One Journey After Diabetic Coma

(Marilyn) With regard to the physical aspect, Linda is definitely improving.  She can do some walking on her own without wheelchair or walker.  But the mental part comes and goes.  And her deep-seated contrary nature is still there (LOL).  If we say the sky is blue, she insists it's green and gets belligerent about it.  But things are definitely improving. Yesterday she insisted that the physical therapy guy -- Tyler -- was named Virgil.  I had Tyler come in and show her his name tag and told her his name was definitely Tyler and told him he should stop lying to her, that she knew his name was Virgil. Tricia and Ed are going to try an experiment tomorrow.  They plan to see if they can get her into their car and take her to their house for lunch.  That should be interesting.  I'm not going to be there because I think too many cooks can spoil the broth.  I'll join them the next time.  They have been doing a lot of things around their house like grab bars, ramp, etc., so they

(Marilyn) Today Tricia and I heated up the Christmas dinner that we got from Bob Evans (Yum) and got to NHC around noon to find Linda going up and down the halls "looking for Mother."  She was crying.  We got her back into her room and set up the food.  It was really good. Her sugar has been really high for several days so her insulin has been increased. After we ate our meal Linda wanted to be sure she was dressed to go home -- we cover that topic, as well as Mother's death, every day. Tricia and I put on Christmas hats to take a photo but Linda got very agitated when we asked her to put a hat on.  So we just held a hat up over her head.  Tomorrow Ed will be back and we'll try to get another photo.  MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!

(Marilyn) Tricia and Ed went to see Linda last night -- as usual -- and here's her report to me this morning: Got a call from Nurse Hema about 15 minutes ago… Apparently she was on the hall when she heard someone yelling “help!“ from room D7, and when she got in there, the woman who’s in D7 was yelling for help, and Linda was slumped against the wall on the floor. She had gone into the bathroom herself without her walker, and then wandered off into D7 and fallen. Hema says that Linda now has a scrape on her shoulder, but seems otherwise fine.  Last night, Linda brought mother up several times, but in more sideways references that we did not have to acknowledge. (A lot of, “Mother said this to me today,” or “I wonder what Mother wants for Christmas?” She said at one point “I really hope Mother lasts a long time.“)   

(Marilyn) Everything is status quo.  She is always loopy in the morning and fairly lucid in the evenings.  And she re-lives Mother's death every day and cries for quite a while. For Christmas, I'm going to order food from Bob Evans again and we'll eat at NHC. 

(Marilyn) Well, Linda has not shown any more of those spurts of normalcy.  I swear that sometimes I think the old Linda is rearing her head and she's just being purposely difficult.  Who knows... Anyway, Tricia and Ed are back.  They tried to go through stuff at what we call the Rock House so we could keep the stuff we think Linda will really want if things go well and then we will be done with the Rock House and we can talk to a real estate agent.  Tricia found a bunch of great photos and other things that she brought back.  Little by little we are making progress. That's all I've got for today. 

(Marilyn) Tricia and Ed took a quick trip to Mountain View this weekend to take care of a few things.  So I went to see Linda this afternoon for a few hours.  She was.a little loopy but for the most part she was lucid.  I left around 4:00 and as I was walking down the hall I turned around and she was actually running (well, shuffling/running) to catch up with me.  All nurses and CNAs in the hall were kind of in shock.  I don't know what that means going forward but right now we take it as progress!! So Tricia and I had a conversation about the future because we assume that if she is now walking all the time, we don't imagine she would continue to qualify for care at NHC.  Our minds are spinning. Stay tuned.

 (Marilyn) Sorry we've been quiet for a while. There has been an incredible amount of time and effort spent to get the Guardianship set up.  Tricia is still deep into getting this finalized.  And I've been spending time on my own health. But the good news is that Linda is showing improvement little by little. She can get in and out of bed pretty much on her own, but has good and bad days.  She still needs a lot of work with regard to her speech and her cognitive ability.  We are trying to get her room set up in a more festive holiday mode. Tricia is still battling with NHC in order to get them to pay more attention to Linda's diabetes when it comes to food. I don't know why that's so hard.  You would think that a facility dedicated to the patients' health would be able to, say, give her half a piece of cake instead of a whole piece.  Or give her tea or water instead of lemonade.  Her sugar still jumps from very high to very low. And she still has a raging C-Diff

(Marilyn) The last few days have had lots of ups and downs.  She is doing wonderfully on her ability to walk but still has a way to go. Needs to continue with physical therapy but hates it.  She wants to get rid of the electronic bracelet but of course it has to stay.  In the morning hours she has trouble finding words but in the evening she does much better. We think the C Diff infection is back and we are having a heck of a time trying to find an infectious doctor.  She just can't win for losing. Yesterday she told me that since Tricia has always wanted a harpsichord (what??) Linda wanted to buy her one for Christmas.  And she said Ed always talks about music so she wants to get him a rewind conical (??) She has made friends with the screamer across the hall and their conversations are interesting (LOL).   I'm still recovering from my fall. Tricia and Ed spend a lot of time with Linda but I go less often because Linda usually kicks me out. Today I bought her some yarn and cro