Another Florence health scare...

Hi Steve,

We must interrupt this current silly scrapbook indulgence of mine to report that Florence (Pete's mom) had some kind of cardiac issue happen this morning, they aren't calling it a full-blown heart attack, but she did pass out, and when they called me to come see her, she was white as a ghost laying in her bed. I thought she was dead when I walked in the door of her room.  Needless to say, I was quite shaken.

She had breakfast, she was fine.  She had a flu shot, and was fine.  Then she was parked in her wheelchair outside the hair salon in the hallway, and suddenly she said it felt like an elephant had sat on her chest.  The pressure was intense, and she just passed out, fainted, and was groggy and not very responsive when the nurses came to help.  They recommended that she be sent to the ER to be checked out.  So they called Pete first, and he said "Let my wife be the judge," and he called ME to go check on her, to see if she really needed to be sent to the ER or not.  As if I'm a medical health judge??  Well, so I get there, she's white as a sheet, I'm a little freaked out, but we carry on a decent enough conversation.

I could tell she didn't have a stroke. There are signs you look for when it happens, and she didn't have any of those symptoms or signs of it at all.  She said she didn't feel well, but couldn't identify exactly WHAT, WHERE or HOW those feelings were all about---most Alzheimers patients cannot pinpoint any pain they are feeling, or describe pain or discomfort they are experiencing in detail.   It's kinda like a little kid, same thing, they can say, "I have an owie," but when you ask where, "I don't know, it just hurts..." and you have to guess and look them over to figure it out exactly.

So, I decided to err on the side of caution, and took Florence to the Emergency Room.  They hooked her up to all these wires and an IV, and took a chest x-ray and did some blood tests and other things, while I sat by thinking hysterically, "She's going to die, she's going to die, oh my God, this could be it, what am I gonna do, how the hell are we going to deal with this, should I call somebody or do something," etc., just freaking out the whole time, WHILE acting like it was no big deal.

See, Alzheimers patients pick up on whatever emotion you are presenting----just like a kid does.  So, if you react with upset, THEY will become upset, and not even know WHY.  They take on the same emotion, mimicking it, without understanding what's going on.  So, if I acted scared and upset, SHE would be scared and upset, making her blood pressure go sky high and cause other problems.

I had to be "cool," and "calm," on the outside, but I was a nervous wreck on the inside the whole day.

Before we wheeled her out to my car to take her to the ER, however, a gentleman in another wheelchair was outside her door and was telling the nurse that he would drive her, he has his keys somewhere, either in his shirt or pants pocket, but nobody told him where they parked his car and he needed her to help him find it.  (Delusional).  Apparently this gentleman, Marty, is Florence's boyfriend.  The nurse told me that his WIFE sat on one side of him, while Florence sat on the OTHER side of him, and he said, "I really don't know which one is my wife!"  So then he says, "Well before you go, I'd like to kiss you..." and Florence said, "Well I cannot pass THAT up!" and these two old farts were SUCKING FACE!!  I was floored.  I have never seen such a thing in my LIFE, especially not the prim and proper widow, Florence!! It was hilarious, but I didn't laugh or anything, I just thought it was cool.  I said to the nurse, "Awww, he's quite the lover, ain't he?" and she said, "Ohhhh, yes indeed, you have no idea..."

So at the hospital, I sat with her from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m., they finally decided to keep her overnight for observation.  They couldn't find anything wrong with the test results, though, but wanted a cardiac doctor to take a closer look and do more tests tomorrow.  So after she got settled in to her new room in the cardiac ward, I finally went home.  I am drained.

So I'm off to bed now, but the scary thing is, if an elderly person has some kind of cardiac arrest happen, the odds of another, even bigger one, potentially and probably fatal, can occur very easily.  She is called a DNR, "do not resuscitate" though, so if anything happens, they just have to let her die.  But I explained to Pete, who reminded me of this fact, that I could not--in good conscience--let that happen on MY watch.  I would be forever screwed up in the head if that happened.

Well, I have to drive to Michigan on Friday to get my mom, so I hope Florence will be back to the facility where she lives and better before then.  We'll see how it goes.  She's very disoriented, and disrupted, out of sorts, but she's probably not had much sleep since I left either.  Taking an Alzheimers patient out of their environment, and familiarity of things around them, can cause a lot of confusion.  She has ripped her IV out of her arm a couple of times already, trying to get out of bed to "go home." So the nurses will have their hands full tonight, that's for sure.

I'm off to bed, though.  I'm fried.  I don't know how this situation will continue, or if it will at all, or if she'll be healthy as a horse and get sent home.  Next weekend, however, Pete and I are supposed to go on vacation for 12 days.....to VA Beach and then to DC.  If anything happens to Flo, however, that may have to be cancelled.

I wish I could just leave the real world behind when I sit down to write to you on this blog, sometimes, and just focus on a silly scrapbook from years past in my youth....it was fun while it lasted.....but then reality rips through the fun of it, and another upsetting, emotionally draining day has to happen.  Sigh.  Well, maybe the scrapbook thing is on hold for a little while then.  But I'd still like to share it with you.  I know it is probably very weird for me to say that, since it's mostly about you, but the photos are fun.

Bye for now.

Love, Rebecca