Well, it’s been quite an interesting week, full of ups and downs.
Mom’s birthday was on Monday. The big 7-4! She had a pretty good day. She has a new weekday caregiver who we LOVE LOVE LOVE. She had actually been covering weekends but has moved over to weekdays. I brought her some blueberry cake from Shilla Bakery and she seemed to enjoy that a lot.
Tuesday she had a visit from her friend, H. What a great way to keep her birthday celebration going! Mom wasn’t super responsive or talkative, but I know the visit meant a lot to her.
Mom has been having some issues with swallowing. She’s been much slower to do so, which has caused some issues with coughing. Her speech therapist came in to check her during lunch. Her swallow response was so slow that she did end up aspirating. Initially it didn’t seem so bad but the staff was keeping a very watchful eye on her. Cyndie arrived on Wednesday and by the time we got to her Wednesday afternoon she was pretty out of it. Her vitals still seemed to be decent. A chest x-ray came back negative but her oxygen level was a little bit low. No fever at that time. Thursday Cyndie and I went in for a care plan meeting, and it was during this time that we were told that mom was running a slight fever, was wheezing, and her blood pressure was high. We made the decision to have her transported to Inova Loudoun because it was likely that she has aspiration pneumonia.
The NP (Nurse Practitioner) suggested that they transport via ambulance since that would be less effort on her part than going by our van. She’d need to get dressed, transfer in and out of a wheelchair, etc. Because of this, it ended up having to be a 911 call and a check in to the ER. They ran tests from there to confirm what we had suspected and she was eventually given her own room.
It’s been a couple of days and mom looks SO much better. She’s still very slow to respond and doesn’t talk very much. Really only just a few words here and there – one word answers and mostly shaking or nodding her head just slightly. She is not being combative or angry but we do have bed alarms on in case she gets some burst of energy and decides on her own that she doesn’t want to be here any more.
She did have a swallow study done yesterday to see what the likelihood of aspiration is and (honestly to my surprise) she passed! She is on a “mechanical altered” diet and back to nectar-thick liquids. It’s a good thing that I never got rid of her stash! She needs to have direct supervision when eating or drinking.
We are also talking with a care team to discuss palliative vs. hospice care for her. Hospice is wonderful and provides a great service. Just because someone is under hospice care it does NOT mean that they are near end of life. Hospice offers much more than just easing pain during the last few days. We still need to get more information but it’s nice that the hospital has been so supportive and helping us get the information that we need to do what’s best for mom.
No word on when she will discharged or to where (back to Morningside or to a skilled nursing facility like Heritage). I will try and update when I can with any changes.