Grandma Schroeder update....

Where do I start.............wow, what a day. We got another phone call around 5pm yesterday from one of Grandma's nurses Brooke. She wanted us to know that they found grandma on the floor two other times after we left her at the Golden Living Center...her bruise that was half way across her forehead was now all the way across her forehead. She wanted to know why the St Marks hospital didn't admit her earlier for evaluation etc...I guess if you are hospitalized for 3 days, medicare will pay for a 60 day stay at a nursing home facility, giving us the time we need to make hard decisions and get ready. Because grandma fell again 2 other times, and also, she had been throwing up and was extremly dehydrated we decided to take her to the University Hospital....what a night!!! Let's just say, we go home and were in bed at 5am this morning.....I know, why am I up now? I just can't sleep right now so of course, I am on the computer....Anyway, grandma was so confused and agitated. She didn't know Gary or I....they did tons of testing on her but between each test ordered, we were interview by a number of different nurses and doctors....I am sure Mike and Allison can tell you a lot about this...you tell your story, then another doctor comes in, their first comment after introducing themselves to you is "what brings you to the hospital, tell me what happened" Can I just tell you....I couldn't count the many times we had to go through the incidents of the day with grandma, and her life history!! The story got a little old to tell after a while....gosh, you see so many different doctors and nurses....I have to say though, they were all exceptional last night though.

Around 1am the tests were slowing down, you could see grandma was getting more tired and an IV was started to give her potassium and antibiotic. One of the doctors came in and told us all the tests were pretty good, that there was one blood test which they use to follow the heart was just a little elevated and would be followed in the morning etc...they did their thing and left the room....grandma started getting agitated...playing with her many gadgets on both arms (IV's, vital's equipment etc..she had a lot on that irritated her) I stood up to hold her hand and it felt cold and clammy....I told Gary and felt her head..it was ok. I told the nurse. He at first didn't feel what I did. I told him to feel her arms...he felt it and immediatly got concerned. He placed her on the heart monitor....her heart dropped to around 30 beats a minute (bradycardia), her blood pressure dropped to something like 55/30...everybody scrambled to come in....she is "Do not resuscitate" which means no extreme means to keep her alive such as compressions, breathing tube..it was explained to us that people who go through this in her condition have a 5% chance of a semi normal life, but that her mental status would just deteriorate more, and probably she would have fractured ribs after the compressions etc. They did of course add fluid, medication in her IV different things like that to get her built up...I just kept holding her hand and stroking her hair during this time...she was almost gone and looked it. After much scrambling and different medications..IV bag of fluids, she started getting better as far as her blood pressure and pulse. Gary just about lost his mom last night...it was hard to watch this happen...the future is so unclear right now. We finally got her to her room last night (or should I say this morning) at about 4am....I am so worried about her though...she was more agitated when we left and looked frightened...we will be going up today...thank you Mike and Allison for your kind thoughts...you two are an example to me more than you know...your trials are so much more than ours and you are the ones giving us the support and encouragement, thank you We love you guys!!