A Letter to Mom

Hi Mom!

Your viewing was tonight. It went well. We hope you liked it! Bill put together some Showtune CDs to play in the background. It made for quite the send off!!!
You looked so pretty. Your white dress and your pretty white hair made you look angelic. You truly look like your in a very peaceful sleep. Even though I've now seen you 3 times and I've touched you and held you and watched you and know that you are gone...it still doesn't seem real. I'm sure as the days go on it will slowly sink in. Yes, we both know that you are here in spirit and you will continue to watch over your posterity, but it's just not the same.

I can think of so many things I will miss.
Your laugh. Your stories. Your generosity. Your gratitude. Your selflessness. You have been such a good example to all your posterity. I hope we will all take the things we have learned from you and share them with the world. It will truly make it a better place.

Thank you for blessing our lives with music! I'll never forget the night you and Dad brought home the Magnus Chord Organ and taught me my first lesson in reading music. Although that Organ is also probably why my left hand is a much weaker piano player then my right. Never-the-less, it opened a whole new world of music to me. Being to make my own music. Playing first the Magnus Chord Organ and then onto piano lessons and then, by default, occasionally having the opportunity to play the organ for church. Although I still truly don't know what I'm doing. I'm brave enough to fake it!!! Thanks for the music!

Thanks for teaching me to be responsible. Of course there were sometimes in my life that I wasn't very responsible. I still have learned responsibility from you.

Thanks for teaching us to put God first. Thanks for blessing our home with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and for helping us become a forever family!

Thanks for making the 7 Dwarfs our family symbol. Who would've thunk it would last all these years?!!!

Thanks for all the fun! For driving me and my friends everywhere. The adventures in Frightening Falcon are still some of the greatest memories. Thanks for always picking people up to get them where they needed to be! It was a never problem for you to drive from one end of town to the other to pick everyone up.

Thanks for your generosity. Not just towards me but towards all of us! You never saw the reason for money to be sitting in a bank when it could be blessing the lives of others and you have freely given and we all have been blessed by it!

Thanks for trusting me enough to let me go. Just like that goofy saying, you set me free and I came back...so I really am yours!

Thanks for letting me be such a huge part of your last 9 years! As Eddie say, "It's an honor and a privilege" to have been able to serve you. I will admit it wasn't always easy and I wasn't always where I wanted to be, but it has provided more learning and growth. I probably didn't even realize how much and probably still have lots to learn....your always the one to get me started though. Although I do know I don't ever want to work in the medical field.

Thanks for your patience, your endurance and for letting me know you were ready to go. It's the only thing that is making this a little bit easier. I know you and Dad are together and with so many other family members and friends. It makes it less scary to join you someday...but please not anytime soon!

There are so many other things I should thank you for, but my brain is almost numb and I should get to bed. We have a big day tomorrow! I hope you will enjoy your send off.

I'm not speaking at your funeral, so this is part of my farewell. Perhaps I'll keep writing you on your blog! That's the question I should've asked you to answer for me!! Do they have blogs in Heaven? Not, is Elvis really dead?!! You haven't answered yet though!

I will think of you everyday! Your bed is still up in the front room. Eddie asked tonight if I was going to be okay when he took it down. I told him I didn't know. Because you've been out of the house since August 7th....it's hard not to think you're just across the river. I guess I should remember now...you're closer than that!!! That is what I will have to keep remembering!

I remember back a few years ago when we were sharing a room...every night before we went to sleep, you would thank me for everything I had done for you that day! You were so gracious. I hope to be that gracious someday! Thanks for your gratitude!

I will miss you more as time goes on and it really sinks in that you are gone, but we are a forever family and I have that to look forward to. Oh yeah! Thank you for taking Eddie in and for loving him, sometimes in spite of him. We are all works in progress and he's still having a hard time adjusting to this passive family! I hope that someday others will see the good in him and be able to forgive, until that day...my love will see him through and your love and kindness will be an example for him to follow as it already is!

Okay, I'm done for now!

I'll miss you and love you forever!

Bon Voyage!

Sandy

Reunited!

Mom passed away this morning.

They are back together again!

