She survived...but will I?

Okay! She got home about 6:30 p.m. Dr. Shin had called around 3:30 and said that everything went well, keep it elevated and make an appointment in two weeks so she can check and see how it's healing! She did give her a Rx for Tylenol 3. woo hoo!
So...She just started moaning and I asked what was wrong....I can't remember what she said. I asked if I could do anything for her and she said, "Stop bugging me!" So, I gave her a pain pill and I'm hoping she'll sleep thru the night. I don't know how I'm suppose to change her. She's supposed to not bend her left arm or lay on that side. I guess I'll be calling home health in the morning to see if they can come out and teach me some great trick on how to care for her when she can't do much to help me. I'm very frustrated. I hate insurance companies that turn everything into out patient surgery. She should be in the hospital with some professional taking care of her!!!! Sorry....I'm feeling kinda grumpy myself tonight!

More fun!

So we saw Dr. Shin today. She's the vascular surgeon that was on vacation last week!
Tomorrow Mom is going to dialysis at 4:45 a.m. I figure she'll get home around 8:30 a.m. and then transport will pick her up again and deliver her to the hospital at 11:30 p.m. for her procedure at 2:30 p.m. They are going to fuse a plastic tube to her artery to be her new fistula. So...we'll find out more tomorrow...we hope!!! So...that's the latest! I'll try and remember to update this tomorrow after the adventure!!!!

Update!

Sorry, I should have done this sooner.
Dr. Shin is on vacation! Gma has an appointment with her on Monday at 1:30p.m. We will know more then.
The physical therapist came to the house today and had mom stand up today. Right now she's having terrible cramps in her right foot. I don't know if I'm supposed to give her asprin or tylenol or ibprofen? She said she'd ask tomorrow. I hope somebody does! I hope she falls asleep. She's moaning rather loudly because of the pain. I'll write again after Monday's Dr. visit!

The Not-so-fun Adventure!

So the adventure at the hospital began yesterday with us being there 2 hours early. It worked to our advantage, because it took them 2 hours to have her ready for her "procedure".

Her white blood cell count was high, so they had all kinds of questions for us, which kinda makes you wonder..."if we're supposed to have all the answers about elevated white blood cells, what's the point of having a hospital?"

ANYWAY! They took her off to radiology for the "procedure" at 1:30 p.m. (30 minutes late)!

I eventually left the hospital. I know this stuff takes anywhere from 1 1/2 to 2 hours. I went back to the hospital at 3:00 p.m. I was told that she had just been moved to recovery.

I went back to outpatient daycare and talked with them. They made a few phone calls and said they were trying to get ahold of Dr. Shin. She the doctor that put in the fistula two years ago and the one that has done all the repairs over the last few years.

Dr. Grossman couldn't get the fistula to work again. They never got an answer from Dr. Shin, so they decided to put a new pick line in Mom's jugular! It's so NOT attractive. She hates it. She said last night she was taking it out today. I told her that wouldn't be happening.

This is just a temporary solution. I have no idea what they will end up doing. Maybe Dr. Shin can go in and roto rooter her fistula. If not, then she'll need a new one. You can't use the same artery, so it will either be in her other arm, or in one of her legs. This only speculation!

I have no idea what kind of time table we're looking at....because no doctor has seen or talked to her. It's ridiculous.

Too make an already retarded story, more retarded...

Radiology sent her back to outpatient daycare with two bandages over where they had attempted to work on her fistula.

She was sent home this way.

Of course when she got home, she started bleeding. If you apply direct pressure to one bandaid the other one spurts!!!!

Eddie and I ran to Walgreen's and got some gauze and a secure flex wrap to try and stop the bleeding. I wasn't about to remove their precious bandaids, so I just put everything on top of them. One of them bled a little through the night, but not through all the bandages!

They also sent us home without any instructions for pain!

The only thing it says on the paper they sent us home with is ...resume all medication.

Any questions call: and they gave a number. When she was uncomfortable last night, I called that number to get some instruction for pain killers. The phone number is for the hospital lab! They idiot who answered the phone didn't have a clue what I was talking about and wanted to send me to social services. I hung up on him. I called Dr. Shin's number and got a recording saying that everyone at the Doctor's answering service was busy and if it was an emergency to call 911 otherwise hangup and try again later.

I dug up a bottle of pain killers Dr. Shin had prescribed several "procedures" ago. Mom decided she didn't want any. She made it through the night. Her neck is really bothering her right now. We've asked if she wants pain meds and she says no. She also doesn't want to eat this time.

That's the update!

Here we go again....

