Bad luck is suppossed to follow us on Friday the thirteen but my Tuesday the 17th wasn't all the great either.
For those of you who don't know, because I'm cheap and want to save on rent, I live upstairs at my parent's house. There's two apartments up there and they're both mine, for free, until I want to move out and get my own house.
My Grandma Street also lives with us because she is no longer able to take care of herself. I've been doing the majority of that since school again because my mother is going to school full time and working 30 hours a week at a real job. She's the type who freaks out if she doesn't get a 4.0 so she's giving herself more stress. My dad is oblivious, and plus because its his mother, I think he's in a lot of denial.
About 2 weeks ago, Grandma started to feel like garbage. I won't go into the symptoms but we were concerned. She refused to go to the doctor and had my mom cancel the appointment that was made (I get my stubbornness from her). This weekend she declined significantly so Monday we got her into the first appointment we could with another doctor in her regular doctor, Doctor Taylor's office. It was at 4:30. My mom and I explained her syptoms and told him we'd been through these symptoms before and what we susspected it was. He blew us off, said to keep doing what we were doing, ordered some x-rays, sent us home, and told that if it was anything they'd call if not just to keep her regular appointment in January.
My grandma has lost her appetite enough that we were begging and pleading to have her drink one ensure for any meal. Those are less than two cups of liquid. We took her home and continued to worry. Then the next day, Tuesday, she had another docotor's appointment for her foot. She's severly diabetic and has developed a foot ulcer that won't heal so once a week since August I've taken her into see Dr. West. All of the CNAs and the Nurse Practitioner know my grandma on sight. Grandma was too weak to use her walker so I had to take her in the wheelchair. When the CNA and the Nurse Practioner say my Grandma they said, she's sick, what's wrong. So I went through all the same things I did the day before with the other doctor. They checked and said she was dehydrated. They were highly concerned, to say the least. They were freaking out enough it started making me freak out. They insisted that I take her to the ER as soon as I left.
So I called my mom as we were leaving the office. She had talked to the doctor who took the x-rays. He said its not a bowel obstruction (which is what we feared it was). She said she got a little bit of the run around but basically was told to keep fluids in her, and keep doing what we were doing. I took her to the ER.
They did a catscan, and after three people tried got enough blood to do blood tests. I got there around 11. I told them all of the information that I knew, what the other doctors had said, what we suspected, what the x-rays told, etc. I even had to give her birth date because when asked she gave the wrong day. Its january 7th and she said january 5th. Her mental state was altered enough she couldn't remember her own birthdate.
Between 1:00 and 1:30 the ER doctor comes in and in the most angry voice I've ever heard a doctor use said, "Who told you that it wasn't a bowel obstruction?" So I told him that which doctor told my mom that. He told me that her bowel was kinked and swollen and nothing about it was right. The nurse came in and informed me she was severly anemic and needed a transfusion. Her veins in her arm were too small so I had to make the decision a central line (which is a operational procedure) or an IV in her jugular vein. Yeah, that's in her neck. I knew that the last time she had a bowel obstruction she wasn't a surgical candidate because of her frail health. I opted for the jugular IV because I knew my parents would want to avoid surgery at all costs.
Between 2:00 and 2:30, the ER comes back and introduces me to Dr. Richards. He starts to explain to me that the nature of the bowel obstruction will not fix itself. The only way to fix it is with surgery. I say, is there anyway not to have surgery. He says, "No, surgery at this point is our only option. We're going to try to get her in this afternoon. I'm not going to lie to you, she is very frail and you need to prepare yourself that she may not make it through this."
I was being such an adult until that point. As soon as he left I called my mom who I had been playing phone tag with all day to keep her updated on what was going on. I let it ring 5 times, hung up and dialed again. I found out later she was with a client at work and when i called the 2nd time she said, I better take this, my mother-in-law is in the ER with my daughter. So as soon as she picks up and says hello. I say, "Mom, she needs surgery. They're going to get her in this afternoon."
My mom is quiet for about 5 seconds, and with emotion in her voice says, "I don't have a car, I will call your dad to come pick me up we'll be there in about an hour." I got off the phone with her and called my older sister who had called before the doctor showed up and started to tell her what my morning had been like. While talking to her, I apparently went into shock because I started to shake uncontrollably and I was so cold I couldn't get warm. Let me just tell you how alone I felt at that moment. Here I was, sitting in a tiny ER cubicle with my grandma and knowing that in 24 hours she may not be alive.
My mom called my aunt Lisa, and they split my aunts and uncles up and started making phone calls. It wasn't just surgery, it was emergency surgery. My aunt Mary thinks the entire family hates her so she doesn't answer her phone when my mom calls. My mom leaves two messages to have her call us. Then my uncle calls and leaves a message as well. It still takes her over an hour to call, but she doesn't call the cell numbers that are left on her machine. She calls my uncle's house and talks to my aunt and finds out what's going on before she'll call my mom. Then she's very rude about it, and says that my mom should have left it on the answering machine what its about. How can you leave a Mary-your-mom-is-going-to-emergency-surgery-which-she-may-not-live-through message on someone's machine?
To make an already long story shorter than I could, at a quarter after 5 they finally had her in surgery and all of her kids knew, her two living sisters knew and my father and this male BYU of I nursing student had given her a priesthood blessing. They had put 4 units of plasma in her because her blood was too thin (one of her medications is a blood thinner), a little morphine for the pain, and an anti-naseau medication. The operation was to take at least an hour, if all went well.
I had gotten to the ER around 11, I was driving home around 6 too tired and stressed out to remain, plus I had started my period the day before and had such bad cramps I could barely stand up. I had my cell phone and waited by the house phone. The call came at 8:35, she was out of surgery, she pulled through it but they were going to keep her in ICU for 24-48 hours, sedated and on a respirator to help her heal and after that would move her to the regular hospital room to help her recover.
So, this could be a reason that I haven't gotten my security clearance and haven't actually started work yet. My security paperwork was sent to the main office in Pittsburgh yesterday and my expected start date is January 20th . I'm going to start applying for seasonal work today because I don't want to hunt for a real job until then and I won't be taking care of my grandma anymore, canning season is pretty much over, and so is my garden.
