Friday 3.15

[Sunday 3-17-2013] Sorry it took me so long to post; it's been a rough few days at work, home, and everything else so it's been hard to find time to sit down and write...  -Christina

Mom/Rosemary had a meeting with that Chesapeake Palliative Care (?) girl - Heather Travis.  She seemed utterly clueless as to what we've heard from the other nurses as to Grandma's progress, saying things that were really not true (saying things like that Grandma was not doing as well as the actual doctors have told us, etc.)!!  So strange.  In fact, I'm not even going to summarize anything she said since she was really off-base.  We're not really sure how she came by (whether she was sent by the hospital or not), but I personally suspect she was from some post-hospital-care facility and was trying to get us to transfer Grandma to their place so they could have our money.  How slimy!

ANYWAY!

After the meeting, Mom and Grandpa went back to the room and played some fun German dancing music and Andre Rieu videos for Grandma, and she really enjoyed this.  She was sleepier this day, and we suspect that some of the medications she is on have side effects that would be causing the sleepiness.  She is not on a ton of medications, mostly drugs for blood pressure but also something for her restless legs and Tylenol.  In any case, we hope to investigate that some more over the weekend.

While Mom and Grandpa were at lunch, this really sweet care technician came by. Mom says she had cute flowery tattoos and said she was "really sweet, so so kind" with Grandma.  She gave Grandma a bit of a BATH!  Cleaned her up really well.  "Mom looked great!"

After lunch, Mom and Grandpa found more YouTube videos of Grandma's favorite music -- Heino, Gerard Cox, Andre Rieu, and Freddy Alexander...  (Thank goodness for free wifi in the hospital!  This has been wonderful.)  Grandma was sleepy, but she really enjoyed the music, smiled, and mom even took her hands at some point and "danced" with her. Ha! So cute.

The hospital folks talked to Mom and Grandpa about Grandma's nutrition. Up to this point, Grandma was receiving her nutrition through a nasogastric tube (NG tube), the tube down her nose and throat to her stomach.  This tube is kind of a temporary fix (inserting it isn't a surgical procedure, just gets the job done), and it does make things a little more difficult with swallowing, could make some things irritated, etc.  So the next step would be to switch to a gastric tube, a tube from her stomach to outside her tummy where food and medications can be given that way. This is a very common procedure, and in Grandma's case is seen as a temporary setup, until Grandma can meet all her caloric needs eating food normally.  So the plan was to have the surgery this Saturday morning.

All in all, a lot of the same from earlier this week.  Kind of sleepy, but not unexpected.  Still need to keep Grandma positive.  I can't remember if I've said this before, but Grandma does have times where I don't know how clear her thoughts/understanding is but she will say things like, "I'm 90 years old..." "I don't know if I can do this..." "There's an end to everything..." and we have to remind her that she is not dying and is in fact doing very well.  There sill be difficult days, but everyone thinks she is progressing as expected and should focus on recovery.  Of course to what real extent of recovery remains to be seen, but keeping Grandma positive is very important right now.

Thanks for keeping her (and Grandpa) in your thoughts.  The cards and notes are wonderful!  We love to show Grandma her cards and re-read them with her to remind her how many people love her and are thinking of her.  :)