My poor mom!--long
My mother is 80 yrs old and still tows her little camper by herself, with her big dog for company. She has had several bad experiences this year, mostly regarding her increasing knee pain.
It finally got so bad that she had a knee replacement Dec 19 and it's been one thing after the other! She was slow to recover, so she went to rehab where she made pretty decent progress; the staff was fantastic, too. And then Mother stopped eating and drinking. The day after Christmas her blood work showed she had lost half her blood volume, so back to the hospital she went. A few blood and iron transfusions made things better and she returned to rehab this past Monday (Dec 29). Tues night (Dec 30) she called me screaming and crying hysterically in pain. I've never heard anything like it, and certainly not from my mother! I had her moved once again to the hospital.
It looks like she's had a bleed into the knee joint. She takes a blood thinner, which probably led to her blood count issues, and they stopped it Sat. It was restarted yesterday morning and by last night she was in extreme pain. There is no infection and no blood clot in the leg. They thought they were going to have to open up the knee and look around, but so far they haven't had to go that route. She's on so much IV Dilaudid that she can't concentrate well and didn't even know her own sister (she does recognize her kids). Mother has stopped eating again and is on complete bed rest now and I expect her to stay most of the rest of the week, after which she will go back to rehab for a couple weeks to regain the ground she has lost this week.
*sigh* I am so worried about Mother. I would consider her current condition would be only fair. This knee surgery was supposed to make everything so much better. Her doctors deemed her a good candidate for surgery, even though she has some chronic health issues (diabetes, a-fib, CHF). I'm the one who encouraged her the most--she was so debilitated with the knee that she could barely even get around her house and she had isolated herself to the point that she didn't see anyone human for days on end. She definitely needed the knee replacement to restore her quality of life.
Well, her quality of life right now is pretty low and I feel terrible about it. She so wanted to be able to camp independently again, but it's looking like that is going to take awhile, if it ever happens.
Thanks for listening. I feel like a big fat crybaby. :(
It finally got so bad that she had a knee replacement Dec 19 and it's been one thing after the other! She was slow to recover, so she went to rehab where she made pretty decent progress; the staff was fantastic, too. And then Mother stopped eating and drinking. The day after Christmas her blood work showed she had lost half her blood volume, so back to the hospital she went. A few blood and iron transfusions made things better and she returned to rehab this past Monday (Dec 29). Tues night (Dec 30) she called me screaming and crying hysterically in pain. I've never heard anything like it, and certainly not from my mother! I had her moved once again to the hospital.
It looks like she's had a bleed into the knee joint. She takes a blood thinner, which probably led to her blood count issues, and they stopped it Sat. It was restarted yesterday morning and by last night she was in extreme pain. There is no infection and no blood clot in the leg. They thought they were going to have to open up the knee and look around, but so far they haven't had to go that route. She's on so much IV Dilaudid that she can't concentrate well and didn't even know her own sister (she does recognize her kids). Mother has stopped eating again and is on complete bed rest now and I expect her to stay most of the rest of the week, after which she will go back to rehab for a couple weeks to regain the ground she has lost this week.
*sigh* I am so worried about Mother. I would consider her current condition would be only fair. This knee surgery was supposed to make everything so much better. Her doctors deemed her a good candidate for surgery, even though she has some chronic health issues (diabetes, a-fib, CHF). I'm the one who encouraged her the most--she was so debilitated with the knee that she could barely even get around her house and she had isolated herself to the point that she didn't see anyone human for days on end. She definitely needed the knee replacement to restore her quality of life.
Well, her quality of life right now is pretty low and I feel terrible about it. She so wanted to be able to camp independently again, but it's looking like that is going to take awhile, if it ever happens.
Thanks for listening. I feel like a big fat crybaby. :(
