Friday, October 30, 2020

June Recap

Things with my mom have continued to be challenging and have delayed my catching up on the blog, Even though it is now the end of October, below is a summary of what happened in June.

The month started out okay. We were still taking care of mom at home but it didn't last long. She ended up back in another hospital again on the 5th. I had taken her to the Portor wound clinic that week for them to access it. They decided we should pack it with silver. I tried to get them to send a nurse to do it but once again Medicare would not pay so I had to do it myself. A few days later I was having trouble getting the packing in and then she started saying she was cold, shaking and could barely walk. I knew something was wrong so we had to take her back to the hospital. I could not believe this was happening again. When we got there I went in to get a wheelchair and when I came out it looked like a tornado. The wheelchair went rolling down the parking lot and I could barely see. It finally stopped and I got the wheel chair back and mom inside. She did not have a fever when we got there which surprised me but by the time they took her back she did. We sat in the ER for hours again until they decided to admit her for observation. That turned into another week in the hospital. During that time they were trying to decide if the infection was in the bone and not the bursa but never did an MRI to know for sure. They had someone go and evaluate her and then called me to ask the situation at home. I made the mistake of being honest with them telling them we needed more care for her there so they tried to force me to put her in skilled nursing by taking her rights away from her and calling APS. Once again I fought them. I still did not think she would be safe there. We ended up with another new doctor and he was a real asshole. The home health company we had before also dropped her. My uncle's caregiver told me about a hospice that might be able to help. I was very hesitant to use hospice again after what happened to my dad but decided to give them a call. They told me that they could help us and would try to get her qualified. In the meantime I found out they were giving my mom trazadone at night to help her sleep. I told them numerous times to not give her any meds like that especially without my knowledge so that was a big cause of her confusion and made me even more angry. The hospice finally got her qualified because of her low albium levels and they said that they would provide wound care everyday. They even told the doctor this. Another home health company had called me in the meantime saying they would provide care for her too. I decided to go with the hospice though because I thought I would be getting more care for her there. The doctor finally agreed to let her got without me signing the AMA. I finally got her out of there and was told a nurse from hospice would meet us there. When we got home I got a phone call from the lady that was helping me crying. She said they changed their minds and could not take her on after all. I could not believe what I was hearing she said she was going to figure something out and call me back. A little while later she said they changed their minds and were going to send out the nurse and evaluate her like planned. It took a long time but she finally showed up and took a history, checked her vitals, asked her some basic questions then said she needed to go to her car and make some calls. She drove away and never came back!!! She called my moms phone and said they could not provide us with hospice or palliative care. I could not believe what I was hearing. I had no home care for her at all now, the antibiotics were due tomorrow between 12-2 and I didn't have the right dose. They were suppose to provide them. There was nothing else I could do at that point except get through the night and try and figure it out the next day. Thankfully she made it. I started making calls as soon as I got up, Fortunatley she already had a virtual appointment with Bloom which was good. I told them what happened and they said they would try to help figure it out. After a lot of back and forth we finally decided to stop the IV antibiotics and replace it with an oral antibiotic. The home health agency that I turned down thankfully decided to still take her on and were suppose to start on Monday. They ended up coming everyday to take care of the wound and we had a CNA twice a week to give her a shower. APS ended up paying us a surprise visit. Thankfully I was there when she came she showed up right before a virtual appointment with her rheumatologist. I was freaking out at first but it ended up being a blessing. After she heard the story she was on our side and was super helpful. I was still trying to get mom an MRI of her arm to see if the infection was in the bone or not. We also had an appointment to see the orthopedic guy to get his opinion but that was a waste of time. He freaked when he saw it and said she needed to go to the PSL Wound clinic to have any chance of saving it. I finally got her an appointment for the end of the month but things were starting to go bad again. One night I checked on her through the camera and didn't see her anywhere. I knew something was wrong. I called my BIL and told him to go upstairs and look for her. He found her on the kitchen floor. We continued to watch her on the camera after that at night and and she was still having problems getting through through them. By the end of the week she ended up in another hospital because the infection got out of control again and this time she also had C-diff. We found her on the floor covered in poop. It took both my niece and I to get her up and I had to call an ambulance because she could not walk. I spent another night in an ER with her and she was finally admitted. She spent another week in the hospital. They also had to put in a catheter which is the last thing we wanted to happen. Thankfully they were able to get it out before she left. Things there started out pretty good I liked the hospitalist she had originally but they ended taking her off a lot of her meds and I got a doctor from hell after that. She finally got the MRI done after I insisted and thankfully the infection was not in the bone. She was evaluated by another hospice again and this one said she could qualify this time but she still could not come home though. Her mind was a mess and she could not walk or go to the bathroom on her own and was still contagious from the C-diff. She would need 24/7 help and we could not afford that so this time I had no choice but to send her to Skill Nursing. More about that in the next update. 

The anniversary of Lily's passing was on the 22nd, It was hard to believe that a year had already gone by. Emilia post this photo and the caption read I can't believe it has been one year without you. Missing you extra hard today but feel you in Zoey everyday. If you have seen a dogs life you know what I mean. Cancer sucks. 


I made this piece to welcome in summer. Tutorial from I pad lettering on Youtube. 
I got a custom order in my Etsy shop for a 3 piece boy elephant photo prop set like the quarantine one I made a few months ago. I have been wanting to make an Elephant ribbon and fabric banner like this one for awhile now so I was really excited about this order. This set also has a personalized Bodysuit instead of a bib and a party hat too.  These sets are a great way to celebrate your little ones special day since large parties are still not safe to have. They also make great photo props too. 



Finally I made this piece for the June Florals and Praise for his glory Challenge on Instagram hosted by @Artuplifted and @Tinysparrowdesign. Done on my Ipad pro using procreate. 


That's it for now. I hope to be back with the July update soon. My goal is to get the blog up to date by the end of the year. I hope that by sharing my life it will help others reading this that are going through something similar to know they are not alone. 


No comments: