September 5,2015

Mom is still in the hospital. She was supposed to have a feeding tube put in yesterday but she wasn't cooperative so the dr wants to wait until Tuesday and use an anesthetic just to be on the safe side.

Leslie Darby came by for a while yesterday. Phil stopped in for a minute. He works in the ER downstairs. Kim stayed with Mom last night. I spent the two nights before with her. Kim went to Seattle this afternoon and will go to Sole and Tyler's wedding tomorrow so I'll be here for the next two nights again. Not sure yet about next week.

Uncle Wayne was here when I got here this afternoon (around 12:30). He was here until 2 or so. Here are the other visitors Mom had today (the ones I know about anyway):
Annetta Moody - she brought "survival" gifts for me and Kim.

 
Patty Stoddard
Alicia Gibson - Mom opened her eyes for a few seconds for her.
Tim and Carol Harp - brought Mom a card.

I think that's everyone.

September 18, 2015

Paige Wright came by to see you, and a little while after she got here, Bro. Orffer came by. He and Sis. Orffer are getting ready to go to general conference.
The picture is of your flowers from the church. Thought I'd better get a picture while they still looked good. 😊

 

 

September 12, 2015

The doctors and hospital staff aren't holding out much hope for Mom's recovery (except one of the nurses, Shantil, she says you never know what the human body is truly capable of). I have to keep hoping and praying. I don't know what God's plan is but I don't believe it's about losing her now too. 

September 4, 2015

I found Mom Saturday morning on the floor in her bedroom. She'd had a stroke. She's been in the hospital since the 29th of August. 

Saturday morning Paula texted me and said she was running a little late for the garage sale but Mom and Shelly should be there already. I got up a little after 8 and walked to the other end of the house to make sure Mom really was up. She's usually up by that time so I figured she would already be in the garage. I walked towards her room calling her. Just as I got to her room, I saw her left hand come up and grab the bedpost on the foot of her bed. She was laying on the floor. She looked like she was starting to get up and around. She wasn't completely ready for the day yet and her hair was still down. I pray she was getting up and this didn't happen the night before! I called 911. I thought maybe her blood sugar was low again. I gave her a glucose tablet but she couldn't really chew it. I tried checking her blood. Took me about 4 times to get it to work. Her sugars were about 182 I think. I called Paula and told her to get over here. Glenda knocked on the back door before the paramedics got there. Charly came in to see what was going on. Mom was trying to pet him. She couldn't move her right arm. But she was awake and looking at me part of the time. Ambulance rushed her to St Peter's and we've been here since.

She had a hemorrhagic stroke and the bleeding was pretty extensive. The neurosurgeon said he didn't want to do surgery, it looked like she shouldn't need it and it's better not to do it if you don't have to. It's been a very long week! 

I took a leave of absence from work. I can't bring myself to leave Mom alone at night. I don't think Dad would have.

Patty Stoddard from CCI texted Paula and Mom on Saturday saying they needed to get together soon. Paula called her and told her what happened. She came by on Sunday. She said she had been thinking about Mom all day Saturday and had no idea what was going on. Mom responded a lot to her! She even seemed to try to talk to her as she was leaving. Since the stroke occurred on the left, it affected her right side and her speech. That was the first time she'd tried to talk.

She mostly has been sleeping this week. She doesn't always want to cooperate with the nurses. But they keep trying to wake her up. She will need physical, occupational and speech therapy.

Happy November 1st!

Hello! This is Heather, Elaine's daughter. I'm going to attempt to take over her blog for a while. We'll see how it goes. 

I thought I'd start with some of my journal entries from last year when Mom had her stroke and work up to the present. 

Here goes...