A viewing will be held

Friday, Oct. 2nd from 4pm -8pm

at Risher's Mortuary

1316 Whittier Blvd

Montebello, CA

Her funeral Services will be held

Saturday, Oct 3rd at 11:30 a.m.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Passons Ward

6203 Passons Blvd. Pico Rivera Ca

Burial will follow the funeral at 2:00 p.m. at

Rose Hills

Garden of Rest

WOW!

Today she was just nuts! Can't put together the right words to make an intelligent sentence. She refused most of anything they wanted to do to her today. I made her put the oxygen back on. She refused dialysis at first, but Marty talked her into it. Unfortunately, she wasn't any better after dialysis. I had to call the Dr. tonight. HA! They keep drawing blood from her left arm, when she has a perfectly good pik line!!! So, I called the dr. to inform him that the blood had better been drawn from her pik line. If I go tomorrow and find more bruises and gauze and tape. Someone's going to be in big trouble!

So there you have it!

Back in the Hospital

She was moved back to the hospital last night. Her blood pressure was too low. She spent 19 hours in the ER. Now she's in room 508. She might be sent back to Rio Hondo after dialysis tomorrow if they don't find anything wrong with her. She was much more alert than she has been, but she was still goofy! If you ever saw the SNL skit with Tom Hanks on the game show....short term memory guy! Everytime she found out she was in the hospital she was so surprised! She must have asked 10 times. The last time she asked what hotel she was in!!!!
So...another day...another adventure!!!!

Oops!

I guess I haven't updated in a few days. Now that she's at Rio Hondo, there's not a lot to report. Dr. Yu called today and the bone marrow biopsy came back negative for everything.
They got her a new mattress...an air mattress for her bed sore. It makes the mattress higher than the bed rails, so hopefully she won't fall out of bed!!! Yesterday, I noticed that she had a cottonball and tape on her wrist. The bozo's had drawn blood out of her wrist instead of her pik line. I made sure Dr. Yu knew about that and I will double check tomorrow with Rio Hondo that he did give that order!!! She was complaining tonight about pureed food, so tomorrow I will try and get the speech therapist to come see her so she can have real food again! She sent me home at 6:30 tonight. She was much more her normal self today! I'll write again if there's a change or something amusing to report!

5 and 6 got back together!!!

I never knew they were separated!!!!
The mother is doing okay at Rio Hondo. I was happier with her care there, today more than yesterday. She ate all her lunch and dinner. Physical therapy and Occupational therapy came to visit and evaluate. She will start both tomorrow.
She doesn't understand why she has to be moved and hurt! She has to be changed and rolled from side to side to keep off the bed sore on her bottom!!!!
I'm eager to see how she progesses with therapy!!! Stay tuned!

New abode

She was moved last night around 9pm to Rio Hondo. She's in room 117.
She was mostly sleepy today. She was alert in the morning, but she was achy so she had a vicadin. She was very sweaty all day. Her right hand is starting to swell again. Yee haw! Tomorrow is dialysis. We'll see what they say about the swelling. I did see her bed sore today and it's much better than the last time I saw it!!!! That's it!

It's Moving Day

Dr. Yu said she'd be moved back to Rio Hondo tonight around 7:30p.m. She's had an okay day. She wouldn't let them bathe or change her she says. So, it will be interesting to see what happens at Rio Hondo! Dr. Lee said the arm biopsy was negative, although we still have to wait for the cultures. Tb is a slow growing culture so we won't know for sure until 8 weeks? maybe? Other than that...her white blood cells are stable and have been for a few days. So...it's time for rehab!!! Hopefully they'll get her to feed herself and let them change & bathe her!

ORNERY!!!!

Patricia spent most of the day with Gma today. I was at Heather's funeral and then Eddie had arranged to go to dinner with his son, Kevin. So I only saw mom for a few minutes tonight. She was so not nice!!! Whe talked about stuff that wasn't in the room: butterflies, books, etc. She said she wanted 7up and so we gave her some and instead of sucking on the straw she blew 7up all over herself. She wanted to get up and move and we told her she couldn't! She was just very aggitated and ornery!!!! Dr. Lee said that he was okay with her leaving the hospital. All the other drs. came in while she was on dialysis. According to Marty they've taken about 12 lbs of fluid off her in the last week! 2 liters a day! So....should be interesting. She'll probably move back to Rio Hondo Subacute and Nursing Center soon. I plan to be at the hospital for most of the day tomorrow. Depending on how she is! I may leave a little early in the evening after dinner!

