Halloween Day!

This will be a short update as nothing much happened today. Mom spent most of the day half dozing. She woke up enough at meal times and ate a bit but would drift off. It was a down day and quiet was the goal.

The cover Dr. for the covering Dr. for her Doctor came in while we were there. I asked what the prognosis was and he said it was rough. He said that she has stabilized but she isn't really getting any better and that she is too weak. He also said that they would do everything they can for her.

Tomorrow Rachel and I leave. It's going to be hard to leave since I want to spend more time with her. There probably won't be an update tomorrow night since I'll be getting home late and have to get up early for work on monday. I will continue the blog though. Everyone here (Beth, Dan, Rick and Dad) has instructions to give me the updates for it. I'll compare notes and let everyone know how things are going.

TGIF

Beth got up real early today to try to catch the doctor. Mom's doctor left on vacation and there is a new one covering but we had never talked to him. She succeeded and he said that all he was doing was keeping things the same until Mom's doctor got back. He said he would come back at noon and talk to Dad.

The rest of us got there around 9 and Mom was awake. She said they had turned off all the lights and it was a black, dark night. She didn't sleep to much. She started dozing off and would wake up. She told us us to "turn her off" a few times. She did that yesterday to. It felt like she was losing ground and we were all pretty quiet so she could sleep.

Again we went to lunch at Ricks - thanks again!! When we got back, Mom was having lunch and she did a good job of eating it. The best meal yet. She seemed stronger after eating and talked a bit clearer even if it wasn't more. She did real good again at dinner and it had the same result. She seemed a bit stronger.

She stayed awake longer after dinner and kept asking who was going and when. Finally it was time for Beth to take Mike and Christina to the airport and pick up Rachel. When she said good bye to Mike and then Christina she told them that she would still be here if they needed anything! How quickly it goes from "turn me off" to "I'll be here"?

Thursday evening

Sorry these are so late but I'm not getting back to the house until late. We went to see her this morning and there was no change. She was as drowsy and weak as she had been yesterday. We left and went to Rick's for lunch - thanks Rick for feeding us it was good eating even if the burgers were crunchy. After lunch we went back and she was the same. I kept hoping for a glimpse of Mom and I finally got it. Those who know her will appreciate this and get the same chuckle we all did. . . She was trying to tell us that something unintelligable was in the wrong place. We told her that we didn't understand and she tried again. Once again I told her we didn't understand what she was saying. She stopped a minute and tried again and she said the story, someone asked what story and she said the Childrens Story. We asked if the Children's story was in the wrong place? Her frustrated reply . . . . here it comes . . . "You guys don't know nothing, your all a bunch of dummys!" She said it so clear!

It was getting late so Dad and I were going to leave to fix dinner. She said "everyone is leaving". . . it sounded like a question. Someone said that no, they were going to stay for a little longer. . . she said, "No, I don't want anyone to stay!" It was an instruction :)

When we got back after dinner she told us that while we were gone she had her bath and they sat her in a chair for an hour for dinner. She didn't get a chance to rest. It seemed that the activity woke her up as she was more awake tonight. There were 8 of us there in that tiny room and it did get a bit noisy. The nurse came in and I said that she was bubbly after she left. Mom said "Yes, but she won't let me have a cigarette." That was the first time she mentioned it since she got there. She asked how long she had been in the hospital and realized that she had managed to go 3 days without a smoke. A record she was feeling good about :)

Beth went and talked to the nurse for a bit. She said that they were trying to get her lungs clear and less swollen. She also said that if we wanted one of us could spend the night, they would put a cot in the room. It was after 9 before we knew it. Way late for Mom and you could tell we were wearing her out so we said our goodnights. Beth told her that Christina could do a sleepover with her and Mom said she wanted everyone to leave, she didn't want a sleepover! So we honored her wishes. It was all good.

Wednesday evening in Georgia

Beth, Mike, Christina and I met at the airport in Atlanta and went straight to the hospital. We headed down the hall to ICU and passed a door that said "Schmucker". To our delight and surprise Mom had been moved out of ICU this morning. Her oxygen is a little bit low but her cough has eased up quite a bit. She is very weak though and her words are labored and quietly spoken. She was scheduled for a transfusion this morning but in the end she didn't need it! Her blood counts have stabilized.

We didn't stay long so she could rest and went to the house for dinner that was provided by the ward members. We were presently surprised by our reto Dad. His hair has grown long and he looks a bit like he got stuck in the '70s. After dinner Dad and Mike went back to visit. The rest of us went to pick up Dan and then we visited again.

I kept asking her if she needed anything and if she was comfortable. She said she is comfortable. I asked her how the nurses were at that hospital and she said that medically they were very good, personally they weren't so good. They moved things and she can't find them. It takes them a long time to come in when she needed something. We will have to see if we can rectify that tomorrow.

I asked her if she wanted to say something for the blog and she said to tell everyone to "hang in there".

Tuesday morning

I spoke with the nurse and she said that Mom is doing better today then yesterday. Dad concurred. Mom isn't coughing up as much as yesterday. The main issues are pneumonia and her heart. She is on two antibiotics, had flu and pneumonia shots and is getting IV fluids. The nurse was concerned that she isn't eating so I told her that the food had to be very inviting or Mom won't consider that it is worth the energy to eat it. Hopefully they can remedy that. She is drinking though so that's good. They have given her something to help her relax and she is resting now.

Beth, Mike and I are heading to Georgia in the morning. I will only post again tonight if there is something to tell, otherwise the next blog will be tomorrow evening sometime.

Thanks everyone for your prayers and support. They are all very much appreciated!

Monday, October 26th

Mom, Grandma, Norma Schmucker. From now on I'll use Mom since that is what I call her.

She has a bad week this week. Breathing has been very difficult and she didn't get up much. Last monday her doctor called and said that she was anemic. He wanted her to go into the office on tuesday so he could make arrangements for her to go to the hospital for a blood transfusion. She gets very worn out when she has to travel anywhere so she didn't go. She did get a blessing on monday and Dad said it helped her relax.

Last night she was physically no better. She has been sleeping more then she has been awake. Everything she does has been labored. Dad said that they were trying to decide where she would be sleeping . . . home or the hospital. She slept home last night but this morning they got transport for her. She started in emergency then was moved into a room. They did some tests and then she was moved into ICU. Dad has said she had a heart attack . . . I spoke with the nurse and she didn't know anything about that. It turns out that her heart is racing. They got it to slow down a bit. The problem is when they give her breathing treatments, it speeds up again. She has been caughing up a lot of junk. For those that do not know, mom has had emphesemia since she was 63 . . . for 17 years.

They nurse said that she is trying to drink a bit of juice. She is on a liquid diet at the moment. She is more relaxed. Her blood counts are low (since she wasn't treated for anemia as of yet.) The Dr. should be there in an hour or so and I'll call him tomorrow to see what he can tell me.

I explained to the nurse that Mom has a big family and we are spread out across the country. I requested that if the time came that we needed to go that she call me. . . she said she would.

In the meantime, I called Rick. He is on his way to visit. Visiting is bad where she is. Dad said they can visit 6 times a day for 15 minutes only. Hopefully, Rick will be able to. He said he would call me afterwards. . . I'll post again if he has anything different to say.

Prayers are good!