Tag: #hospice #hospiceCare

And the Journey Continues…

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.

Answer to prayers??

Some times prayers get answered, just not always in the means that you meant.

Well not exactly! The next morning Paw-Paw comes to get me. He says Nana is sitting in her wheelchair and he can’t wake her up. I walk back over to their room with him and sure enough Nana is in her wheelchair, still breathing but non-responsive. I try for a few minutes to get her to wake up. Nothing. I call my sister, who had already left to work to tell her what was going on. She tells me to keep trying to wake her up and she will send my brother-in-law over. He is a nurse and has been a saving grace to our family. In more ways than I can count! He comes over and accesses her and tells me to call the ambulance. Her blood pressure is super low!

I send my son to the end of the drive way so that the ambulance can make it to the right house. They come in and she is rushed to the hospital. By this time my sister had already made it back to my house. She rides in the ambulance with Paw-Paw and I follow behind in my car. She is way more medical than I so we decided it was best for her to go with Nana. I check in at the ER and sit in the waiting room. Only two people can be back with her at a time. I am in tears and I am praying. Not more than 10 minutes later a lady comes out and calls for me. She is bringing me back. I immediately get chills and this sickness comes over my stomach. I just knew the news I was about to receive wasn’t going to be good. She takes me to a little room where my Paw-Paw and sister were. The expression on my sister’s face says it all. Paw-Paw is quiet with a look of confusion on his face.

The ER doctor comes into the room and he tells us that he is afraid, based on the symptoms she is presenting that she has had a brain stem stroke! I immediately drop to the ground because my legs collapse underneath me and I start whaling, screaming in hysteria. My sister grabs me and wraps her arms around me. How she could keep it together and start drilling the doctor for answers I will never know. She was frantically searching for some glimmer of hope.

Finally, some test results come in. She did have a stroke but it wasn’t a brain stem stroke. Her blood test revealed a UTI infection that started to go septic, which more than likely is what cause her to go nonresponsive. She gets moved to the ICU, back on a ventilator, tubes and IV’s everywhere. Right now, we are in a wait and see state. They are pushing the IV antibiotics to treat her UTI in hopes that she will wake up and come back to us.

Paw-Paw and I stay the night with her in the ICU. I couldn’t leave her. What if she woke up, even if just for a second and I wasn’t there? She would have been so scared. My sister comes early the next morning to make Paw-Paw and I go home and get some rest. Reluctantly we agree. After a half a day break from the hospital, Paw-Paw and I head back up. She is still nonresponsive but her vitals are looking pretty good. Paw-Paw and I grab hands over Nana’s bed and we pray. We pray like we have never prayed before. Her ICU nurse recommends that we play Nana some music. That might make her wake up if she hears something familiar to her. Her favorite music is gospel. I ask Paw-Paw to name some songs to play for her. We played “Old Rugged Cross”, “Victory in Jesus”. Through teary eyes Paw-Paw and I sing the songs to her. We are desperate for a miracle. We are not ready to lose her yet. Suddenly she starts to stir and move her head. I run and grab her nurse to tell her that she is waking up. The nurse comes in and starts wiggling her toes, Nana stirs some more. I rush to her bedside and grab her hand. Nana, Nana I say. Please wake up Nana. For a brief, second, she opens her eyes and sets them on mine. I call for Paw-Paw to come by her bed. I tell him to talk to her. He does and again she briefly opens her eyes and looks at him. Our prayers have been answered, she is waking up!

The ICU nurse is quick to caution our excitement. She said the next 24 hours will be crucial. She boots us out so Nana can rest and tells us to come back in the morning. We listened and left.   I took Paw-Paw back home with me. He barely fought me this time.