Saturday, September 24, 2011

(posted by Greg)

The last two days have been quite hectic with a lot of time being spent at Richmond Hospital. As I mentioned in my last blog, Monica's mother (who has serious heart problems) had been admitted to the hospital on Thursday with kidney failure. In simple terms, it will be difficult to treat both conditions. Her body needs more fluids to help her kidneys operate but the more fluids that are in her system make it harder for her heart to function. Even before this last problem, she has been very weak and had problems maintaining her breath when talking.

On Thursday, Oma (who remains mentally sharp) after considering the poor treatment options and the quality of her life decided not to have the physicians actively treat her further. After spending 24 hours in the hospital however and "perking up" a bit, she has re-visited that decision. Oma and most of the family met with the Doctor today to again review her situation. For now, she has decided to resume her heart medications and to have the physician do what he can to treat the kidney problem ( i.e. he will give her a limited amount of fluids intravenously). It is very clear however that she will not be able to return home and, as part of her decision, she will now be going into a nursing home when she is released from the hospital.

As you can imagine it has been an emotional couple of days for Monica and all of us. However, at least the need to make a decision about her living arrangements has now been resolved.

As it happens, on Friday evening Opa was also admitted to the hospital. While everyone else was at the hospital, he got in a predicament at home where he was picking some tomatoes, wound up on the ground and could not get up. A neighbour called the ambulance and he wound up in the emergency ward. The family had spent a frantic couple of  hours trying to locate him before learning he was two floors below Oma.

Opa was released from the hospital Friday night but it seems pretty clear to all concerned (including Opa - we think) that he will not be able to  be alone in their home and that he will need to go into a home as well. So, we will have lots of decisions in the next week or so. Fortunately, Ingo is taking the lead (with quite a bit of help from Marley and Jesse) on these issues so that Monica can, to the extent possible, focus on her own health and continue to get more rest.

Monica's neutrophils were low again in the last blood test. So, she is again susceptible to infections and we are having to be careful with all of the hospital visits.