Grandma Karen

Sunday, May 28, 2017 -- Devin and I had just taken the sacrament at church and I could feel my phone buzzing.  When I looked at the phone it was my dad.  A- Dad isn’t supposed to have any service.  B- Dad knows that I have church at 11:00.  Something must be wrong.  I stepped out and my dad informed me that grandma is back at the hospital and they think she had a heart attack.  WHAT?!  How did they find out before me? I’m the one that’s home??  The family had driven out to Howe and they got a text from my grandma’s neighbor saying that she was in the hospital.  (My grandma’s husband, my mom’s dad, was killed in Howe in a farming accident along with my mom’s older brother.  They go up there when the go to Birch Creek to visit the site where he was killed) Mom and dad couldn’t get ahold of my Uncle Jared (he was still in church) so they called us.  I pulled Devin out of church and we drove down to try and find her.  When I got there, I met grandma’s neighbor.  From what I could understand, they thought she had a heart attack or a clot in her lungs.  I have to be honest with you.  I was not impressed with the hospital in Brigham.  They kept my grandma in the CT room and just kept her there for the 4-5 hours we were at the hospital.  They would come in and take machinery out to use on other patients.  No, they weren’t full.

Anyways, so I finally get ahold of my uncle and they decided that they’re going to send her to Ogden Regional.  She has fluid around her heart that’s not supposed to be there.  Mom decides that she and dad are going to come home early from camping.  I stayed with grandma until they could transfer her to Ogden, and then Jared met her there.  This has been quite the long ordeal for my grandma.  She’s been in so much pain.  Sunday when mom and dad got home, they went down to Ogden.  Long story short, her aorta was twice the size that it was supposed to be, which made the cell walls very thin.  They even thought that she had a dissection (tear) in the aorta.  If it tore anymore, she’d be dead in 60 seconds.  At 11:30 PM my mom calls me and tells me that they are flying grandma down to the UofU.  They spent all day on Monday trying to rule things out and doing all sorts of tests.  They’ve done so many CT scans that they’ve said her kidneys aren’t going to be well at all.  She’ll most likely be on dialysis. 

Tuesday, May 30, 2017 - they think they found the problem.  She has a hematoma on her heart (where the vessels connect to the heart) that was caused when she fell on Friday.  The blood has pooled in the sac around her heart and it was pooling into her aorta as well.  They put a needle and a catheter in her chest to drain it. In doing this, they hoped that it would help the function of her kidneys.

May 31, 2017, grandma had open heart surgery.  They scheduled it for 9:00, but sometime between when my mom left and the morning she was going in for surgery, she had two mini strokes.  They were able to still go through with the surgery.  They replaced her aorta and did a bypass.  So far so good.  It’s so hard to see someone you love so much, in so much pain.  She couldn’t have a lot of pain medicine, if not any at all, at the beginning of this process because there was so much unknown. 

June 1, 2017 I got a text from my mom.  It read “mom is having some struggles with her heart and kidneys and they are going to put her in a machine that gives her heart and kidneys constant flow of blood and fluid.  I would consider her in critical condition.  The heart isn’t’ pumping right and blood is pooling in her right ventricle.  The machine will do it for her.  She’s not coherent.  She opened her eyes barely when I called her name, but that was just once.  It’s sad to see all the things hooked up to her.” She said that when they would say "mom" sometimes she would open her eyes.  They've asked her to squeeze their hands and she just cant do it.  The nurse made her cough, in order to make her uncomfortable, by suctioning her airway.  That got her attention.  Then the nurse started tickle her feet to try and stimulate them and she opened her eyes and shook her head no! She did not like her feet to be tickled! Haha! Mom said the look on her face was hilarious! -- but there wasn't a whole lot of movement from her after that.

Friday I got to go with mom to see her.  I left work a little early in order to go.  I did not want to go.  Devin is the one who convinced me to go.  I did not want to see her that way! The last time I saw her, she could talk with me, and I got to give her a kiss before she went down to Ogden.  But my husband knew its what I needed to do.  When mom and I got down there, it was really weird for me.  I've never seen so many machines, hooked up to one person.  To be honest with you, I got nauseous.  I had to sit down because I legitimately felt like I was going to throw up.  It was so hard for me to see someone who helped take care of me growing up, and who I spent so much time with, not even be able to move.  She would respond more when we said "mom" or "Karen".  But she would not open her eyes when I would call her "grandma".  That broke my heart.  I cried.  I spend a lot of weekends with my grandma.  I would go down every weekend in order to help her mow her lawn, grocery shop, clean her house.  I went on many mini trips in the semi with her.  The thought of her being gone has been so hard for me.  My sweet, sweet husband, has to keep reminding me to think of how good she is doing. 

Saturday, June 3, 2017 nothing has really happened.  No one from my side of the family went down.  The 4th is my dads birthday and he was flying out to Detroit so we had a little birthday party for him early.  The docs said that she is progressing more, its just going to take time for her brain to catch up.

Today, June 4th (HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!) Mom and Allie went down.  She is moving a little bit more.  she wiggled her toes and when my mom asked if she was awake she shook her head "no".  She then asked, "Are you sleepy?" and she nodded yes.  Mom asked her if she was in pain, but she fell asleep before she could answer.  She is still not very alert, but this is still usually when she is sleeping.  Their goals for today was to wean her off of the medications that are helping her heart contract in order to see if her heart can pump ok by itself.  My mom asked her if she could squeeze her hand, and with her left side, she couldn't.  But mom asked her to squeeze with her right hand, and she did a little bit.  It was something so small, that was so good.  I'm so proud of her.

I know that God has a plan for her.  I will try to write another post when I know a little bit more, but as of right now I know that my family is very grateful for the prayers, thoughts, texts and phone calls that have been made on my grandmothers behalf.  She is strong woman.  The strongest I know.  I am blessed to have her as my grandma.