Rather than trying to categorize it, I'll just print here the email I sent out this morning to a few prayer warriors I know. Yesterday I had written to them saying I, and my mom, needed prayers. Yesterday was a bad day:
What can I say?
After a night of talking in her sleep all night, yesterday mom woke unable to speak intelligently. She didn’t know that her arms were to go into her dressing gown sleeves. She didn’t know how to put in her denture. She held her glasses in her hands, not knowing what they were for.
For breakfast, she slowly ate two small bits of pound cake, and holding the coffee cup in both hands, took a single sip. Then it fell and spilled over her. A second cup had similar results. After laying a third – half-only – cup on the table next to her, she touched the cup, and put her fingers in her mouth. Then she lifted the paper plate with cubes of pound cake to her mouth, and tried to drink it as it spilled all over her lap. When I wrote on the small white board to communicate with her (she can’t hear), she stared off, not understanding that she was to read, much less what was written. When I turned on her favorite television shows, her eyes wandered around the room; her mouth hung open. Nothing of the jumbles she voiced was understood by me, except a rare mention of the first syllable of my name.
I called two doctors and three nurses over the next 4-6 hours. All agreed she had suffered a stroke, describing to me details that I couldn’t understand. But all agreed it was very likely not to be reversed. Mom touched a few bites of lunch, but did not eat. At dinner, she slowly ate two pieces of food, then she picked up the glass containing jello, a favorite of hers, and tried to drink it. She couldn’t hold the spoon, and so I slowly fed her small bits of jello, poking at her mouth to open, as you would a baby. She looked confused, and rarely spoke.
I decided that I would call the people from hospice. She had been in a in-home hospice program for over a year, but then they said she had so stabilized that they had to drop her from the program. They said to call if anything changed. I think this qualified. I gave mom a small bit of a tranquelizing medicationyesterday evening, so she might get a good nights sleep. I expected today would be a busy one with doctors visits.
This morning I prayed for guidance and courage and help – thank you Fr. John for having the adoration chapel open --, and went to mass. I felt His presence. I went to mom’s house. Her live-in caregiver back from holiday said that mom had talked for the first 4 or 5 hours of the night, then finally went quiet. We waited. At 10AM I heard stirrings and went in to her room. She opened her eyes and said “’morning”.
We got her dressed and got her the usual breakfast, coffee and cake. She spoke to both of us, and talked to the birds in the feeder on the front window. She was back to the level of dementia she has had for many years. The caregiver was amazed, but said: “Maybe God wants her to outlive both of us.” What happened all day yesterday, and what happened during the night?
I don’t know, but God is good. Thank you for your prayers.
Attached is a picture of mom I took on Easter Sunday morn, and the lamb cake I bought for her – well, and for me too.)
This is a truly amazing story, and, as I said before, I believe this is a miracle. Still, we'll not be able to predict what's coming next.
ReplyDeleteLife is a Roller Coaster. It might help your blood pressure if you got a copy of "Learning to Speak Alzheimer's". (It's available on Amazon) It's such a help to know how the condition affects different patients. The book has been so helpful to me and has indeed preserved my sanity, and helped me cope.
I'm glad you posted this. It's a great read. You did a good job posting the sweet photo.
I, too, posted about Alzheimer's on my blog a little while ago.
Thank you for your kind words, Maryellen. I'll order the book.
ReplyDeleteI received a note from one of my prayer warriers. She describes a form of TIA where mini-like strokes impair, and ALMOST complete recovery follows, but things ratchet downward. Looking up TIA online, it seems to matter not: All the causes or potential treatments do not seem to apply to mom, except perhaps starting asperin theraphy. I'll talk to a doctor about that. As you can see from the picture, mom is small, thin, and low-blood pressured. Not having been to a doctor in over 30 years, perhaps she has high cholesterol, but I'm not sure how aggressive I want to be to control her diet now, and I'm sure a visit to the hospital and extensive testing might be fatal; she would be extremely panic-ed
Oh well, I'll continue to do the best I can, love, and trust God. It's been a good combination thus far. Mom turns 92 later this month.
Oh, I didn't see your reply to me. I didn't get a notification.
ReplyDeleteOn my blog settings, there's a place where you can enter your email address to get notification of when someone comments on your blog and when a reply to the comment is received. Were you aware of this?
Well, that doesn't address why I didn't receive a notification that you replied to my comment on your blog, so I don't know the solution.
It's curious to me. I'll check my settings and see what I can find out.
I now see that you told me how old she'll be on the 25th. You must have wondered why I asked. It's because I didn't read this until after I wrote you.
I agree that at her age there's no point in controlling her diet now, and extensive testing might be fatal. May God bless you both.