The latest!!!

This morning GmaGrumpy got to go see Dr. Shin, the vascular surgeon. She wants to put a new graft in GmaGrumpy's right arm. The scheduled date to do this is Wednesday, December 3rd. It will be another teflon tube! She says her veins wind too much and are too small to try to make a fistula out of them. So....that is the new adventure! She is looking forward to Thanksgiving and possibly an earlier dialysis time. We'll find that out tomorrow! That's the latest!

Can it get any better?

So with all the exciting preparations going on for Gma great adventure this Friday....she came home early from dialysis today.
Her access is clotted again!!! Her last clot was Sept. 13th. This is her first clot since getting the new graft! After she got home today I was reading up on the problem via the internet and found out that her new AVF has greater chances of clotting than her old one. It seems that human blood vessels produce something to help keep you from clotting. The stuff they did the new one out of is the same stuff they make teflon coating out of and because it is "teflon" it does not produce....anything! So, here I thought we'd have weeks, months, years of no problems...and yee haw....she clots! I'm trying to find out if there is something we should be doing to keep it from clotting.....haven't found anything out yet! One of her transporters says we might be leaving the bandage on to long after dialysis. Sounds to simple. Who knows!
Stay tuned....tomorrow I'll tell you how it all went!!!
Dee

A Small Adventure!

Yesterday, November 3rd, Gma Grumpy arose from her bed, with Eddie's help!

She sat in her chair for 2 hours.

She finished up her absentee ballot and ate lunch at the table.

We went for a small walk outside, just around the yard.

Under the tree!
By the beautiful roses!

Eddie danced her back into bed!

She was pretty tired and her right foot hurt later, but she did really good!

Abby requested an Update!

Eddie loves taking pictures of Gma Grumpy asleep.

It's easy to do these days. She sleeps alot.

Today Gma Grumpy said, she definately wanted to live til her next birthday.

She'll be 79 next April!

I asked if she wanted to make it until 90?!

She said, "Maybe! How do you feel about that?"

Now she wants to live forever!

She's had a pretty good time since the new tube was put in her arm.

She's off Home Health Care as of Saturday.

They didn't do a whole lot for her, so it'll be nice to be back in charge!

There's not any great news. She's doing good.

She has a doctor's appointment on the 21st of November.

Unless, something happens at dialysis, we won't have any updates until then.

She's been talking alot about Christmas and what to get people.

For Christmas she would like current family pictures of you! Doesn't matter if they're professional or self-portraits, she just wants pictures of what you all look like now.

She made a comment the other day that she hopes some of her great-grandchildren will come to see her in the next year. Should we have a family reunion before people go on missions?

Let me know what you think!

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!