Well...

not much to report today. Still no results on bone marrow biopsy or underarm biopsy. Dr. Chuong requested another round of dialysis today, just to remove the fluid that had built up in her right arm and her left thigh! The fluid is mostly out of her right hand, but they've elevated it, so it's just run down to her upper arm. Yesterday Marty was able to remove...um...2 liters? I don't know if that's right....2 what ever measurement it is. Tonight she will do the same. Or try to get out as much as possible!
Mom was alert this morning but in pain so after breakfast we requested vicadin. After lunch, more like 2ish we requested another one. She was moaning in pain by that time. She was then very goofy and I wrote down some of the goofy stuff she said. All I can remember right now is that she wants two hats to wear next week. And.."they're naughty!" who? "those women who don't do what they're supposed to!"
Tomorrow Patricia will be on breakfast watch. We're going to Heather's funeral. And Patricia will be on dinner watch. We're taking Eddie's son Kevin out to dinner!
If you're wondering why we haven't text lately....it's because we don't have a texting plan and our texting bill alone was $140.00 last month! We don't have time (or energy) to change plans at the moment, so we're just not texting!

She's back....but......

Well, I arrived at the hospital this morning to find a wide awake mudder! I was so happy. I guess it must be the blood transufsions that bring her back to life. She got two more units yesterday! So we chatted. I got some good information from her regarding her choices if we have to make one eventually. I thought we were doing really good until she handed me a piece of paper and asked me to throw it away. It was an invisible piece of paper!!!!!
Eddie came to visit and she told him, "Thanks for bringing so much fun into our house!"
I only talked to two drs. today.
She had the biospy on the lump under her arm today. Yes, the 2nd one! It will probably be a while before we have results so she could be transfered back to Rio Hondo as early as tomorrow. We'll see. Her white blood cell levels are back to normal. Have been for two days. Dr. Lee expected them to go up with the transfusions, but they didn't.
They finally took that goofy cast off her leg. She now has a boot!!! Kinda looks like something Frankenstein would wear! She only had vicadin today.
It will be interesting to see what tomorrow brings. She was supposed to have dialysis at 8:30 p.m. Visiting hours are over at 8:00....so we know Marty's with her now dialyzing her!!!

Busy Day

So last night after I left, she had x-rays taken of her left knee. This morning she had a fistulagram of her right arm. They put a stent in. She did okay with that. She ate a good lunch and then they took chest x-rays. The white blood cell test showed the white blood cells congregating in her lungs. That's why they took the chest x-ray. She also was given more vancomycin today. She had a vicadin around 2:30 and an hour later some morphine for the pain. I asked Dr. Yu today about her broken leg. Dr. Cho had wanted to see her two weeks after the 10th of August! It's September 1st. So, Dr. Alexander, another Ortho dr. will see her tomorrow. She has to have new x-rays of her right leg taken before tomorrow when she sees Dr. Alexander. Marty got to her room around 4pm for dialysis. I'll be going back in a few minutes to feed her dinner. She wasn't as sleepy today, but she wasn't that alert either. She was very uncomfortable! I have to tell them to give her pain meds, because if they ask her if she wants them, she says no! She's not very with it! Maybe she'll perk up after dialysis!

Today was odd!

Today she was kinda alert, but not really. She finally got some morphine at 10:45? I think! Her right arm is completely swollen. They'll have to do another fistulagram tomorrow. She'll also have dialysis and they're going to x-ray her left leg because it is swollen too! They don't have results from the biopsy of her bone marrow. Dr. Wang said that the white cell nuclear thingy showed that the white blood cells were gathering in her lungs...possibly pnemonia, or TB. We might know more tomorrow.

Sad news, Heather Ann Luedtke Chapman passed away this afternoon. She's only 32! Leaves a husband and two small children behind. She fought a long 3 year fight with cancer. Funeral will probably be Saturday at 10a.m.

This just in....

