Remember my post last month? The one where I said if things don't change mom will be back in the hospital in two months? I wrote that blog post on March 21st. Today is April 18th. I guess I was off by a month. I've been frantically trying to get her house ready for sale so I could devote the time she needed from me for a hospital stay, since I predicted it happening sometime in May. So, this will probably slow things down a bit, but here's hoping other family members pick up the slack enough that I won't fall too far behind.
My mom's delusions have become a bit more vivid recently. She has a new imaginary friend, Will, that I introduced you to last time. She's been shaking less, but I was really thinking things were staying the same. She started having a Psyche Nurse visit her a few weeks ago. I was hoping this would be what would help keep her out of the hospital. Clearly that was false hope.
Today I got a call from the Psyche Nurse who had been called in to evaluate her today by the facility (I'm not sure why they called her since they should have called me first, but whatever. It's not like I'm her Guardian. Oh wait. I am.). When the nurse was on the phone she told me about mom's most recent delusion and it's become a bit more....elaborate. Now Will is Satan and mom's being attacked by him. The poor nurse sounded very shaken up by the whole experience. I hope she doesn't end up with PTSD over the situation. I mentioned that I was expecting a hospitalization soon if things didn't improve and she indicated to me that we are at that point. The doctor could do med changes, but since she doesn't have anyone that can watch her closely (her ALS does not provide this service) then that could do more harm than good.
So I contacted her doctor who agreed hospitalization was the best choice at the moment. Tomorrow morning I'll take her back to Norfolk General and pray there's a Gero Psyche bed available. Since there are only 6 in the entire Hampton Roads Area (Wikipedia lists the area as having 1.6 million people so only 6 people over the age of 50 can have any kind of mental issue at any given time. Good luck with that HR), there isn't much chance of a bed being open. I'm worried we'll be in the ER till Monday.
So if you are a praying person please pray for health, skill and a slow day in the ER. I'll take chants, vibes, quirky memes or anything else that could possibly help.
Oh and if anyone knows any politician at all please smack him or her over the head and tell them to get to work! Or send me his/her personal cell number. I'll put my mom on the phone.
Showing posts with label decompensating. Show all posts
Showing posts with label decompensating. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Nice to Meet You, Will
I'd like to introduce my mother's new imaginary friend, Will. Will is my mother's trusted adviser on clothing choices, food intake and gestures. Now if I can convince him to share Guardian duties I can get a day off.
So it's been a rough day. It started with picking my mom up to take her to her psychiatrist. She spent the car ride there whispering to herself, so already not good. Upon getting there the doctor said he had looked over the records from VB Psyche, but they couldn't find her chart for his office. They found a few minutes later, but that doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling. I informed the doctor of her whispering and she proceeded to tell him that she had a "Echanon" (no definition found on dictionary.com so I'll have to take her word for it) in her mouth that allowed her to speak to her friend and a something in her ear that allowed him to hear him. Then she spoke of yarn like things coming from the floor and trying to bury her. The yarn-like substance goes away when the lights are turned on.
So the doctor ordered a pysche nurse to keep tabs on her and left her medication levels the same (they were changed 3 weeks ago so I'm thinking it's a prudent call). However, he informed me he was dropped by the company that services my mother's Medicare supplemental insurance plan. I think it probably had to do with a censure he received about keeping poor records for pain patients (where have I heard poor record keeping before?). I wasn't really fond of him, but that leaves us with the only other Gero Psyche doctor I could find in the area. He treated mom at Chesapeake General when she in the Gero Psyche ward 18 months ago. It wasn't a good experience.
Hello Governor! Whenever you want to make things easier for us peons let us know!
Count down to hospitalization continues...
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Oh, Thank You But I Don't Need a Donut, Medicare.
So, my mom hit the infamous Medicare donut hole this month. Whose idea is this anyway? If I find out I'll send her to live with him/her when her meds run out. Although her meds won't run out. I'll just have to do some creative negotiating of payments with the pharmacy.
