Author: shann123

3:15 PM – Mom died peacefully at 1:15 PM today. At the moment I am at a loss for words, so I will end this blog with this post.

Mom has really gone downhill since the last time I was able to visit her. I received a call today that she has not been eating or drinking and that she is not waking up. They asked of I wanted her sent to the hospital or just to put her on an IV for fluids and make her comfortable and see if she bounces back. I opted for just making her comfortable. From the sounds of it, her Alzheimer’s disease has advanced to the point where it is likely not going to be much longer until she passes.

4:30 PM – I just got back from signing Mom into Warsaw Meadows. It doesn’t seem like a bad place and I seen a familiar face there that Mom also recognized when she arrived last week. They have a website at https://www.warsawmeadows.com/ and also a facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/warsawmeadows. The website has a pretty cool feature where you can send messages to residents there.

After getting all the paperwork signed, I was able to visit her for a little while. She’s changed a lot since the last time Troy and I seen her, but it might be due to the new medication she is on. She was just shuffling her feet and when we sat down to visit, she was very quiet when she spoke and made absolutely no sense at all in anything she said. Even Melissa Henderson, who came down to Warsaw Meadows a year ago, commented that she’s not the same Sandra that she knew up at Signature and said that she hoped it was just her getting used to the new medication. I don’t know what the name of the injection is, but I think it was an anti-psychotic or anxiety injection. I’ll have to post it when I find out for sure.

Visits are welcome, but masks are required in the hallways and can be taken off in the rooms during the visit if you have been vaccinated for COVID-19.

4:00 PM – It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything, but there just hasn’t been a lot of news, especially since I haven’t been able to visit due to COVID. That looks like it may be changing soon due to the drop in cases/hospitalizations lately.

The reason for this post is that I just received a phone call from the nursing home. It seems that at about 1:00 PM, Mom had decided that a lady using a walker didn’t actually need the walker and took it away from her and pushed her down. The nurse I spoke to said there was some damage, but that the lady is going to be okay. She also told me that they had to move Mom’s roommate because apparently Mom had decided that this bedridden lady was just being lazy, so she was beating on the bed and yelling at her to get up. She also doesn’t like people sleeping in wheel chairs from the sounds of it.

I have no idea what’s going on with Mom, other than the dementia causing her to act out like that, but the only solution they could give at the moment was to do 15 minute checks on her. Maybe things will settle down a bit once I’m able to do regular visits again, hopefully soon.

11:00 PM – I was able to take Mom to have cataract surgery over the last 2 weeks. It was 4 trips from home to Bremen to Warsaw and back, about 110 per day. It was a long and grueling process, but I’m hoping that it improves her quality of live for the few remaining years she has left. After a week, the Optometrist noticed a marked improvement in her right eye, which had been done last week. We will know how much of an improvement there has been on October 11th when we go for her final follow-up appointment. She had her left eye done this Tuesday and by Wednesday, she had irritated her eye by constantly rubbing it, but the eye doctor said they did not see any damage other than a small scratch under her eyelid, which would cause no problem with her vision. She had forgotten that she had cataract surgery and just thought there was something in her eye and she would rub it.

All 4 trips, Mom kept trying to convince me that Grandma and Grandpa Williamson’s house is sitting empty. I asked her how she knew that and she stated that she had been by there not long ago. I tried to convince her that I didn’t need another house, even if that was empty, but it kept coming up.

The worst was when we returned to the nursing home. Each day was a sad face and, “You promised me you wasn’t going to put me in a nursing home.” I tried to convince her that it’s where her apartment is, but she wasn’t going to believe that and acted like she didn’t recognize the nurses when they said Hi to her. I know that it was the right thing to do, but it’s still hard to see/hear that.

9:30 PM – I was just looking through Signature Health Care’s facebook page and seen a picture of Mom that I though I’d share. It seems that they took the residents to a fair in Bremen!

4:30 PM – I was finally able to visit Mom today! It’s been something like 9 or 10 months, but limited visitations are now being allowed.

