This koi can stop anytime now! VENT

mstang67chic

Going Green
As most of you know, my mother in law recently passed away. I don't think it comes in threes anymore. *sigh*

A cousin of my mother's passed, my step-mom's aunt passed this week and now my Grandma is in the hospital. Fortunately she is doing well and isn't in any danger.

But....I'm sick of hospitals, sick of funerals (aunt's is tomorrow) and I just want to find a nice warm beach somewhere and have Raoul bury me up to my neck after he gives me a world class massage.

The weird thing with Grandma though is that we're not sure what's going on. She was working with her physical therapist in home last night and suddenly started talking gibberish and couldn't move. Of course the first thought was a stroke but so far, nothing confirms that. The CT scan came back fine, there are not physical symptoms (weakness, paralysis, etc.) but they did do an MRI today so we'll see what that says. She does however, have expressive aphasia. She understands everything said to her, knows what she wants to say but somwhere between her brain and her mouth it gets either jumbled around or lost. She'll use the wrong word, have problem recalling a word or words or just say gibberish. But....she IS aware she's doing it and will correct or attempt to correct herself. Some things she says comes out just fine and others....not so much. She read aloud however and did perfectly. I kind of wonder if there isn't some sort of medication thing going on as she's on a lot of medications. I don't know that that would be the sole cause of this but I'm sure it didn't help any. Hopefully the MRI will tell us more tomorrow.


Ugh. Just needed to vent about all of this though. Thanks for "listening"....I'm off to bed. I'll update when I can.
 

Shari

IsItFridayYet?
That is strange...they say something similar happens with Wee, but its not nearly that profound...I hope they find the cause of it. How frustrating!

Hope you get a good night's sleep. With all that's been going on, that can't hurt!

hugs. Hoping tomorrow is a brighter day!
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
Maybe a TIA? Or seizure of some type that left residual neuro issues? Something's wacky in her speech center.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Sounds like a TIA to me. They may or may not find anything, depends on if any significant damage was done. TIAs don't usually last long and usually the person can recover whatever loss they had. BUT it is a warning sign of an impending stroke. So grandma should be thoroughly checked out before discharge. How is her blood pressure running?
 

mstang67chic

Going Green
Sounds like a TIA to me. They may or may not find anything, depends on if any significant damage was done. TIAs don't usually last long and usually the person can recover whatever loss they had. BUT it is a warning sign of an impending stroke. So grandma should be thoroughly checked out before discharge. How is her blood pressure running?

TIA has been mentioned but I was in the room when her BiPolar (BP) was taken at one point and it was at a good level. I was also with her a week or two ago at a doctor appointment when it was taken. The bottom number was normal but the top number was a bit high.....maybe 150-160 I think. The doctor just told her to cut her salt intake.

I'm wondering about medication interactions or reactions also. I noticed at her appointment that I took her to, when she was asked what medications she takes, she only reported the ones related to that type of doctor until prompted. For example, that doctor is a pain doctor (and a new one to Grandma) so she only told the doctor what pain medications she took and left off the laundry list of others. So.....I'm wondering, with her various list of docs...I would hazard a guess that none of them have the full picture from her. Hopefully by the time I get back up there the MRI will have been read and give us some more information. Thanks for the ideas and good thoughts.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Stang, the deal with the medications is a huge issue with the elderly. It just doesn't occur to them much of the time. See if you can get a complete list of ALL medications grandma is taking......including everything over the counter, even if it's tylenol if she's taking it on a fairly regular basis. It could be a drug-drug reaction. Keep a copy of that list with you at all times and add to it as necessary. We did this for mother in law for years. But could also be from a clogged artery in her brain ect. mother in law's turned out to be from her carotid arteries being clogged up. She had surgery done on one and refused on the second one. I hope doctor checks her out well before he lets her go home.
 

totoro

Mom? What's a difficult child?
I am so sorry
We have to keep taking my husband's Grandpa in he seems like it is TIA but I keep saying it is his medications or heart... I think it is his medications. He is on a lot of OXY.

Sometimes we just don't know.

I have to tell you though, I was going to write you and let you know i am on my 5th Sookie book!!! I keep thinking of you after each one. As I am reading I think OMG Stang knew about this the whole time!!! LOL
True Blood looks so different now, but I still love it.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
She really needs to carry a complete list of medications with her. They also now carry this incredibly useful tool at CVS which is a little usb drive and you put your medical history on it along with current list of medications. It then goes in your wallet so if you are in an accident or go into a doctor or hospital they can just upload it to their computer...voila! Im getting me one after my disaster with my hospitalization. Its only 20 bucks. My medical history and medications wouldnt fit on a medic alert bracelet...lol.
 

mstang67chic

Going Green
Apparently she HAS a list of her medications....Dad found it somewhere in her purse. We'll just have to make sure it's accessible from now on and that she USES it.

