Monday
Apr202009
Adventures in Caregiving & Stroke
Monday, April 20, 2009 at 09:50AM
New book review in Rebel Reviews: WHEN I MARRIED MY MOTHER by Jo Maeder - a timely tale for the Sandwich Generation.
I have included Jo Maeder's FIVE SIMPLE WAYS TO GET ALONG WITH THE ELDERLY -- excellent advice I have used recently! -- on the Rebel Blog.
April 20th Update: Still hanging in there, after a brief, but glorious getaway to Florida with Dear Hubby in early April. The following Monday, the kids were off from school on Spring Break. Unfortunately, my mother had a second stroke that same Monday; fortunately, I was with her at the time.
My mother's stroke was the strangest thing I have ever experienced, and I'm trying to decide if I should describe it, how to describe it: One minute, we were sitting together, chatting along just fine about her therapy, the food at the nursing home, my weekend escape and the kids' Spring Break...and in the middle of this conversation, as she was speaking, she started talking gibberish -- real words, but random and completely out of context. She knew what she was trying to say, and she immediately recognized the wrong words were coming out. She couldn't find the right words. We both got worried. This continued for several minutes, and then seemed to clear up and she was able to capture her words again. She was checking her ability to move her arms and legs, which she was able to do just fine, but she said she felt kind of strange.
As her nurse and doctor at the nursing home were arranging ambulance transportation to the hospital Emergency Room, just to get everything checked out, she lapsed into the gibberish speech again and that's all we had for the next eight hours, increasingly agitated and eventually delirious, until she was sedated.
I can't even express how horrific it was in the Emergency Room. That is some scary life experience, and I don't know how we both survived it. She lapsed into wailing in tongues and reciting random number sequences. I hung in there, holding her as best I could, repeating over and over and over: "Just breathe, just breathe," to her and to myself.
By the next morning, she was back from this awful journey -- a miracle -- anxious to return to physical and occupational therapies and her amazing recovery progress at the nursing home. She had to stay in the hospital for the week, but returned to active rehab at the nursing home Thursday night. She is doing great, and I am busy researching Independent Living Facilities (as opposed to Assisted Living Facilities - ALFs) for her anticipated discharge in the next couple of weeks.
I have included Jo Maeder's FIVE SIMPLE WAYS TO GET ALONG WITH THE ELDERLY -- excellent advice I have used recently! -- on the Rebel Blog.
April 20th Update: Still hanging in there, after a brief, but glorious getaway to Florida with Dear Hubby in early April. The following Monday, the kids were off from school on Spring Break. Unfortunately, my mother had a second stroke that same Monday; fortunately, I was with her at the time.
My mother's stroke was the strangest thing I have ever experienced, and I'm trying to decide if I should describe it, how to describe it: One minute, we were sitting together, chatting along just fine about her therapy, the food at the nursing home, my weekend escape and the kids' Spring Break...and in the middle of this conversation, as she was speaking, she started talking gibberish -- real words, but random and completely out of context. She knew what she was trying to say, and she immediately recognized the wrong words were coming out. She couldn't find the right words. We both got worried. This continued for several minutes, and then seemed to clear up and she was able to capture her words again. She was checking her ability to move her arms and legs, which she was able to do just fine, but she said she felt kind of strange.
As her nurse and doctor at the nursing home were arranging ambulance transportation to the hospital Emergency Room, just to get everything checked out, she lapsed into the gibberish speech again and that's all we had for the next eight hours, increasingly agitated and eventually delirious, until she was sedated.
I can't even express how horrific it was in the Emergency Room. That is some scary life experience, and I don't know how we both survived it. She lapsed into wailing in tongues and reciting random number sequences. I hung in there, holding her as best I could, repeating over and over and over: "Just breathe, just breathe," to her and to myself.
By the next morning, she was back from this awful journey -- a miracle -- anxious to return to physical and occupational therapies and her amazing recovery progress at the nursing home. She had to stay in the hospital for the week, but returned to active rehab at the nursing home Thursday night. She is doing great, and I am busy researching Independent Living Facilities (as opposed to Assisted Living Facilities - ALFs) for her anticipated discharge in the next couple of weeks.
Reader Comments