I'm getting pretty good at payment plans. I avoid them as much as I can, but now I have to use them. Mom has payment plans with two hospitals, a dentist, a contractor and a credit card company. That's a lot to keep track of (plus my own bills to figure out how to pay. I often forget to pay mine entirely). But a relative was nice enough to loan her enough to pay off two of the balances so that eases up a bit of brain space for me.
Next month is go time for mom's house. The house will be on the market by the end of April ready or not. I have given the final notice to family, who are using the house as their personal storage facility, that their things will be thrown away if not removed in the next week. I'm done with the stress of it. I plan on scrubbing the house down myself next week and start painting. Now the kid with the severe asthma really shouldn't be the one painting, but c'est la vie. So I'll schedule my week in bed for May and push through as best I can.
The med tech at my mother's ALS mentioned to me the other day that she heard my mom talking to herself. An immediately count-down calendar started ticking in my head. That day I walked up to mom's room and heard her mumbling to herself. Today at her primary care doctor visit she told him she was seeing people. She said she knew they weren't real so she refused to speak to them. Then the whole drive back to her ALS she mumbled quietly to herself (she called it "speaking in tongues" when I was a kid. I would call it "speaking without a tongue" for a more poetic and accurate description). She was enrolled in an Observation and Assessment program through Medicare to hopefully keep her out of the hospital this time, but I'm not optimistic.
She's had severe shaking the past two months (she's having trouble eating and is rapidly losing weight because of it) and her primary care physician isn't sure if she has developed Parkinson's Disease (just what she needs) or if it's the medication she was on until November last year. He said if it's the meds it may go away or be permanent. There has got to be a way to catch a break here at some point. My mother will be seeing a neurologist to figure out what's going on there. Her new psychiatrist (who I'm really not fond of already) was adjusting her Zyprexa lower to see if it was causing the shaking. Lowering the dose only seemed to make it worse. And now she's complaining of panic attacks and trouble breathing. She sees the psychiatrist next week so we'll see what he says (and if he remembers she's his patient this time).
So that little calendar in my head is ticking away. I'm sure if a miracle doesn't happen she'll be back in the hospital in the next two months. Maybe Mother's Day? Maybe that can be my vacation? (See horrible daughter explanation in previous post).
I'm getting pretty good at payment plans. I avoid them as much as I can, but now I have to use them. Mom has payment plans with two hospitals, a dentist, a contractor and a credit card company. That's a lot to keep track of (plus my own bills to figure out how to pay. I often forget to pay mine entirely). But a relative was nice enough to loan her enough to pay off two of the balances so that eases up a bit of brain space for me.
Next month is go time for mom's house. The house will be on the market by the end of April ready or not. I have given the final notice to family, who are using the house as their personal storage facility, that their things will be thrown away if not removed in the next week. I'm done with the stress of it. I plan on scrubbing the house down myself next week and start painting. Now the kid with the severe asthma really shouldn't be the one painting, but c'est la vie. So I'll schedule my week in bed for May and push through as best I can.
The med tech at my mother's ALS mentioned to me the other day that she heard my mom talking to herself. An immediately count-down calendar started ticking in my head. That day I walked up to mom's room and heard her mumbling to herself. Today at her primary care doctor visit she told him she was seeing people. She said she knew they weren't real so she refused to speak to them. Then the whole drive back to her ALS she mumbled quietly to herself (she called it "speaking in tongues" when I was a kid. I would call it "speaking without a tongue" for a more poetic and accurate description). She was enrolled in an Observation and Assessment program through Medicare to hopefully keep her out of the hospital this time, but I'm not optimistic.
She's had severe shaking the past two months (she's having trouble eating and is rapidly losing weight because of it) and her primary care physician isn't sure if she has developed Parkinson's Disease (just what she needs) or if it's the medication she was on until November last year. He said if it's the meds it may go away or be permanent. There has got to be a way to catch a break here at some point. My mother will be seeing a neurologist to figure out what's going on there. Her new psychiatrist (who I'm really not fond of already) was adjusting her Zyprexa lower to see if it was causing the shaking. Lowering the dose only seemed to make it worse. And now she's complaining of panic attacks and trouble breathing. She sees the psychiatrist next week so we'll see what he says (and if he remembers she's his patient this time).