They told me that they told her that they had a surprise for her today and she was really excited and had been waiting in the doorway of her room for her surprise. While I was waiting, they told me they didn’t know if she was going to make it when she had COVID-19, so that was some scary news to me! I suppose they didn’t tell me how bad it was at the time to keep me from panicking, but I still wish they would have said something. I asked about her hallucinations and I guess the latest episode was after it had snowed, she thought there was a truck driver stuck and she wanted to take food and blankets out to him. Turns out it was just cars in the parking lot, but for the most part, they tell me that her hallucinations are a lot less frequent.

Anyway, she lit up when came around the corner and seen me and still remembered me, so that was really good. It was a really nice visit and she’s looking really good. There was a lot of repetition going on, which I wasn’t surprised about. Every few minutes, I was asked where I was living and then she would tell me about her roommate who apparently doesn’t talk or do anything (I guess that would make her easier to get along with.. lol)

Mom doesn’t seem to realize that she’s in a nursing home, but recognizes that there are a lot of older people there. I didn’t say anything about nursing home, just called it a long term care facility. They do have younger residents there for physical rehab care, so it really is a care facility, but I think Mom thinks of it as more of a type of hospital where she’s getting some kind of help for something, I don’t think she’s sure what it’s for though.

It seems like her hearing might be a little worse, which made our visit a little more difficult with the social distancing, but at least we were both allowed to pull our masks down while sitting there, so that made it slightly easier. I asked them about hearing aides after the visit since she’s on Medicaid now and they said they will book her for an exam on the audiologist’s next visit. I mentioned noise cancelling ones for her tinnitus that would probably help out a lot, so hopefully they can get that going for her which would help her out tremendously, if she’ll wear them.

Overall, it was really nice getting to see her again! I made an appointment for Troy and I to see her on Saturday, March 13th and I think she will be thrilled to see Troy again. She hasn’t seen him since before she went to the Neuro Psych Hospital. I’ll be sure to post again after that visit to let you know how it went. 🙂

3:15 PM – Mom has been doing better since she had COVID-19. She’s eating well, interacting with people and up and around. They let me know that they are starting her on Aricept to try to help with the Dementia. I know Grandma was on this, but I don’t know if this helped her at all or if it may have been what caused her to have a stroke. I guess we just have to hope for the best!

3:45 PM – I just got off the phone with the nursing home. Mom is stable, but has not recovered yet. She’s not on an IV anymore (she pulled the line out, but was apparently done with it anyway.) Her blood oxygen saturation is only at 93%, so she’s still on oxygen treatment. She hasn’t developed a cough, so that’s good news, but she still doesn’t have an appetite and is sleeping a lot.

The staff member that I spoke to, Linda, just returned from being off for COVID and said that it really knocked her for a loop and is still feeling really fatigued. Since she had just returned, she couldn’t tell me how much Mom has eaten lately but that as of right now, they were more concerned about keeping fluids in her. I guess some of the residents that have COVID aren’t doing as well as Mom, but Linda didn’t mention if there had been any deaths from it and I didn’t ask.

I’ll keep ya updated if I hear anything else. Hopefully good news.

12:41 PM – Got a voicemail to call the nursing home. When I called back about 10 minutes later, they told me that Mom has not been eating or drinking anything since about Thursday (this is Sunday) and has been doing a lot of sleeping (she said something about diarrhea as well, but didn’t indicate if she’s had it the whole time. The nurse said that this seems to be pretty common with the other residents that have COVID. They have started an IV to get fluids back in her since she’s apparently dehydrated. They’ve also started antibiotics, one IV and one by mouth to try to prevent pneumonia. She is not coughing or showing any signs of it right now and have ordered chest x-rays, but they want to get a jump on it just in case. They have also started her on dexamethasone. They have not said anything about her needing oxygen at this point.

They asked me if I wanted them to continue care at the nursing home or if I want them to transfer her to a hospital. They offered that as of right now, they are doing the same thing a hospital would. I suggested they keep her there to reduce the stress of being moved to a hospital at this time. If things deteriorate, then they would send her.

I’ll update more as I get news, hopefully good.