Please keep my Nana in your prayers (Update: passed away)

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M0onkist

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2009
Messages
2,193
Location
Toronto, ON, Canada
Hello everyone,

I've been quiet around here, watching but not talking after Ducky's passing. Some has been adjusting to being ratless for the near future, but mostly it's just been so busy I haven't had any time.

But you guys are my friends, so I turn to you in a time of need. My Nana caught a dastardly lung infection from some heartless idiot who attended our family reunion the Canada Day weekend. First my uncle had it, then she got it from him. She's now in the hospital, has been for a few days and the type of news seems to change every few hours: better, worse, nauseated, eating, now not able to eat.

We're driving up tonight for an indefinite time - we really don't know which this way it will go but we're loaded up with all our good luck charms and anti-jinx measures, our hearts very full as we are all so closely attached to her...

She was the one who first let me get rats, so that I suppose is her connection to this community.

Anyway (before I break down again), I hope you will keep good thoughts, healing vibes, prayers or anything else flowing to her this weekend.

I will keep you all updated as best I can.
 
Well she was looking worse up until Saturday. Then it was a little better - I think in total she ate 20 spoonfuls of mushy food/tapioca etc. Which is an improvement over nothing at all - still alarming though.

Today wasn't as good. She was complaining a lot about problems in her stomach which she says is a 'sick feeling', not gastric pain per se, plus the usual problems breathing. She also admitted to Mom this morning and evening that she's really sick, and wound up having some diarrhea. The latter put Mom in an absolute panic, because she kept thinking of E. coli (which a friend's mother died of some months ago). There's no real indication of that, however, as she was comfortable all afternoon and evening, other than not really wanting to eat. They might put her back on the IV as a result if she isn't getting enough liquid or nutrients, but we'll cross that bridge when the doctor sees her tomorrow. She scared the bejeezers out of the nurse by saying she wanted to go. "Go where?" "To heaven." (scared the bejeezers out of me too).

My Dad's staying up here, and Mom and I aren't going anywhere. My sister had to go back to town because she has to work tomorrow, but I imagine she'll call time off if anything worsens, and her boyfriend is picking her up from the airport (at his own insistence - what a keeper he is).

I think you guys all have a lot of clout with the Important People who have a say in how illness runs, because she did perk up noticeably after y'all started thinking healing thoughts and praying. :)

Thank you so much for your words of support - it means so much to me, and I'm passing all of your messages are along.
 
Well, it's better, it's worse, it's better, it's worse. The doctor said today it's a gamble in terms of which way things will go - he's doing an amazing job though, as are all the nurses (a particular shout-out to the nurses, they know Nana's name, call her 'dearie', and really really care about making sure she's comfortable).

Nana had really bad nausea the first few days we were here, and with Gravol it wasn't much improved and she would sleep even more. Finally her antibiotic round finished and the nausea improved quite a bit, and she was starting to look much more pink and healthy.

Then I was starting my round a few days ago, and three nurses suddenly swept in with biohazard bags and said she had c. difficile, and that they had to move her to a private room. This was Mom's greatest fear (very good friends of the family had their mother pass that way, and when Mom first suspected it might be c. diff she took it REALLY hard). So I phoned her, bagged up all her things to move to the single room, and Mom arrived and we just took charge of the isolation room. Mom's doing a lot better with all this - after the initial fear (premature, but reasonable given the circumstances), she's one cool customer, and I've definitely inherited that steel backbone. My uncle... he seems very brittle right now, like if you poke him too hard he'll just shatter into a million pieces. He's been her primary caregiver, and he's been historically prone to depression and burnout (not all related to caregiving, from what I can guess).

She honestly hasn't shown the symptoms of c. diff. They say it must have been a very, very small amount, just enough to trigger the positive but not enough to cause any significant symptoms. But they started her on metronidazole (the primary treatment for c. diff) and she's had no side effects from the metro. But the crackling of pneumonia is still there, off and on, more on than off recently and the doctor has put her on cephalosporin (rocafin in formulation, he said). She actually got better to the point of drinking soup herself with her own spoon, but that's backslid today and she's slept maybe 90% of the day.

We're taking it day by day, no more and no less. I'm holding up well, I would say - after I posted the first message, it feels kind of like icewater got into my veins. She needs our care and our love, especially our understanding for what she's going through, and I'm going to give that to the very best of my ability. I've managed to do about five hours a day of sitting with her, even with the fibromyalgia - it's not perfect, and I'm certainly in more pain than usual, but considering all the circumstances I'm not at all surprised and I'm glad I'm able to handle it that well.

All your prayers and thoughts have been a source of infinite comfort, for me and my family. Thank you. :)
 
Hang in there, Moonkist. Caring for our elders is never easy and worrying about them is the worst part. More healing vibe sent your way.
 

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