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

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Looks like my previous post disappeared when I had to reset.

Anyway, it really is difficult caring for our elders, Joanne, though I would never, ever give up the honor of doing so.

We had a bad nurse a couple of nights ago - she came to change what seemed like a full antibiotics IV bag, and when we asked her if she could double-check her papers to make sure there wasn't something mislabelled or whatever, she said "Well, I'm a nurse so I know what I'm doing." What a shutdown, and I was in shock that someone would say that *at all*. Then of course I was livid. The doctor explained it the next day though - turns out after the antibiotic went in, the line wasn't locked, so the regular saline bag wound up backing into the antibiotic bag, making it look full, just not with antibiotic.

She started retaining water rather badly, and wasn't looking very good - the fluid was even backing into her lungs a bit. But the weekend doctor was a very good out-of-the-box thinker, and he decided her pituitary wasn't functioning normally, and was giving out too much retain-fluid hormone. The condition is called SIADH: Syndrome of Inappropriate Anti-Diuretic Hormone. Basically he just gives the counter-hormone, and she seems to be less fluid-filled. There's still some fluid on the lungs, but hopefully it will go down in time - they actually maneuvered a whole x-ray machine into her room so they could take a proper x-ray! No going down to the x-ray room for my Nana. :)

We're still doing a super-Ensure liquid (called Resource 2) - each 8 tablespoons has 500 kilocalories and 20g protein. They've also added protein powder to add to any food she thinks she's most likely to eat, to keep her gaining strength.

I'm off for my shift now. I would say her state right now is altogether neutral or slightly positive.
 
Sounds like you need the extra super well wishes so here it goes

Well wishes for Nana from :cuddle: :heart: :cuddle: Vickie :cuddle: :heart: :cuddle: Al :cuddle: :heart: :cuddle: Curley :cuddle: :heart: :cuddle: Bumbles :cuddle: :heart: :cuddle: GMC :cuddle: :heart: :cuddle: Finn :cuddle: :heart: :cuddle: Kona :cuddle: :heart: :cuddle: Throttle :cuddle: :heart: :cuddle: Axe :cuddle: :heart: :cuddle: Peanut :cuddle: :heart: :cuddle: Grumpy :cuddle: :heart: :cuddle: Snickers :cuddle: :heart: :cuddle: Oliver :cuddle: :heart: :cuddle: Popper :cuddle: :heart: :cuddle: Sebastian :cuddle: :heart: :cuddle: Lovee :cuddle: :heart: :cuddle: and Jack :cuddle: :heart: :cuddle:
 
She's not doing well today. She wanted to go for a walk so they went to wheel her around and she felt faint. Now there's blood in her urine and the ER doctor is up here assessing her. Mom called us out from the farm, so it's really scary I think. Will post when I know more.
 
M0onkist said:
She's not doing well today. She wanted to go for a walk so they went to wheel her around and she felt faint. Now there's blood in her urine and the ER doctor is up here assessing her. Mom called us out from the farm, so it's really scary I think. Will post when I know more.
Click to expand...

oooh sweetie!! :sad3:
 
First a wee update from yesterday to give some context:
Yesterday they had declared she was free of c. diff and put her in the hallway on a hard board stretcher to clean the room top to bottom - then a nurse came in and said the poop test done at midnight said she still had c. diff. :redhot: So they had to put her back into the single room with absolutely no point to the entire exercise, and she was super tired.

She did want to eat, had scalloped potatoes and all of her protein powder with nary a squawk about it. Then she had rice and tomato soup and even talked about wanting toast the next day (today).

Right now:
So the ER doctor came running up to see her - we think the reason she felt faint was a huge drop in blood pressure. Her feet are very swollen and were apparently blue after she fainted, which indicates poor circulation or something to that effect.

Her belly is very swollen, so they took her down for an x-ray to see what, if anything, is visible. The current theory is that the c. diff toxins have greatly inflamed some portion of her colon, both stopping things up and causing a lot of distending. Now, under normal circumstances they would do a surgery to remove the inflamed portion, but given her state of health they just can't. They had put her back on metronidazole but the ER doctor doesn't agree with that and will likely change her to vancomycin (no real point in continuing a treatment that obviously didn't work the first time). For the inflammation they may give her anti-inflammatories, but at this stage it's just a matter of treating the symptoms. They're watching her one remaining kidney like a hawk, thinking maybe she has a UTI causing the blood in the urine. She had a kidney stone some years ago that killed a kidney - and she was able to hide this agony from everyone, and we didn't know about it until the doctor said the stone had killed the kidney. :emb:

They were actually concerned that she'd had a stroke this morning, because she isn't able to talk well and can't raise her arms in a certain way that's used to test - that theory is on the backburner because she does seem to be doing a bit better now in terms of talking etc.

It's really touch and go. One or two days of very mild hopes, and then a black day, back and forth we go. She says she's not in pain but she's *really* good at hiding pain, so it's hard to say. We're just sticking to constant shifts, and I'm heading out now to pick up a dinner at the town cafe so we're not eating icky hospital food.
 
How old is your Nana?
Did she contract C. diff at the hospital or did she come in with it? Have they found out what the original issues were?
 
She's 95 - will be 96 on the 17th, fingers crossed...

She got the C. diff at the hospital, no question. She definitely didn't have it beforehand. Now what policy or procedure lapsed so she got it... I'm not sure if that will ever be clear.

