Hello All
I had every intention on sharing my goals for this year and wrapping up last year, but some very sad things happened at the end of Nov and continued through into this year. My Aunt who is also my God Mother, passed away shortly after visiting with her Nov 19. I was devastated. She meant a lot to me and it was a struggle to get through. Also that week, my son lost his grandpa and great aunt on his dad's side.
We gathered together for Christmas. My uncle was able to attend. It was nice to see him visit with mom. We didn't know at the time, but it was a blessing for them to see each other.
January 10th mom hit her lifeline button because she couldn't breathe. She had high potassium and needed dialysis. She has been a dialysis patient for 6 1/2 years. She needed a little more dialysis on Saturday and my sister took her to that. She was in a lot of pain all over but she told her she would be fine. On Sunday the 12th at 1 in the morning, she called me and asked me to help her get from her chair to her bed. Her back was hurting and she couldn't get up. I went down to her house right away. Got her some Tylenol and got her in to bed. I tried to wake her at 9 but she was so tired I let her sleep until 10am. When I took her CPAP off, she was moaning terribly. I asked her where her pain was and she pointed to her chest. I knew right away she was having a heart attack. I called 911. She was having a heart attack. The hospital was overloaded with Influenza A patients so they didn't have a bed for her. She was sent to a Madison WI hospital. They discovered she had a staph infection. With staph, you have to find it and take it out. Just treating it doesn't work. So they thought it was in her shoulder but it could have been in her heart, knee replacements or anywhere. Her heart was not strong enough to operate if it was in her shoulder. They needed to take her to the cath lab but couldn't because of the infection. Every time she got dialysis her heart rate would go into the 200s and so would her blood pressure. That Thursday it was decided to stop all treatment. Switch to comfort care. That was the hardest thing we had to do. She was not ready but her body said no more. Her brother came to say good-bye and I called my son to come home too. They told us 2-3 days or less than a week. Well, one thing about my mom, she was a fighter! The following Wednesday they moved her to a different floor. She was on palliative care but the hospice place did not have a bed. By Friday they did and she was moved to Agrace hospice that afternoon. After 13 days in the hospital. We spent most of Saturday with her and she passed on Sunday morning the 26th. We were not with her but she was sleeping. It was a long road. I only worked 6 days in January. We had her funeral on Feb 3 and buried her on the 4th. I came back to work on the 5th.
Tonight we will turn in the keys to her apartment. I have been working every night to bring things to my house and empty out the apartment. It is bittersweet. I was always in that town to do her shopping and cooking. It will really be a change to not have to go there. I currently have about 8 boxes of her things in my kitchen. I am hoping to go through a box every night and also purge some of my stuff. It's amazing what we accumulate.
While I was home at night after visiting all day in the hospital, I did so some sewing. I finished my word of the year and did a big pillow for Project Quilting season 16. I will post those soon.
I hope you all had a good start to the year. At least a better start than we have had. I sure do miss her.
Take care,
Blessings,
Amy
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