The past Month

So a whole month has past as I haven't posted anything. Let me explain why......

 My mom has been in the hospital.

She had been sick since mid January with what she thought was just back pain or sciatica. She had been to mulitple doctors and they just wanted to give her pain medication and wait it out. She continued to get worse and worse until she colapsed and had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance because her blood sugar levels were through the roof!

Finally, they figured out that she has in infection in her blood and that the pain was being caused by abcesses that had developed around her spinal cord. Also a large blood clot had formed in her leg because the abcess had blocked the flow of blood in that leg.  How they let her go three weeks in pain without testing her blood and such for infection is beyond me. My Dad had taken her to the ER twice and several different doctors and they always wanted to treat the symptom and never really tried to figure out what was the cause. So finally after weeks of pain she was finally able to get some relief and answers. We know what was making her sick but now the treatment is long and the healing is hard and currently things are still a bit scary and unknown.

She was at the local hospital which was nice because lots of her friends were able to stop in and see her while she could do nothing but lay in bed. They didn't want to have her up and about because of the blood clot in her leg.

 My Aunt and and cousins even flew out from Arizona to see her.

After a week in her local hospital they felt like they had done all they could do to help her and needed the expertise of a specialist so she was sent to San Francisco to see a hemotologist who could hopefully help her get the clot disolved and the infection under control. She didn't love her stay there. My Dad didn't either. My sister Julie spent a week at my house while my parents were in San Francisco.

When we went to SF to see my mom Julie quickly found a comforable chair and crashed out. Yes inevery picture of her she is wearing this same Orange SF Giants shirt. It is one of her favorites and everytime it came through the wash she put it on. It did get washed a few times while she stayed with us.

My mom was happy to see us since while in SF she only had my Dad to visit with.

Although we all tried to Facetime with her as much as we could. Here is my Uncle via Facetime all the way from Singapore where he was staying at the time. (The life of a pilot)

 This is what my kids did when they got to SF to see Grandma. They quickly grabbed her ipad and Kindle and played games.

 Our visit to San Francisco wasn't a long one. We didn't want to get caught in Friday afternoon traffic but at least we got to visit with Mom before she went in that afternoon for a procedure to disolve the clot in her leg.

A few days later and about 5 days after being sent to SF she was sent back to her local hospital since the specialist felt like he had done everything he could do and knew she would be happier at her local hospital where friends and family could more easily visit.

 She has been back in her home hospital for almost another full week and there is some progress. She is now able to get up out of bed and walk around, eat real food and while sitting there with her one afternoon I did the crossword puzzle with her. It is so nice to have her not foggy brained anymore. She had been on so many medications that she was mentally a bit whacked out and would say strange things but she is off all pain meds now and mostly needs to just continue to heal from the infection.

Just for the record and to keep things real.... just know that this isn't for a faint of heart.

 She has some black toes. The Blood clot was blocking circulation so some of her toes have turned black.  The nurse had just applied some iodine to her toes when I took these photos so the yellowish color is the iodine but the black is all dead tisue. When my niece went to visit a few days ago and saw her Grandma's black toes she fainted.  The doctors haven't done much to address this issue yet. But we are sure some of these toes are going to have to be amputated.

 So the last three weeks, with Grandma in the hospital having treatments and procedures galore and with one sister who lives out in North Carolina (Who just has her baby. Mom was supposed to go out to be there after the birth ) and another sister in So. California and lots of family out in AZ we have spent a lot of time chatting on the phone and texting eachother with updates.  I really gave my cell phone a work out the past few weeks while I passed on information I gathered from visits to see Mom and conversations with my Dad.

So for now my mom is still in the hospital and still very sick. The infection hasn't caused problems in her heart or lungs yet but it still is playing havoic on her system. She is in good spirits, loves to have visitors and talk on the phone. I really hope she will soon be able to head to her own home again. But the nurses have been so good to her and take great care of her. Continued prayers on her behalf are always appreciated.