Recipe for Disaster

As some of you may already know, Mom was rushed to the emergency room Monday afternoon after my brother Dan found her unresponsive in her bed. She was having severe spasms and her muscles were in knots.

We had all been to her home on Easter to spend some time with her. She had started a new pain med (Baclofen) on Saturday and was complaining of dizziness and vomiting late Sunday afternoon. She said she was going to go lie down. She was still resting when we left her home. We decided not to bother her. I had gone up to talk to her about an hour before leaving.

After several attempts Monday by Dan to reach her by phone, he decided to go check on her. This is when he and his wife Donna found her. She obviously had not gotten up since the day before as she was wearing the same clothes she had on when she went to lie down.

It would seem that a series of events collided which resulted in her condition. First, she was severely dehydrated, she also had not been eating like she should. She started the new medication which it turns out she was taking too much too soon. She had also been taking Advil for several weeks to help with pain. The Docs suspect the Advil had become toxic in her system. Plus, she apparently had two bacterial infections brewing and her kidneys were not draining properly. A recipe for disaster.

Monday evening she remained unresponsive. She could nod or shake her her to answer some questions but it is unclear if she understood the questions. I don’t know if she knew me on Monday night. I thinks she did but couldn’t respond. I believe this to be true because when the neurologist asked her if she knew who I was she began to cry.

It would seem that she was able to comprehend some of what was being said but she was incapable of speaking.

By Tuesday morning she was giving one word answers and said “hi” to me. I had been sitting there for hours listening to her moan, wondering if this was who my mother would be from then on. When she said “hi” and nodded her head acknowledging she knew me I was sooo relieved I just began to cry. I knew she was far from where she needed to be but she was showing progress.

By Tuesday afternoon she was putting words together in the form of sentences and by that evening she was conversing a bit. She was still having trouble articulating thoughts and was clearly still confused but she was speaking. She was still having spasm but she wasn’t balled up.

She has improved each day.  

According to Nephrology, Mom’s creatinine levels have come down from the level they were at Monday but not significantly since yesterday. They are turning her back over to the Dr.R since the problem is blockage rather than a matter of kidney function. Apparently that makes it a urology problem not a nephrology issue. They did speculate a bit and said they thought Dr. R would probably have Mom get another ultrasound and depending on the outcome of that he may decide to do the nephrostomy on both kidneys. Mom says, if they are going to do that she is going to need to be knocked out before they take her down for the procedure.

Her MRI was unremarkable which means no permanent brain damage or stroke. That is good news and Mom sighed a big breath of relief. She is however having trouble with fine motor functions. I noticed this yesterday and things weren’t any better today. She has strength in her hands and has no trouble grabbing my fingers and squeezing. Her grip is good. But she is having trouble with tasks such as holding a pen, picking up silverware, opening a bottle — the little things. I will mention it to the Physical Therapist tomorrow. I think she may require some occupational or physical therapy for this. She walked without assistance today and did some leg exercises.

She is still having some cognitive difficultiesparticularly in the area of time perception. She has trouble determining if something happened today or days ago. She also knows the date but doesn’t know if it is before or after a meaningful date such as my brother’s birthday. But at least she knows the month and year now. She didn’t know that as recently as this morning.

They are treating the infections. The good news is they can treat both with the same antibiotic. They also allowed me to take her out of her room today and out to one of the gardens. It was a lovely Spring day and she enjoyed the fresh air.

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