hospital about twelve hours yesterday.  For most of it, my mom dozed on and off or fidgeted with her blankets in a sort of oblivion.  When I arrived, I found her restrained in a posey belt so I knew she had been giving them a bit of trouble during the night - and her IV arm was completely enveloped in cling bandage.  The nurse told me she had dislodged two IVs and had told them several times she was going home.  When I walked in the nurse asked mother, "Who is this lady?"  My mom did respond, "She's my daughter."  The first time in three days, she actually recognized me.  She also called me, "Carmen," once during the afternoon but, for the most part, she is still totally confused.

Her doctor stopped by later and said that her heart rate is still too high but is slower on the medication.  Her lab work, suprisingly, was not too far from normal.  A handsome young cardiologist came in about 4PM.  He does not want to continue her on anticoagulants after discharge, he says, because he fears the risk of falls in older patients and, on "blood thinners", that could create a problem.  He feels that, once the atrial fibrillation is under control, she won't be so at risk of forming clots.  I immediately knew the doctor was from India and asked him.  I was right, of course, and we had a nice chat about his country.  He was rather surprised that a Caucasian in Columbus, Georgia had such knowledge about so many things Indian, including the world of Bollywood movie stars.  He told me about the ONE Indian restaurant in my home town so I'll have to go there before I leave, I guess. 

So things are progressing and I have the task ahead, with my brother, of trying to figure out where my mom will be placed.  That will be daunting.  Each night, I sit here, alone in this apartment, thinking about disposing of all these belongings that have been part of her life and it overwhelms me.  It is like disposing of my mother, piece by piece.

Home Alone

I am sitting at my  mother's house tonight, alone.  It seems too quiet here, without her relaxing across from me in her recliner, dozing, while I type.  In the eighteen years I have been visiting her at this Columbus, Georgia apartment, I have never spent a night in it without her present.  Even the past two days, when she hasn't been aware who I am, I could look across at her and remember times past.  Now I just feel so bereft.


Today, she slept until I woke her at 11AM.  She has stopped reading the morning paper or having coffee, two habits that have been part of her life as long as I have.  It took me an entire two hours to get her up and moving to make her appointment at Dr. Fussell's office, her board certified gerontologist.  She was so short of breath, even the slightest movement exhausted her and required that she stop and rest.  Getting her out the door and into my friend's truck left us both gasping and the situation repeated itself once we got to the doctor's office.  The nurse then attempted to do a geriatric assessment, asking numerous questions.  My mother did not know who she was, where she was, what state she was in, the year, and, of course, she still had no idea who had been harrassing her for the last couple of hours.  The nurse mercifully gave up on the rest of the questions.


Once the medical assessment got under way, we began to get some answers.  Her pulse was 173 and the two nurses were unable to get a blood pressure reading.  Her oxygen was extremely low and she was short of breath and very dehydrated.  After she was seen by Dr. Fussell, he said she had to be admitted to the hospital for atrial fibrillation and congestive heart failure.  He felt she had probaby had a stroke, secondary to the atrial fibrillation.  According to the American Heart Association, "Atrial fibrillation is a disorder found in about 2.2 million Americans. During atrial fibrillation, the heart's two small upper chambers (the atria) quiver instead of beating effectively. Blood isn't pumped completely out of them, so it may pool and clot. If a piece of a blood clot in the atria leaves the heart and becomes lodged in an artery in the brain, a stroke results. About 15 percent of strokes occur in people with atrial fibrillation.  The likelihood of developing atrial fibrillation increases with age. Three to five percent of people over 65 have atrial fibrillation.  Several approaches are used to treat and prevent abnormal beating:  Medications are used to slow down rapid heart rate associated with AF. These treatments may include drugs such as digoxin, beta blockers (atenolol, metoprolol, propranolol), amiodarone, disopyramide, calcium antagonists (verapamil, diltiazam), sotalol, flecainide, procainamide, quinidine, propafenone, etc. Drugs are also used to help reduce stroke risk in people with AF. Anticoagulant and antiplatelet medications thin the blood and make it less prone to clotting. Warfarin is the anticoagulant now used for this purpose, and aspirin is the antiplatelet drug most often used. Long-term use of warfarin in patients with AF and other stroke risk factors can reduce stroke by 68 percent."

My mom is now at St. Francis Hospital in Columbus, Georgia, the same place where I worked as a candy striper fifty years ago.  I also spent three months there as a young medical-surgical R. N. when my infant son and I stayed at my mom's while my husband was at the Air Force's Squadron Officer's School in Montgomery, Alabama eighty miles from Columbus.  Of course, nothing is the same as it was then, other than their stellar reputation which has only grown.  Today, it is also Columbus' first and only Primary Stroke Care Center, accredited by the Joint Commission ( which really means something to us nurse types who always sweated through those inspections at our hospitals! ).  As soon as my mother got into bed, she seemed to relax and barely moved when her excellent nurse started her I.V.  I feel certain that, right now, my mother could not be in better hands.  I hope she is having a good night's sleep and that her heart, with the help of pharmaceuticals, will return to a normal sinus rhythm, and do the job it is supposed to do.  Perhaps, then, at least, she will be more aware of her surroundings and will be able to recognize the people who love her.

Where Has My Mother Gone? Flash 55 Friday

Where has my mother gone?

This wrinkled soul,

who sits staring into space,

and doesn’t recognize the daughter

she nurtured and inspired for 65 years,

this woman who once waltzed to violins

in Salzburg and learned to cook searing hot

food from her Thai housegirl, is now a

prisoner in the confines of her mind.

Carmen Henesy

If you would like to tell a tale in exactly 55 words, post it and go tell the G-Man

 

Georgia on My Mind

This song has been playing in my head so much the last few days.  Since I moved to San Francisco over 33 years ago, I have not spent so much time in my homeland, as I have in the last six months. I was there in September for two weeks and I was there for a month from the middle of October to shortly before Thanksgiving to try to get some things squared away for my ailing mother.  At that visit, I was able to get meals on wheels started for her and I got her to the doctor and she, at least, consented to restart her medication for hypertension.  She absolutely refused to go into assisted living which my brother and I wanted since she is legally blind from macular degeneration.  Her argument was that she knows every inch of the duplex in which she has lived for over fifteen years and she feels comfortable there. 

My brother and his wife, have, just recently, sold their Florida home and, thankfully, have moved back to the Atlanta area so they are, at least, only a three hour drive from my mother.  They would like her to go into assisted living in an area near them. They cannot have her live with them for various reasons.  That is what I am hoping to accomplish this trip but it will be a battle.  There is no question that my mother is becoming increasing confused.  She just celebrated her 86th birthday on the 30th of January.

I fly out of San Francisco at 7:30AM on February 17th and return on March 10th.  I will try to keep up with my blog and following yours and commenting as much as I possibly can, whenever I can.  Please bear with me as I know you will.  I'll miss you all, that's for sure and I could sure use prayers, on my behalf and on my mother's, to whatever deities you worship.