We just returned from the hospital. She's bright eyed and bushy tailed! She's very awake and coherrent and everything. Too bad visiting hours ended!!! She ate most of her dinner. Considering it was 3 hours old and mostly cold she did really well. It was nice to see her lively and talking! I hope she gets some sleep tonight!!! Her right hand is swollen again. Her fingers look like sausages. She might be having problems with her access again! Hopefully we'll get her back down to radiology before they discharge her, so they can see what's going on in that arm!!! That's all folks!

Another day....

Well, she's pretty much the same today. Sleeping and moaning. No real communication. She had the biopsy of her bone marrow at 12:45ish. She's on dialysis right now. Will be done around 7:30- 8:00 p.m. They were better at managing the pain today. Meaning, I didn't have to ask them to give her the vicadin or morphine! She'll probably be out of it for the rest of the night. I do plan to go back a little before 8pm to make sure she eats dinner. That's it for today!

What next?

So, I've been gone for two & 1/2 days. When we left she was alert and talking rationally. Today we got home and I went straight to the hospital. She's back to being sleepy all the time and talking nonsense!
We did receive good news while we were gone. There is no cancer!!! Hooray! Dr. Yu told me they were sending her back to Rio Hondo Subaccute & Nursing Center yesterday and then he called a few hours later and told me that the Infectious Disease Dr. said no way! She's staying until we run a few more tests and find out what's going on!!! THANK YOU!!!! I guess in one of her tests she turned up with big TB cells! Yes, tuberculosis. The Infectious Dr. came in and asked her if she had ever been exposed to TB she said yes, her father had it and died when she was 6! Yes, she always tests positive with skin tests and has to have chest x-rays. So...tomorrow they are doing a bone marrow test on the lesion on her femor to see if it's TB! And if they can run bacterial tests on the marrow they won't have to do another biopsy of the lumps under her arm. They wanted to run them with the last biopsy, but when the lab didn't find any cancer, they through her goo out before bacterial tests could be run! So...that's where we are now. She's having more tests!
I had to grow a spine today and make the nurse give her vicadin. She's obviously in pain, but they ask her if she wants pain meds and she says no. So, I had a copy of her advance directive that says I can make decisions for her even if she's capable of making them herself, so I told the nurse to give it to her regardless of whether she said she wanted it or not. She did give it to her. Funny thing, an hour later the nurse came in and said, has she been in pain for this whole hour? (She was moaning!) We said yes and the nurse came in and shot her up with morphine!!! So there you have it. I still have the advance directive in hand and I will share it with her idiot Dr. Yu tomorrow because it also says to keep her pain free even if the medication hastens her death! DUH! I'm exhausted! I thought getting a way for two days would help. It did! Eddie just says I'm depressed when I return home!

She's Back!

This morning started with Mom being taken off to radiology for a biopsy. She came back a few hours later and was sedated. She slept all day. Didn't eat breakfast or lunch. Hadn't eaten dinner the night before. Dr Yu came in and said that like we discussed yesterday, (I don't remember a discussion!), after Dialysis tomorrow they'll move her back to Rio Hondo. I told him NO! Dr. Wang said that if the biopsy under her arm was negative they wanted to check the lesion on her femer. So, she needed to stay in the hospital until ALL the results are in. He supposedly agreed and we'll see what happens now. Dr. Chuong came in and he doesn't think they'll find cancer. He thinks we need to make a "quality of life" decision. So, Patricia and I went out to lunch. Mom was completely zonked. When we got back I said hello to her and she woke up and was more normal than she has been since last Thursday I want to say! She asked intelligent questions and made normal comments. Remembered it was Eddie's b-day Friday and was concerned about him getting his b-day card! So...I don't see putting her on hospice unless she decides it when she's in a coherrent state! We'll see how the next days go and what her alertness level is. She ate all her dinner and then some. She drank lots of water. Hadn't had a drink in almost a whole day. When we left her she was tired, but still knew what was going on.

We'll see what happens. I'll be out of town til Sat. afternoon, so you will not get an update from me.

The latest

Almost different day, same story...but.....she did get a pik line today. She did have the nuclear white blood cell thingy. She hadn't had dialysis yet by the time I left at 8pm. She didn't have the biopsy or the 2 units of blood. The 2 units of blood is supposed to happen with dialysis.

