The last two weeks have been insane. A total roller coaster of emotion. Memorial Day weekend, we had planned on going down to see our parents. Thursday night, Abby woke up throwing up at around midnight. It continued almost every half hour until morning. She then put herself on the couch and wouldn't leave. She had periods of almost delirium....we ended up in the ER. They gave her Zofran and she perked up so we went home. She started drinking fluids again. We ended up going down for the weekend after all. My brother and sister in law made it up as well. Aside from Abby being sick, it was a really good weekend of seeing everyone. And...I'm so glad we did. That leads up to this past weekend.
I had agreed to captain a team for our Susan B Komen Race for the Cure on Saturday. Friday, I get a call from my mom saying that my grandma went into the hospital by ambulance. She had pneumonia. She said she was doing okay at the hospital and that I didn't need to come down. I went on with the Race the next day. I called grandma after the Race and talked to her. She sounded tired, but okay. Well....that night, she went into respiratory distress and at 4 in the morning, Mom and Grandpa decided to have her intubated. I got that call at 5:30 and had my bags packed by 6. Grandma was very sick, she had very low blood pressure and things seemed to be shutting down. She was septic with a staph infection in her blood. She had an E Coli infection in her urine, and the germ causing her pneumonia wasn't determined yet. They wanted to put in a central line and an arterial line to give her meds and watch pressures. Mom wanted to hear my opinion first. I said to go ahead with both.
I went into Grandma's room....and was thinking her telemetry looked abnormal, but I was trying to be family and out of nurse mode....so I put it to the back of my head. Turns out, she did have a heart attack during the night as well. She wasn't producing much urine and it looked like her kidneys were shutting down. Grandpa would just sit in the waiting room, staring ahead, saying "I just can't fathom what's happening." His last sight of Grandma was her struggling for air.
We were sitting in the waiting room, talking. It was uncanny how almost everyone that Grandma and Grandpa don't see very often had seen them within the last week. My brother was up here. They had seen Grandma's sisters and brother. They had seen Grandpa's sisters. (God-sight number one)
Fast forward to the night. I told Mom that I'd stay with Grandpa and she could go home. My aunt was on her way from Milwaukee too. My aunt and I stayed the night at the hospital. We couldn't get Grandpa to go home and get sleep. My aunt ran into Grandma's nurse from the general care unit that was taking care of her the night she went downhill. The nurse had tears in her eyes and told my aunt "I tried so hard. I didn't know what else to do for her. I prayed over her and ask the Holy Spirit to come upon her and comfort her." (God-sight number two)
In the middle of the night (while sedated), Grandma got wide eyed and started trying to mouth words. We finally figured out she was asking for Grandpa. When we finally asked her did she want to see him, she nodded her head so hard I thought she was going to extubate herself. My aunt somehow got Grandpa to come into the room. He started bawling and holding her hand. She kept mouthing "go home." We started talking about their house, and she'd shake her head "no." We realized she was talking about Heaven. Grandpa asked her if she meant she was ready to meet Jesus, and she nodded yes. He asked if she was scared. She shook her head "no." He asked if she was in any pain. She shook her head "no." (God-sight number three) Now, the nurse, nursing assistant and respiratory therapist were all in the room. Everyone was crying. (Grandma was the only patient in the ICU). Grandpa took Grandma's hand and told her it was okay to go. He started apologizing for anything bad he'd ever said or done. She wouldn't take her eyes off of him. We got my other aunt and my mom there too. We really thought she wasn't going to make it through the night. But she did. They even weaned her off the ventilator that next day. After they extubated her, I noticed she wasn't moving her left side very well. She was restrained before, so I hadn't noticed anything. She hasn't been diagnosed with a scan, but we're sure she had a stroke the same time she had the heart attack. She had a TTE done on Monday as well. She has an EF of 35-45%. She stayed in ICU for three more days.
When I left Monday night, Grandpa was at the hospital. He had gone home for a few hours in the middle of the day to rest. My aunt was going to stay at his house that night. When she got to the house, he must have just woken up, but he was drenched in sweat and kept saying "I'm so confused..." My aunt couldn't find his blood glucometer so she got him to the ER. Tests were coming back fine....and then he mentions "I'm sure glad I got the lawn mowed." It was almost 80 degrees that night and he went home and mowed his lawn. Explains the sweat, but he had an elevated WBC so they admitted him. He was on the second floor, grandma was on the fourth floor. My brother made it up from Indiana yesterday. Grandpa got discharged yesterday. They think he was just dehydrated.
Yesterday, I dropped my cell phone and it broke. (just a minor minor detail of my week, but it still stunk!) Luckily, I still had my OLD phone and they reactivated it so I can use it until Monday when my contract is up and I can get a new phone.
Today I find out that my dad just got diagnosed with diabetes. He had a preop physical with a new primary care physician, and they ran all sorts of labs. His hemoglobin A1C came back today at 6.1. He and Mom have an appointment on Monday with a diabetes educator.
Like I said. What a strange, exhausting, draining week. I've actually looked at work as being a break. Yeah.
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