So that little calendar in my head is ticking away. I'm sure if a miracle doesn't happen she'll be back in the hospital in the next two months. Maybe Mother's Day? Maybe that can be my vacation? (See horrible daughter explanation in previous post).
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
November 2011 Hospitalization Update
Yesterday I wrote a post about all the things that were happening during this attempt to get my mother the inpatient care she needs. Today thankfully things started moving and she was placed in the Gero Psyche ward at Norfolk General. It's been a long day, but I was so glad to leave her in the capable hands of this hospital.
From start to finish it took 56 hours to have my mother admitted for treatment. And I thought the previous times were bad at 24 hours.
I am still very irritated about how the whole thing played out. I never ever thought I would say this in a million years, but I can't believe how much better the City of Chesapeake is at handling these things that the City of Norfolk. As the Norfolk police officer said "You're not in Kansas anymore." Chesapeake seems efficient and streamlined. Things may be slower than you'd like, but everyone seems to know what's going on. Norfolk was a what I would call a hot mess. No one seemed to know what was really going on or how it should go.
Exhausted from Sunday and Monday's events I fell asleep last night and slept for 13 hours. I headed up to the hospital to spend some time with my mom so she knew we weren't abandoning her. She was receiving psychiatric care in the ER so at least she wasn't floating. But she was pretty angry the doctor put her on a medication she didn't like, Zyprexa. It is the only one that has ever worked for her. The ones she has been on are really hard on the elderly brain so it was either give her Zyprexa and have her be mad or stick with drugs that slowly make it harder and harder for her to function.
I was informed about noon that she was being placed in the Gero Psyche ward. It was after 8pm before she finally got there. In the end she needed to be on Temporary Detainment Order and the Norfolk Police Department had to escort her up the elevator to the ward she is staying in. I have no idea why they have to do it that way. It wasn't that way in Chesapeake, but whatever.
The sad thing is that because of all the uproar with the Norfolk Community Services Board (they paid an employee for years who didn't show up for work because they never bothered to officially fire her) the people who know how to do their jobs have left. Funding has been pulled so that other organizations are not available to help. I've been told that soon the people we worked with this week will all lose their jobs due to budget cuts. Although they were of little help this time and caused a lot of confusion and aggravation I don't believe cutting more funds and getting rid of more people are going to improve an already impossible situation.
People need to wake up and realize that we can't keep going full speed into a brick wall. Something has to give. We either need to raise taxes or just never get sick. I don't think the latter is a possibility. There's no money and people need help.
I watched a homeless man in the hospital desperate to keep his leftover chicken safe so that when he was released he'd have something to eat. This is America! What does that say about us if we let things like that happen? The sad part is he will get some help, maybe lots of help, but soon he'll be living on a park bench again not knowing where his next meal will come from.
When I walked my mom to her room the nurse gave me all the instructions for the ward. Then she asked if our family had a "safe word" we like to use. Yes my mind went there. The first word that popped into my head was a type of animal. My brother said I clearly wasn't up on my secret agent code words. I've been ordered to brush up on my viewing of "Top Secret." I'll have to make time for that tomorrow.
From start to finish it took 56 hours to have my mother admitted for treatment. And I thought the previous times were bad at 24 hours.
I am still very irritated about how the whole thing played out. I never ever thought I would say this in a million years, but I can't believe how much better the City of Chesapeake is at handling these things that the City of Norfolk. As the Norfolk police officer said "You're not in Kansas anymore." Chesapeake seems efficient and streamlined. Things may be slower than you'd like, but everyone seems to know what's going on. Norfolk was a what I would call a hot mess. No one seemed to know what was really going on or how it should go.
Exhausted from Sunday and Monday's events I fell asleep last night and slept for 13 hours. I headed up to the hospital to spend some time with my mom so she knew we weren't abandoning her. She was receiving psychiatric care in the ER so at least she wasn't floating. But she was pretty angry the doctor put her on a medication she didn't like, Zyprexa. It is the only one that has ever worked for her. The ones she has been on are really hard on the elderly brain so it was either give her Zyprexa and have her be mad or stick with drugs that slowly make it harder and harder for her to function.
