caregiving2

CAREGIVING

My Story-Part One

What happened.....

My mother hadn't been feeling well for awhile, she just thought it was a cold; but one morning while visiting her I noticed she was unsteady, couldn't stay awake, and couldn't remember her dog's name. I knew it was not just a cold so I called for an ambulance, and while doctors examined her in the emergency room of our nearest hospital, my husband and I waited...finally a doctor came out, took us into one of the "Quiet Rooms", and told us...respiratory failure, congestive heart failure, and pneumonia; they were admitting her to ICU as soon as a bed was available, and suggested we go home for a while. I was numb, shock and fear settling into my body as I let my husband lead me out of the hospital....

For the next 33 days she would be in ICU, put on life support 3 times, each time they tried to wean her off she "crashed", her lungs just not strong enough to breathe on their own. She was also on intravenously fed fluids, meds for her heart, her pneumonia, plus a shot each day to inhibit blood clots while bedridden. Most of her complications were due to her severe osteoporosis, which despite potent Calcium/Magnesium supplements, Didrocal kits, and later, Fosomax, had ravaged her body to the point of leaving very little space for her lungs.

A person cannot stay on life support forever so her doctor explained her only option to survive now was to have a tracheostomy performed, into which the ventilator tubes would then be inserted; making it clear he didn't have much hope she would ever be able to get off the ventilator. We explained all of this to her and she understood; said she wanted it done, which didn't surprise me, after seeing the courage she showed while on life support; smiling through all the tubes...writing us notes complaining she was hungry...I knew she was not ready to give up...

The surgery was done, the ventilator moved from entry via her mouth to entry via the trach, and a couple of days later one very dedicated and determined Respiratory Therapist began working with her...shutting off the ventilator and letting her breathe on her own. This seemed to go very well, much to our excitement, and the ventilator was removed...permanently. Nose prongs were put on through which she would get her oxygen, and her trach tube was changed to a smaller fenestrated one, meaning it could be plugged so she could talk. It had been so long since I had heard her voice...

Plugging her trach the first couple of times did cause her to panic because it took away her extra airway and her lungs had to work harder, but the machines she was still hooked up to monitoring all her signs showed all was well so the therapist kept her plugged, using his sense of humor to relax her; in no time she was even lying down for naps with the trach plug in. At night the plug came out, nose prongs came off, an inner cannula was inserted into the main trach tube, and a trach mask was attached over her trach from which she would get her oxygen and humidity for her trach.

Swallowing tests came next to ensure she would not aspirate her food into her lungs; blue dye was mixed into everything she would ingest for the next few days and although her face fell every time she saw turquoise colored food, she ate hungrily, having been without solid foods for about 3 weeks. I held my breath every time her lungs were suctioned, praying nothing blue would come out; no dye could be detected in the catheters and now it was time to move her to a regular hospital ward where she would begin therapies to strengthen her body.

We knew leaving ICU was a good sign, but because of our drastic nursing shortage on wards, plus the inexperience of the nurses there in dealing with a trach patient, we all found it very stressful. The fear was evident in my mother's eyes her first evening on the ward; she began having trouble breathing...3 nurses stood there watching her blood oxygen level drop from 95 to a dangerously low 62, all at a total loss as to what to do...this led us to start arriving at the hospital very early in the morning and staying very late into the night, always making sure the night nurse knew how to suction before we left for home.

Finally the good news came...she would be released the next day; 2 long months she had been in the hospital and 2 long months my husband and I had made it our second home.
We bought a hospital bed and a walker, the Abilities Council loaned us a commode, a bedside pole, and a wheelchair with tank holder, the Oxygen Company dropped off tanks and a concentrator, and the hospital gave us a portable suction machine and a few trach supplies to get us started.

Our home now looked like a mini-hospital but we were finally ready to bring my mother home; to embark on our lives as caregivers; and I vowed I would do the best possible job for this dear lady who had shown such courage and strength the past 2 months....