The original issues were pneumonia that she came in with - and apparently she has mild congestive heart failure but though she's had it for like 6 months neither she nor the doctor told us until halfway through this hospital visit. The pneumonia is cleared up completely, but now it's like everything else is falling apart...

So the x-ray confirmed her colon is badly inflamed, but all they can do right now is give her vancomycin and hope for the best - the doctor is really reluctant to even consider steroids because that would just be too hard on her body.

When I went in to see her this afternoon, it was astonishing how bad her speech had turned. It took her some time to figure out what to say, and then it was a series of stutters and mispronunciations - and sometimes word substitutions - and it took a lot of guesswork on my part to figure out what she was saying. Like to uncover her feet she would ask something about 'sh-shu-sh-sh-shu-shu...' - and I guessed shoes, thus feet. She was also very confused, asking to go to the bathroom when she has a catheter in, and also having me check to make sure her nose oxygen was plugged into the wall. This freaked me out, honestly, there was no way she was talking this badly before.

Thankfully the ER doctor came back up and listened to her speak, did some stroke tests, and also looked at some handwriting samples we had her do (oddly enough the incoherence followed her into writing, something about 'I can't believe I left my purse with money in the corner... dag willis (crossed out)' - she left her purse on the farm when she went to the hospital and it hasn't been to her room ever. The doctor thinks it's very likely she had a transient-ischemic attack, or mini-stroke. Not a full stroke, because she doesn't seem to have paralysis on one side or the other, it's really just in the confusion, speech patterns (and difficulty in speech patterns), and some headache. No treatment for something like this, or so the doctor says (you can believe I'll be double-checking on everything).

So, is this good, or bad? I honestly can't tell what the impact of the TIA is, but I know the colon inflammation is super-serious.
 
Oh my god... I'm so very sorry, please give your family our condolences.
Remember that she lived to a good age and obviously had so much family love.
Hugs
 
My grandmother was the most amazing person I've ever known. She was born right before the end of WWI, in an area which was mainly bushlot with struggling farmers. There are only a few inches of soil on top of the Canadian Shield, and it was this her parents struggled to turn into arable land. She grew up in the Great Depression, and it was so very tough. But eventually there was enough money to send her to teacher's college, and she went from Greermount to near Montreal to go to MacDonald Teacher's College (now a subsidiary of Concordia University). She came back to Greermount and took over teaching in the one room schoolhouse and helping with her family's farm. When her sister was of age, she paid her way through teacher's college; in turn, when their brother came of age, they paid his way through medical school.

They moved down to Shawville in the 40's, I think, and she went on to teach there and in another town. She met and married another farmer, Earl, and they had a dairy farm until he passed away in 1987. She had a daughter and then a son, and at the busiest time in her life she was a mother, a dairy farmer, a teacher, and a vice-principal at two schools. My grandfather died in
1987, and as a result she and my uncle sold the dairy quota and moved into beef farming. They continued this until the early/mid 2000s, when my uncle's knee got bad to the point where they didn't feel they could carry on a full operation. They sold the cattle to a cousin but continued to have a huge garden, and the pastureland was rented out for pasture, crops or hay. She still had a garden this year and weeded it herself on her knees, to give you an idea of just how much energy she had throughout her life - this at 95!

She was an active volunteer too, with the Pontiac Historical Society, the women's auxiliary of the hospital, and many, many other small or personal charities and kindnesses. Many weeks when she had given away as many vegetables as she could foist on our neighbours and friends, and more were left over, she would give them to the local seniors' home to enjoy. During the winter months with no garden to occupy her, she would knit and embroider every afternoon, and cook or bake when she wanted a break!

Her brother died long before I was born, but her sister died only this past December - Nana had played a very active role in nursing her (though her sister was several years younger, she had far more health problems). I think she was always desperate to make sure she didn't die before her sister, to ensure she had the proper care up until the end.

She taught me how to knit, sew and embroider, how to get look for (and get rid of) potato bugs, how to weed out a garden row without killing the plants you want, how to assist in a cow's birth, feed a dog, care for animals... I honestly can't tell you how many things I've learned and do each day that she taught me.

I don't think we were really sure it was the end as she had been getting better up until the last day. I had so much trouble sleeping the last few nights, dreading the 'midnight phone call'. Now that's past... the heartache of course remains, but I think she passed as she would have wanted, with her 'boots on', having seen her whole family that day and knowing herself to be well-loved. I don't think anyone could ask for more than that.

May you enjoy your time in Heaven with Banpa, Aunt Emily and Uncle Wilson, Nana, until I come and join the happy party.


[img=center:2mx3vw1f]http://i1102.photobucket.com/albums/g455/Patricia_Kierans/Nana_zpsb54a4471.jpg[/img:2mx3vw1f]
Margaret Eva Bretzlaff, August 17, 1917 - August 2, 2013​
 
I'm so sorry your Nana has passed. I have been following her trial, hoping she would recover. It sounds like she was an amazing lady, and that her life was full of living and loving. It's wonderful that she lived into her 90's and that she could still enjoy life right up to the end. I can tell she had a significant impact on your life, and that she will be sorely missed.
:hugs:
 
I'm so sorry for your Nana, she sounds like a beautiful person. She may have passed, but she'll always be alive in your memories together, and in the marks she's left behind on you and your family.
 

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