The morning started with me feeding her breakfast. She ate everything! That was good. Then she got wheeled downstairs, bed and all for the pik line. I got a two hour break. On the way out of the hospital I ran into Dr. Wang. (oncologist). She said that there is no myleoma. So if the biopsy of the pit lumps is negative we may need to biopsy her bone marrow to see what the lesion on her femer is.
Then Dr. Yu came in at lunch time I think. He's so confusing. Today he told me, that we're still waiting for these tests, but after the biopsy she'll go back to Rio Hondo Subacute and Nursing Center because.....the germs in the air ducts!!!!!!! Does he really think the air ducts at Rio Hondo are magically cleaner than the hospital? He's retarded!!!
Tonight Dr Chuong came in. He's exhausted. He's been covering for Dr. Thornhill who's on vacation. He informed me today that Dr. Lange will be in Thursday to Sunday and he's glad! He's glad! Heck! I'm glad! Dr. Lange is drop-dead gorgeous!!! Unfortunately I'll miss his first two days, but I'm hoping that Saturday or Sunday I'll be able to talk with him and get the real low-down from him. I believe he'll give it to me straight especially if everyone else is talking nonsense still. Dr. Chuong also said that mom looked better last night than she did tonight. I agreed. It's just waiting to see what the tests say. If they're all negative for cancer, then he says our decision is harder because we can continue dialysis, but then it's a matter of quality of life. I'm not gonna worry about that now, just want to hear the test results. See if they can figure out what's infected!
Mom was pretty out of it after the pik line was put in. She did eat lunch. After the nuclear scan stuff, she was toast! She didn't eat dinner. She never was alert at all! It was sad. I'm tired and I'm going to bed!

Update!

Today should have been an eventful day, but it wasn't.
She was supposed to have her nuclear blood thingy, but they couldn't get any blood out of her. She is a turnip!!!!
They were also supposed to do a biopsy, but her blood was too thin! They've been giving her Vitamin K to thicken it up!
So tomorrow will be a very busy day.
First off, it's a dialysis day.
Second, if her blood is thick enough they'll do the biopsy.
Third, they're going to install(?) a pik line so they won't have to poke and prod her anymore to get blood.
Fourth, they need to draw the blood for the nuclear test.
Fifth, they decided she's a couple pints low....so they're giving her 2 units of blood.

She ate a really good dinner tonight. Ate all her entree and her soup and of course, applesauce. She gets her meds crushed up and then we add applesauce to "help the medicine go down". yum-yum.

She didn't scream as much today or yesterday when they rolled her back and forth. I found out today her pressure sore is at Stage 2! They have it covered now with a big, I guess, bandaid! I need to do some research and figure what a stage 2 is!
She slept for quite a while this afternoon. I'd say way over 4 hours. I woke her up to eat dinner.
One thing she said while she was dozing off is: "I set sail a week ago."

Dr. Yu said we might need to decide on Hospice. I'm trying to stretch it out for as long as I can until that decision has to be made. I might have to make it on Wednesday. Eddie and I are supposed to be going out of town for his birthday Thursday to Saturday. So..we'll see what happens.

The waiting game!

So, today Gma had an ultrasound of her kidneys. Tomorrow she may have a needle biopsy of the lumps that were discovered under her right arm. She may also have the test where they stick dye in her that accumulates where all the white blood cells are hanging out. They're still trying to discover what is causing the elevation in her white blood cells and now they want to know what the lumps are.

She had an okay day. She ate a good breakfast, a not so good lunch and a so-so dinner.
She talked about all kinds of goofy things, but no Mary Poppins. Talked about lots of family members, but none that were actually there. I'll keep you posted!

It's a Jolly Holiday with Gma!

Yesterday when I got to the hospital, Gma talked all things Mary Poppins!

I asked her what she ate for lunch and she said Mary Poppins cookies and a spoon full of sugar!

She said she had a new Mary Poppins sweater that she wanted me to put in a box.

There were lots of animals in her room and 3 little blonde hair, blue eyed girls.

I wonder what she's actually experiencing!