We got the results back from the MRI and while I don't have specifics, there WAS indications of a small stroke. I didn't have time to stick around earlier to talk to the nurse but I'll be going back later. I do know that they want her to have someone with her 24/7 from now on. My uncle does live with her but he works so we'll have to get something lined up.

Toto....just wait....those books just get better and better!!!! I find myself reading them and saying.."OMG, she did NOT just write that!" They do put True Blood in a completely different light but you just have to realize that they are seperate entities.....kind of like siblings with similar but way different personalities. LOL
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Did they say "small stroke" or TIA? There is a difference. I didnt know that until Tony had his. It apparently would have been far worse if he had TIA's than this really small stroke. His was so small they could barely see it and really were not entirely sure they were seeing it. It was the closest thing they could find in the area that was under attack. Looked like a tiny pin prick in the vision area. Maybe.

But when he was first brought in to the hospital ER and I finally got to talk to him, he talked weird. He wasnt making a whole lot of good sense at all and he couldnt see worth a potters damn. Of course, one eye was going one way and they other was going another! No way could he walk either...lol. Strangest thing. He is fine now. No one knows why it happened either.
 

Marguerite

Active Member
About carrying medical history - that sounds like a good idea to carry it on a thumb drive, but you'd need to make sure you had it in text format, maybe Residential Treatment Facility (RTF). Either that, or PDF. Something fairly universally readable. However, you still need a computer.

I have a medallion, SOS Talisman.
http://www.baxtersjewellers.com/acatalog/SOS_Talisman_Pendants.html

It has a strip of paper inside, you can unscrew the pendant to get at the paper. There is a waterproof washer inside to help it seal perfectly. It's completely waterproof (I wear it swimming, in the shower or in the bath - no problems).

We used to write on the paper (medical history, medications, allergies, contacts and phone numbers) but husband has duplicated it on the computer so we can update it (typing in a small font) then we print it out (on airmail paper is best, to pack it in), cut it out, fold it carefully and it fits neatly inside. I've used it a lot lately, with all the hospital etc plus medical history wanted. I unscrew the medallion, hand them the paper and they photocopy it (enlarging it so they can read it more easily). A couple of months ago when I needed an ambulance, the ambos unscrewed it to get the info. They wouldn't have had a computer handy.

ABout the aphasia you describe - it is often a result of a stroke or similar localised brain injury especially to speech centres such as Wernicke's area. But there could be other causes, of the factors. a speech and language pathologist would be a good idea to have on board, if there isn't one already.

We used to believe that you don't recover form neurological damage later in life, but we now know that to be wrong, you CAn recover from neurological damage but it takes active therapy and time.

I hope you can get some therapy going for her as soon as possible, to help her get back to where she was.

Marg
 
M

ML

Guest
I don't have anything insightful to add but I am sending prayers for Grandma and also for you and husband. You've been through so much lately. Major hugs xoxo ML
 

mstang67chic

Going Green
Thanks for the good thoughts and info everyone. It's now Sunday night and I'm home and sleeping in my own bed. Grandma was released from the hospital yesterday and they don't want her to be alone at all for awhile yet so I stayed with her yesterday, overnight and into this evening. She's doing great.....her speech gets better by the minute. She still has her spells of mixed up words, searching for words or gibberish but they are getting much better, much farther apart and you can almost see it improve right in front of you. She's had a nurse coming once a week anyway and she came today. She got caught up on everything and decided to bump Grandma up to 3 x week for now to keep a better eye on her and she's going to put in for a speech therapist to come and at least do an evaluation to see what G'ma needs. Although it's improving daily, it's still there but has been providing us all, herself included, with some entertaining moments. One inparticular was when she said something that came out as....um....well ...you know the word messerschmidt? Replace the ME with PI and take away the M. :916blusher:

I don't know how much I'll be around this week. My unemployment ran out so I'm taking any work I can find. I've got a temp job set up for this week with the surveyors office as a flagger for one of their dig projects. I have the feeling that when I get home tomorrow I'm only going to want to lay down so we'll see how it goes.

Thanks again though...you guys are the best!
 
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