We head back to the hospital with high hopes. We get to Nana’s room in the ICU and she is awake, off the ventilator. It’s a miracle. She is still weak and not saying much but she is slowly getting better. As the days go by she gets stronger and stronger. Moved from ICU to CCU to a regular hospital floor. In the days that followed we realize the impact the strokes she had, had on her. Her big, bright, bubbly personality is gone. A woman who would once dominate the entire conversation. A woman who would ensure to get everyone’s life store, was gone. Nana just sat there, quiet. Now, she remembered all of us. She could tell you our names and how we are related to her, even the great grands. If you asked her a question she would answer, usually one word. Sometimes struggling to find what that word would be. This was hard for us. She eventually gets released from the hospital. We decide to send her back to rehab. I mean she made a full recovery after her heart attack, why not again?
I take Paw-Paw on a Saturday to the rehab center to see Nana. My cousin had been up there sitting with her. When we got to the rehab center something was off with Nana. She was real groggy and she wouldn’t wake up. I felt her forehead and she was burning up. I asked my cousin to run and grab the nurse. I call my sister. I tell her what is going on. She tells me that Nana’s UTI might be flaring up again and to call 911 and get her back to the hospital since there were no doctors on staff at the rehab center. The ambulance comes and back we go to the hospital. Once in the ER, hooked up to all the monitors I can see that she is going in and out of a-fib. Her heart rate is all over the place. Blood is drawn and tests are taken.
My sister shows up at the hospital. Paw-Paw and I breathe a sigh of relief. She is always our saving grace!! According to initial reports it appears Nana had more stokes and maybe even another heart attack. The hospital she was taken to was just an urgent care type of hospital. She was transferred to a hospital downtown, per my sisters’ direction because they are known for being the best in the area for cardiac issues and strokes.
Here starts the daily carpool to take Paw-Paw back and forth to the hospital to be with Nana. I take him in the mornings and my sister picks him up. This time around on the weekends we decide to each take a day. I took Saturday where I would take Paw-Paw and pick him up. My sister took Sunday’s. This way we each got one full weekend day off. Nana is at this hospital for about 3 weeks. Doctors say her strokes are just going to keep happening. They recommend stopping her Warfarin for fear she might have a stroke and bleed out. They say it isn’t going to help her anyways.
Her discharge plan is back to the rehab center. I take a trip with my family to North Carolina to see our family up there. It was a nice break from things. Nana is at the rehab center one full day when we start the trip back home to Florida. My sister gets a call from the rehab center. They tell her they don’t think Nana will be able to rehab because she is not staying awake long enough. My sister knows what this means but she keeps it to herself. She calls and tells me. She gets to the rehab center and talks to the social worker there. She sees the condition Nana is in. She will hardly wake up, she drifts off into this deep sleep that not even a sternum rub will wake her. It’s time for hospice.
My sister calls me while I am on the road. My hubby is driving. She says we probably don’t have much time left with Nana and that we should call in hospice care. My heart breaks. I start sobbing. My sister is crying. I tell her if she thinks that is best then I agree. She gets it setup and I continue our trip back home crying all the way.
Daily Elder Care 