Well, sometime between now and Monday p.m., Gma will have a biopsy of the lump in her right arm pit. Dr. Lee, her new infectious disease dr. found the lump. The nurse told me this morning there was another one too and it was bigger. A different oncologist came in tonight. Didn't do much. They're back to talking about the spots on her bone scan being calcium difficiencies. I wish they'd all make up there minds and be on the same page.

Dr. Lee said yesterday that it's very likely cancer in her bones and now possible elsewhere. She was supposed to have a kidney ultrasound today, but today it didn't happen because of lunch and dialysis. Yesterday it didn't happen because mom threw a fit!

She threw a fit tonight when the nurses turned her over, (like they're supposed to do every hour!) She screamed!!! Kept yelling Betty! Made me chuckle!!!! She doesn't want to cooperate at all. When they rolled her over they also changed her and I got to see her bed sore on the middle of her bottom. Talk about ugly! And they wonder why her white blood cell count is up.

Oh yeah! They're also doing another "nuclear" test on Monday. This is where they shoot her with "nuclear" dye and wait to see where it goes, because it will go to where the white blood cells are and then they'll know what's causing the infection! Hopefully there won't be a shortage of Nuclear whatever like they said about the results from the bone scan!

I think that's about it. I asked Dr. Yu today to please manage her pain better, but they keep asking her if she wants meds and she says no! I'm going to have to point out the line in her advanced directive that I can make decisions for her even if she's capable of making them herself, which in all reality she isn't!

I think that's it. Hopefully we'll know more Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday.

Yeehaw!

Wow!

I was able to talk with Gma on the phone this morning. She hasn't been able to carry on a conversation for over a week. It was nice to hear her voice. She was preparing for a test of her chest and stomach. She had to drink some kind of goo! I'll be going to the hospital in a bit! Will fill you in later tonight!

Hmm! Drs?

I suppose there's a reason why it's called "practicing" medicine!

Drs are pretty dumb. Her primary physician, cannot be that dumb. When you have 4 other people telling you things don't look good and he's still trying to paint a rosey picture. Kinda wanna hit him!!!!

We have another dr. on GmaGrumpy's case. They are running more tests today and we will hopefully know more about what we're dealing with tonight or tomorrow, depending on how long the tests and results take!

It's 2:17 a.m.........

I just returned from the hospital. Yes, she's back at the hospital. They're trying to find out what's infected!!! I hope they do a few other tests too! I'll keep you posted!

A slightly better day!

Today she stayed awake more. She's not completely awake, but her eyes stay open wider and longer than they were.
She ate a so-so lunch. Dinner she did a little better. They pureed all her food, so it looked and smelled gross and I really don't know what it was, but it was easier for her to eat!!!

They gave her a dialysis friendly protein drink with her dinner pills. At least that will help with some of her nutrients!

She still sleeps alot and talks in her sleep and says some crazy stuff, but I think she's either feeling better, or healing is taking place.

The levaquin will hopefully kick in so her fever will go away. It was 99.2 tonight before dinner. They gave her a tylenol.

That's about it. Hopefully she'll get a good night sleep and she'll be more alert tomorrow!

Interesting Day

The day didn't start off too good. She was very hot and sweaty. So I made them take her temp again. It was 99.1 for normal people, that's not quite a big deal, but Gma Grumpy's normal temp is 97.6....so it's a little hotter than you would think. They gave her some tylenol. There was another communication error and I almost beat up a CNA. The CNA told tranport to get out of her room, because she had to eat lunch before she went to dialysis. I told the CNA she was going to dialysis! The CNA got the nurse and the nurse said that their paperwork said that dialysis wasn't until 1:30 p.m. It's been at 1:00 with transport picking her up at 12:30 since March of 2008. The nurse called dialysis and they said they weren't expecting her until 1:30. So the CNA stood there and "fed" gma her lunch. She kept yelling at her to "pass her food"...she meant swallow! Gma has been having trouble chewing her food and swallowing it. For the CNA to be standing there trying to make her hurry, just wasn't cutting it! The nurse finally went and got her a sack lunch to take to dialysis and she was able to leave. Monday morning I will be having a chat with Connie the head nurse at dialysis, clarifying her dialysis time and making sure she clarifies that time with Rio Hondo. I will also be finding someone at Rio Hondo to tell me what my expectations of service should be there.

