One step forward, two steps back…

[ music | I’m not playing any music… ]

My mom’s now had a stroke, with some bleeding in the brain.

She had recovered somewhat from the incident a couple weeks ago, but not fully. She was markedly worse than before, and there were progressions of her disease that made it impossible for me to continue to care for her at home any longer. I was receiving great help from the UPMC Northwest social worker, and we were working on placing her in a nearby nursing home that has a special dementia unit, but they didn’t have any openings yet. We were going to have to move her Friday the 20th. We were going to have to temporarily place her in a facility about 25 miles away until the nearby home had an opening. Thursday night, a resident passed away, opening up a bed. This meant mom could go directly to the near facility where she was going to end up sooner or later anyway. to the family of the woman who passed, my condolences. That woman didn’t linger long, thankfully, she took a bad turn just a few days prior, and wasn’t conscious during that time. She died quickly and painlessly, with her loved ones near. It also allowed for the best possible care for my mother to happen, prevent a temporary stay far away, and two transports that could provide for emotional stress to a dementia patient.

I visited her yesterday. She was already doing better than she had been in the hospital, being calmer and easier to talk with. She even managed to get a good night’s sleep last night. She was eater better too.

Today, about 2pm, I got a call from the home. She was being helped into the bathroom, and collapsed. “She seemed to pass out.” They got her back to her bed, but she seemed to be having weakness on the right side, and didn’t seem to be able to squeeze the nurse’s fingers. There was some concern it might be a stroke. I agreed and they sent her back to the hospital ER. It was a stroke, and it had started to bleed. A combination of an ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke. She’s been flown by med-evac helicopter to Pittsburgh.

She’s not in the ICU, so she’s not imminently critical. She’s in the neurological unit while they run a gamut of tests such as a CT angiogram on her head to determine exactly what is going on with the brain blood vessels. I have no idea what else is happening, won’t find out till later and tomorrow. In the meantime I have to figure out when, and more importantly how to get down there. My car’s undergoing a transmission transplant and while it was nonfunctional I let the insurance go, I need to get insurance again. This was all going to happen at the beginning of next month with some paychecks coming in. Nothing like extra stress to keep you on your toes.

P.S. I just turned 29 in March. She’s only 63. This isn’t the kind of thing you expect at these ages. Not that anyone ever expects it…

Comments

I’m so sorry…I hope your mom gets better.

Oh, I just read down the page more. I see your mom is not going to get better. I’m just really sad for your situation. I don’t have anything profound to say, just sympathy.

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