I was informed about noon that she was being placed in the Gero Psyche ward. It was after 8pm before she finally got there. In the end she needed to be on Temporary Detainment Order and the Norfolk Police Department had to escort her up the elevator to the ward she is staying in. I have no idea why they have to do it that way. It wasn't that way in Chesapeake, but whatever.
The sad thing is that because of all the uproar with the Norfolk Community Services Board (they paid an employee for years who didn't show up for work because they never bothered to officially fire her) the people who know how to do their jobs have left. Funding has been pulled so that other organizations are not available to help. I've been told that soon the people we worked with this week will all lose their jobs due to budget cuts. Although they were of little help this time and caused a lot of confusion and aggravation I don't believe cutting more funds and getting rid of more people are going to improve an already impossible situation.
People need to wake up and realize that we can't keep going full speed into a brick wall. Something has to give. We either need to raise taxes or just never get sick. I don't think the latter is a possibility. There's no money and people need help.
I watched a homeless man in the hospital desperate to keep his leftover chicken safe so that when he was released he'd have something to eat. This is America! What does that say about us if we let things like that happen? The sad part is he will get some help, maybe lots of help, but soon he'll be living on a park bench again not knowing where his next meal will come from.
When I walked my mom to her room the nurse gave me all the instructions for the ward. Then she asked if our family had a "safe word" we like to use. Yes my mind went there. The first word that popped into my head was a type of animal. My brother said I clearly wasn't up on my secret agent code words. I've been ordered to brush up on my viewing of "Top Secret." I'll have to make time for that tomorrow.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Life Doesn't Stop So You Can Catch Your Breath
It has been an exceedingly rough week for me. I have the pressures of everything with my mom, but this week was a reminder that my kids need me too.
My daughter has been struggling with her teacher this year and it became obvious very quickly there was no way she could stay in this teacher's classroom. I felt I was unable to communicate with this teacher in any way. It left me feeling like I should return my diploma for my communications degree. My daughter was so stressed her behavior became erratic and she refused to do just about anything asked of her. Finally she was moved into another classroom today and so far seems to be happy and relaxed again.
My son thankfully, is doing great in the 4th grade and he has a teacher who really seems to get him (she loves that he loves to give you the play by play of his favorite show). After such a rough year last year for him this much needed for all of us, especially him.
I was thankful I had the time this week to help my children. I feel like with my mother's illness they often get only small strips of me, when they really deserve whole chunks.
So today, after making sure my daughter was comfortable in her classroom I had to turn my attention back to my mother. She had a dentist appointment today to restore her tooth and prep it for the temporary crown. You may remember she had a root canal last week. She did great for both appointments, but this morning she was acting strange. She was telling me about how there were motors in the beds that flip you out in the middle of the night and that a guy who lives upstairs (still an all female facility) died because he became trapped in the bed. And she went on and on about how her psychiatrist was having the med techs overdose her so she would die and that the housekeeper was saying her room was filthy and if my mother didn't clean it up she would be evicted and then the housekeeper could have her room. Her room was pretty much immaculate when I was there. Okay I think maybe the comb had a strand of hair stuck in it. And she had an incident a week ago where she fell out of bed and they weren't really sure what happened. I found the med tech today who helped mom and she said she fell in between the wall and the bed and got stuck, but the bed is now pushed against the wall and that should solve the problem.
So in true tag team style I texted my sister while I was in the waiting room during mom's time at the dentist to please call the doctor and I described the delusions to her. Her next appointment wasn't for two weeks so it couldn't wait that long. She called and doctor decided to increase the dose and sent a fax to the assisted living. Of course he didn't sign it or make it clear so the facility refused to honor it and we ended in a circle of faxes and voice mails again. Things didn't happen so her dose won't be increased until Monday at the earliest. Are you as annoyed as I am right now?
