Tomorrow marks two weeks since my aunt fell down the stairs. She is still hospitalized at Beaumont as of this morning, but we are hopeful that she will be transferred to a nursing home/rehab facility in Novi sometime this afternoon.
Aunt Annie had a heart catheterization on Monday, and it showed no blockages, but the cardiologists also diagnosed the chemical present when heart muscles have been damaged, so she’s had a heart attack of some sort at some point. We’re following up with the head of cardiology at Beaumont.
At this point, they’ve decided to treat AA’s heart failure (a condition that is surprisingly survivable!) with medication as opposed to placing a pacemaker with a defibrillator inside her. I’m not thrilled with that decision, but it’s not mine to make.
Ideally speaking, once she gets placed in the nursing home/rehab facility, and it’s up to her standards in terms of post-acute care, then a week or two of PT should help her regain her ability to get up the three steps on our porch and finally come home to Netflix and her JUUL.
In the interim, I’m just not certain when I’ll be back to work. Today is theoretically “moving day,” and that’s going to take a significant amount of time and effort; after that, we’ll see whether she settles in, or whether she requires another facility. After that, we’re playing it by ear.
I miss talking about hockey with you and I miss interacting with you on a regular basis. Even Aunt Annie knows that the blog is very important to me, and she wants me to get back to work ASAP, too, but we have to take this day by day and task by task.
I’m sorry for the inconvenience. You don’t plan on someone falling, breaking their back and neck, suffering from fatally low sodium levels, and then going into heart failure. We’re working on a resolution for her, and for me, the last two weeks have been utterly exhausting on a mental, physical and spiritual basis, but I’m doing what I can to get by and be there for AA.
We are luckily not alone in this regard, but she was right–I’m in the condominium all by myself, worrying about her most of the time, so my attention span is still shot. So I’ll work my way back as I can. Right now, I’ve got a little 80-year-old who has no intent to leave this mortal coil any time soon, and I’ve got to be with her first.
