Yesterday morning I got a call from Morningside. I was actually expecting a call from there – from my mom, but when I saw that it was from the main number I knew that something was up. Mom’s blood pressure was way up, she was running a fever, and was not able to stand (more weakness than usual). After calling in the nurse practitioner to assess, they recommended sending her to the ER for further evaluation. They were calling me to get my approval. Her symptoms alone weren’t really anything too alarming, but given her history over the last few weeks they felt it was best for her to be checked out more thoroughly and right away since issues she was experiencing seemed to come on rather quickly. Of course I consented.
I met her at the ER where she was resting comfortably. After running blood work, urine tests, chest X-rays, and a head CT, she came back clear. During that time her blood pressure came down a little bit – it was high but not alarmingly high, just higher than normal and she had no fever. It was interesting to get the results of her CT scan. It confirmed what we had suspected – there have been some changes to her brain since her last CT back in April. At this point, there really isn’t much that we can do to fix that. She’s working with a therapist (SLP – Speech-Language Pathologist) to focus on her cognition and memory. There’s really no way to prevent memory loss but hopefully by keeping her engaged and active maybe we can help slow it down a little.
It is never good when you have to go to the hospital or any doctor but sometimes it can be reassuring when test results come back negative. That’s pretty much the only time when “negative” is a GOOD thing! While we were at the hospital, I got word that her one doctor FINALLY wrote orders to change her meds. Mom knows that she’s not been herself, and even said to the ER doctor yesterday that she’s going crazy. I didn’t keep him on the hook for that complaint though. Much to his relief I let him know that this is a completely different issue that is already being worked on. Nothing he needs to pursue during this visit.
Cyndie followed up with mom yesterday evening and this afternoon by phone and she said that mom actually sounded pretty good! She said that the girls there are treating her well and she didn’t sound as awful as she had been. I am not sure if it was the adventure yesterday or getting restarted on her medication that made the difference. For all we know, her attitude today is just her “faking it ’til she makes it” – something that Cyndie and I have been encouraging to do. Either way, hopefully this is the beginning of better times for her and a little bit more hope and a smidge of happiness. Fingers crossed!