So I decided to clean up my mom's nails while I was there and had time and she couldn't stop talking about how she was going to die if her meds were increased and that the bed was going to crush her. I assured her the bed would not hurt her, but she got angrier and angrier. She said I was going to be very sorry when she died and then she said "I hope they come and butcher you." Now my mind went to assuming "butcher" was a metaphor for taking me to court for elder abuse, throwing me in jail or something so I simply said, "well, yes if I screw up the court will hold me accountable and I could end up in jail." Clearly I misinterpreted her because she then said, "no you won't. You'll be dead and in little pieces." She has said some pretty awful things to me, but I think this one won the Oscar.
So I got out of there, went to the school to finish my volunteer work, got stuck in a rain storm on the way home, came home to a cat vomiting all over the place and put on a brave face for my daughter who needed nothing but joy today. We got errands done and I bought her the toy she's been eyeing for having such a good day at school. My son got a CD he's been wanting. We got some new books and traded in some old toys for some new clothes. Now the littles are sleeping peacefully.
I've said before that I view crying as a luxury you can only afford when you have time. I think tonight I'll have to make time.
My daughter has been struggling with her teacher this year and it became obvious very quickly there was no way she could stay in this teacher's classroom. I felt I was unable to communicate with this teacher in any way. It left me feeling like I should return my diploma for my communications degree. My daughter was so stressed her behavior became erratic and she refused to do just about anything asked of her. Finally she was moved into another classroom today and so far seems to be happy and relaxed again.
My son thankfully, is doing great in the 4th grade and he has a teacher who really seems to get him (she loves that he loves to give you the play by play of his favorite show). After such a rough year last year for him this much needed for all of us, especially him.
I was thankful I had the time this week to help my children. I feel like with my mother's illness they often get only small strips of me, when they really deserve whole chunks.
So today, after making sure my daughter was comfortable in her classroom I had to turn my attention back to my mother. She had a dentist appointment today to restore her tooth and prep it for the temporary crown. You may remember she had a root canal last week. She did great for both appointments, but this morning she was acting strange. She was telling me about how there were motors in the beds that flip you out in the middle of the night and that a guy who lives upstairs (still an all female facility) died because he became trapped in the bed. And she went on and on about how her psychiatrist was having the med techs overdose her so she would die and that the housekeeper was saying her room was filthy and if my mother didn't clean it up she would be evicted and then the housekeeper could have her room. Her room was pretty much immaculate when I was there. Okay I think maybe the comb had a strand of hair stuck in it. And she had an incident a week ago where she fell out of bed and they weren't really sure what happened. I found the med tech today who helped mom and she said she fell in between the wall and the bed and got stuck, but the bed is now pushed against the wall and that should solve the problem.
So in true tag team style I texted my sister while I was in the waiting room during mom's time at the dentist to please call the doctor and I described the delusions to her. Her next appointment wasn't for two weeks so it couldn't wait that long. She called and doctor decided to increase the dose and sent a fax to the assisted living. Of course he didn't sign it or make it clear so the facility refused to honor it and we ended in a circle of faxes and voice mails again. Things didn't happen so her dose won't be increased until Monday at the earliest. Are you as annoyed as I am right now?
So I decided to clean up my mom's nails while I was there and had time and she couldn't stop talking about how she was going to die if her meds were increased and that the bed was going to crush her. I assured her the bed would not hurt her, but she got angrier and angrier. She said I was going to be very sorry when she died and then she said "I hope they come and butcher you." Now my mind went to assuming "butcher" was a metaphor for taking me to court for elder abuse, throwing me in jail or something so I simply said, "well, yes if I screw up the court will hold me accountable and I could end up in jail." Clearly I misinterpreted her because she then said, "no you won't. You'll be dead and in little pieces." She has said some pretty awful things to me, but I think this one won the Oscar.
So I got out of there, went to the school to finish my volunteer work, got stuck in a rain storm on the way home, came home to a cat vomiting all over the place and put on a brave face for my daughter who needed nothing but joy today. We got errands done and I bought her the toy she's been eyeing for having such a good day at school. My son got a CD he's been wanting. We got some new books and traded in some old toys for some new clothes. Now the littles are sleeping peacefully.
I've said before that I view crying as a luxury you can only afford when you have time. I think tonight I'll have to make time.
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