Anyway, she got to dialysis and Telly, (no she's not a muppet!) is very concerned about how awful Gma looks and her blood count was low on Thursday. She was questioning whether we should send her to the hospital. She called the kidney dr. and they said to dialyze her and give her some iron. So they did. I stayed with her for awhile. It was kinda fascinating to watch the dialysis machine start cleaning her blood.

I left for awhile and then Eddie and I went back about 1 1/2 hours later. I fed her some applesauce and she ate it well. She was a little wacky in her comments, but that's the fun part of this experience. She was transported back to Rio Hondo and I fed her dinner. It's the most alert she's been since Monday and the most she's eaten since then too! Her coloring was much better back at Rio Hondo. They are giving her leviquin. They think she has a UTI. So she'll be on the leviquin for 10 days. Hopefully that will help her feel better. After dialysis the swelling in her left hand had gone down. It's been black and blue from all the needle pokes at the hospital trying to find blood. The blood has spread and she was really swollen this morning, but the dialysis got that fluid out of her!

I haven't thrown a fit over their food choices for mom. The last time she was there it was a daily struggle. At this point I'm just happy that she eats. Every meal has something that she shouldn't be eating. Tonight the tuna sandwich was on wheat bread. She can't have whole grains. I scraped the tuna goo off and fed her that! She seemed to enjoy it and the vegie soup and the pears! She didn't eat the salad, but with her chewing problems...lettuce just isn't fun!

Tomorrow is a new day! Hopefully it will be a good one!!!

Dee

Gma Grumpy update!

Today Gma Grumpy was mostly out of it. She screams when they have to roll her over to change her. She really doesn't like that. Eddie got to feed her lunch today because I had a previous committment. He said they changed her while he was there, but he left the room. He said she was yelling, "I hate you" to the nurses!!! I don't think I've ever heard my mom say that!!

She's was also running a slight fever and they finally gave her something for it. We haven't decided if the being out of it is part of the healing process, or if it's the meds.

She keeps chewing her medicine and so they'll probably start crushing it and feeding it to her with applesauce. She takes forever to chew. She either forgets she's chewing or falls asleep while chewing. She swallows like it hurts and so she's supposed to be seeing a speech therapist to see if she needs some other kind of help.

She was talking to her mom today, telling her they hurt her. She told Eddie she would miss him when he was feeding her lunch. He asked if she was going somewhere and she said no!

We asked them to remove her bandages from dialysis today and they took off one bandaid and the skin came with it....so now she has a skin tare.

She is back in Rio Hondo Subaccute and Nursing Center. She's in the same room as Feb. 2008.

The sticky stuff is still on the ceiling from where her hearts were hung up on Valentine's day 2008!!!

Her nurses are the same and they remember her and me always fighting the dietician. I'm not fighting this time. If she'll eat...she can eat whatever they give her.

She did already get ripped off. I took a brand new can of air freshner last night and it was gone this morning. I complained!

She was wiggling her toes tonight. She was also telling us she couldn't move them, but she sat there wiggling them.

I asked her if she knew where she was and she said, "the little hospital" I thought that was cute.

I will try and update this blog everyday to keep you all posted!

I'm tired and I'm going to bed!

Dee

Latest Update!

Mom has been very alert and positive these last few days. Even happier on dialysis days than usual. Perhaps she has turned over a new leaf for the new year.

She is currently looking for a new physician. We have another appointment on Monday, the 19th with Dr. Yu. We'll see how it goes. His office is closer. It is over on Rosemead across from Mr. Ed's to the south, same parking lot as Salsa! We had an appointment this past Monday with Dr. Renderia, she referred us to Dr. Yu, because she's no longer accepting patience. Why her office booked an appointment for us...I'll never know!

Mom has put all her Christmas cards in a scrapbook and worked on Birthday cards and Thank you Notes yesterday. Her handwriting isn't what it used to be and she leaves words out and stuff, but it's the first birthday cards she's done all year! That reminds me, she owes Jonathan a b-day card. I'll have to help her with that!

That's the latest. Hopefully after Monday's drs. visit she'll have a new doctor and we'll have better communication with this one and it won't just always be a death sentence or a bad attitude about dialysis.