So, yesterday GmaGrumpy goes to dialysis and so I head to Costco. While at Costco I kept hearing this music and wondered who cell phone was going off. It was mine. I retrieved my message to find that GmaGrumpy's access line was clogged again and unusable. So...I booked it home from Costco and about two hours later she finally arrived from dialysis. It took transport that long to get her home.
So, today at 10:30 a.m. Transport is coming to take her away to the hospital for another Fistulogram/Angioplasty. I should be keeping track of how many times we've done this. The worst part of it is the waiting. For both of us. Hopefully they'll be on schedule today. yesterday they were running about 5 hours behind! Dr. Shin's schedule is booked today, so someone else is doing it. Maybe a fresh pair of eyes, will find something new.
Of course this brought up a few questions for me. Obviously her fistula is a by pass of some sort. Because she's still alive. It hasn't stopped the blood from circulating. I always thought that they way they figured out it was clogged was because they stuck the needles in and nothing happened. Well, usually her fistula vibrates because of the blood rushing through it. You can actually see it and it feels gross. Yesterday...there was nothing going on with it. I mean nothings rushing through it at all.
My other question....how is it that the fistula gets clogged, but the clots don't go anywhere else in her body and kill her. Granted, I'm grateful for it, but it's just very curious. I suppose I'll google it and I'll learn all about it!
Have a lovely day!

Grandma Grumpy Update

Yes, more time has elapsed! I will give a brief update!

She's moaning right now. She's been telling me for awhile now that her teeth keep breaking and falling out. I didn't believe her until last week, when she gave me a few chunks. Before then she would tell me her tooth fell out and it was on the table. There was never anything on the table, so I thought it was corn in her teeth or something. She has lost a few teeth, molars, and tonight she took a drink of cold water and said it hurt her tooth. So...we may get to go to a dentist soon! yeehaw!

I don't remember if I posted July's lab report...but here's a synopsis of August:

It's all the same. Her protein is too low. Her URR is low again. That's how well dialysis is working. It's down from 75% to 69%. Anything over 65% is good. So, it's still effective, but not as effective as it was last month.

Her appetite is horrible. She didn't eat lunch today and she said she was starving when she got home, but only ate a few bites.

Eddie and I went to the last Ward picnic in the park tonight and when we got home she said she wanted some water and that she had got up and filled her cup herself while we were gone.

Now, we all know this isn't true, but she insisted that she had done it.

She's been talking tonight about going to bed in her bedroom and I keep telling her she sleeps out here in her hospital bed. There's no way she could sleep flat in her old bed at this point.

Yesterday the nurse supervisor for Alta View home health came and evaluated her health and will sign her up for Physical Therapy. A therapist is supposed to be coming soon as well as a nurse twice a week for 4 weeks and then once a week for 5 weeks. Chuchi, (yes Tody, that's her name) the supervisor, said that I needed a break and that they would also send someone to bathe her twice a week for 4 weeks and then once a week for 5 weeks. They're also going to send a podiatrist out to do her feet!!!

Chuchi, was very thorough! She told us we would be in their care for the next 60 days and then if more was needed they'd try for an extention! I really liked Chuchi becase she told us stuff none of the other home health people have.

Gma's a little kooky tonight...moaning a lot. I ask her if she's okay and she says yes and then starts moaning again. She's watching strange things on Tv. She's watching Big Brother right now. She's never watched that in her life. I asked if she'd like me to change the channel and she said NO!

Last week I got home from the Memorial Service and she was watching Telemundo! I asked her why she was watching it. She said, "I don't know what it is and I'm trying to find out!"

Last week she asked me where my Father was. I repeated the question..."Where's my Father?" She responded with..."Or your step-father. Whoever the man is who's my age who's around here." I asked, "Is there some man around here I don't know about?" She said, "No." I pointed to dad's picture and asked if she wanted to know where he was. I told he had passed away. When she remembers that it always then goes to....Is mom dead? and then she usually says, "oh ya! The baseball bats!" (The ones we put on Gma Ridge's tombstone!) IT's a good thing we did that, because that's only way she remembers that Gma is dead.

Dialysis seems to have gone okay today.

She still has a blood issue. I didn't get to dialysis today to ask them about it.

She did have an ultrasound a few weeks ago, but the Dr. said, the pictures weren't very good, but what they could see was normal. So she's not concerned. I need to talk to dialysis about it because it seems there's always "fresh" blood in her diaper when she comes home from dialysis. It might have to do with the amount of hepprin (sp?) she gets while on dialysis. Dr. Staples said, that's why they took her off cumadin. I didn't know that was why they took her off cumadin. Sometimes I really wonder about her doctor!

So....that's the low down on Gma Grumpy as of 9:36 p.m. 9/2/08

She's moaning again. I just asked her if she needed something and she said, "Something for my mind." I asked again if she wanted me to turn the channel and she said, "NO!" so...big brother it is! Go figure!

Here's a peak at what's going on right now:

She's scratching her head and telling me her bottom hurts. She just said she needs something to calm her nerves.

"At least the mantle ended up looking okay!"

"Why?" I asked.

She said, "I just didn't know if it would."

Moaning!

I asked, "are you tired?"

"Yes"

"Is there something I can do for you?"

Uh - Uh (negative)

and now I will sign off!