One Journey After Diabetic Coma

(Marilyn) At 9am she had eaten her breakfast and was still in bed.  Didn’t want to get up.  When the speech therapist came in, Linda did not cooperate.  I had brought my Kindle so I just read a book for several hours and then I left. The only time she really talked was to say she “wanted her in-laws to visit her.”  I had to point out that she didn’t have any in-laws.  I think maybe she was referring to cousins.  And I told her that I did not want to come every day just to watch her sleep.  She needed to do her physical therapy. Tricia and I hope that when this latest round of antibiotics is finished, which is later this week, she will start getting back to the way she was a few weeks ago.  Fingers crossed. 

(Marilyn) I got there at 9:00 and Linda was dressed and in her wheelchair.  She was not in a good mood. I was told that at 2:00AM her sugar was 89 and in the morning before breakfast it was 45.  Not good.  She ate her breakfast and a bottle of Ensure and by noon the sugar went up to 200.  Yesterday she was able to lift both of her legs up on the bed with no problems at all.  I had her do it again today to show the physical therapist so they asked her to work on standing.  She refused.  She is infuriating.  So I called Tricia on FaceTime and Tricia tried to convince Linda to do her PT but she didn't get far. When lunch came, Linda dug in and said she wasn't going to eat.  We asked her why and she just said "because I don't want to."  The nurse explained that if Linda didn't want to be hospitalized she needs to build strength.  At that point Linda kind of threw herself across the bed, all wonky, and closed her eyes.  Like I said,...

 (Marilyn) First, you haven't heard much from Tricia lately because she is wearing many hats.  She has her job, she handles Linda's menu to try to control the up-and-down sugar levels, she visits Linda every night for four or five hours, she runs down to NHC whenever Linda refuses to do her physical therapy and Tricia tries to get Linda to cooperate and she is now trying to arrange off-site doctor appointments for Linda (which has become problematic because of the C Diff infection).  But I will try to cover all bases. I got there today at 8:30 and Linda was dressed and in her wheelchair but not very friendly.  She said, "Why are you back so soon?"  Then she kept repeating, "I think I'll go home now."  They came to get her for physical therapy and she refused.  So we got Tricia on FaceTime and Tricia tried to convince Linda to do her PT, but Linda lowered her head and refused.  Linda did a lot of mumbling and muttering, totally impossible to unders...

(Tricia) I have taken a bit of time off from writing updates here, partially to take a breather and partially because Linda’s status has been so puzzling. At her best point, a couple of weeks ago, she seemed to be able to hold onto more information in her working memory—especially details such as her birthdate, where she was, and why she was there. She also had gotten strong enough to require minimal assistance to stand up and walk to the bathroom and back. Then, the GI issues hit hard and her tests came back positive for a C.diff infection, requiring the facility to prescribe a 14-day course of vancomycin. After that point, we saw her regress significantly both mentally and physically. She no longer had the strength to help lift herself up, and her thinking became “jumbled” (her word) once again. She also went back to refusing physical therapy again —although in this case, the effects of the infection gave her a better excuse. And while she had not misnamed Ed for more than week, du...

(Marilyn)  Linda was in lots of pain in her back when I got there.  I wanted to get the nurse and she begged me not to.  But she kept moaning so I flagged Justin (a PT tech) down in the hallway and he was able to reposition her with pillows so she felt better for an hour or so.  Then, in addition to her back, she was complaining about hip pain so I rubbed on some BioFreeze which helped for a little bit.  The thing is, we don't know if the pain stems from a fall or something else.  But she slept for most of the time I was there. She tells me that the male employees are all asking her on dates and she told them all no.  She said the main one was Tony (there is no Tony). She couldn't do any physical therapy today. Her sugar was 196. We finally got someone to actually look at the test results from the stool sample and it definitely is positive for C. Diff.  But no one is making us wear a gown and none of the nurses are wearing gowns.  So it's con...

 (Marilyn) Linda was pretty tired today and slept most of the time I was there.  The nurse came in to change the bed and I stayed in the room this time.  When Linda started that "Oh, oh, oh," I asked her what was wrong and she said the nurse was going to drop her.  I convinced her that she was not going to be dropped and she calmed down.   When lunch arrived she perked up and dug in.  They checked her sugar and it was 357.  Not good.

(Marilyn) When I got there today I could hear her crying as I was walking down the hall but it took a few minutes to get my gown and gloves on.  When I walked into the room, she said, "There you are, I didn't think you were coming and I was calling out for you." Her sugar levels were good today and we had a fairly calm day with no mention of Mother, thank goodness.   Around lunch time the nurses came in to change her gown, as well as change the bed linens.  I stepped out into the hall to give them privacy (I couldn't go far because of the gown thing).  I heard Linda's characteristic "Oh oh oh oh," whenever something happens that she doesn't like and then the nurses came out.  When I went back in, she was sobbing.  I asked her what was wrong and she said, "That nurse said she could do anything to me that she wanted and there was nothing I could do about it."  And she kept crying and saying things that made no sense.  The nurse was only in th...