Tag: Hospital

Here We Go Again.

Categories Hemingway and Steinbeck, Mom38 Comments on Here We Go Again.

We’re sure that you’ve noticed we’ve been missing in action again.

It’s not our fault. We did the best we could, but Mom always seems to do her own thing.

This time her “own thing” got her in trouble!!!

We were just napping on June 30th. Mom was on the phone with the nurse. When she finished she got up to get something ready to mail.

That was her big mistake ‘cuz next thing we knew, we heard a loud bang and she was on the floor. She said her leg felt like it was sticking straight up in the air, but it wasn’t.

We couldn’t pick her up so she had to very carefully and slowly inch her way to the couch so she could get her phone and call 911. We heard her try to make a joke ‘cuz she told the operator she was going to sound like a commercial, but she had fallen and couldn’t get up.

Some really nice men came and took Mom away. We tried to ask them where they were taking her but they didn’t listen.

Mom ended up in the hospital again. We can’t figure out why she keeps going there. She said the food is not that fantastic, but she has pretty views.

Here’s what happened to Mom:

That’s her left leg and it shows that she did a good job of breaking it just above the knee cap. She was super lucky that she didn’t wreck her fake knee in the process. Her surgeon said that she was the talk of the emergency room because her break was so bad.

On July 1st she had surgery on her leg and this is what it looks like now:

She said she’s a Bionic Woman now! Her surgeon is super proud of how he managed to put her leg back together again.

After a few days she was able to leave the hospital and go to a transitional care unit. She told us that she couldn’t put any weight on her left leg for six weeks.

I love being able to use all four of my legs so I think that would be hard.

She’s been home for about a week and has been learning to use the wheelchair and walker in the house. She really can’t do much so we sit on her lap to make her happy.

We did get something really wonderful in the mail and we are so happy.

I love this catnip bag so much.
So do I. We thank our surprise gifter so much.

So now you’re all caught up on what’s been happening here. Mom still has two weeks to go before she sees her surgeon again. Maybe she’ll be able to put some weight on that leg then.

She says to tell all of you that she’s sorry we haven’t been online much. Sometimes her leg starts hurting and she can’t sit at the desk for long.

The Birthday That Almost Wasn’t….

Categories Cats41 Comments on The Birthday That Almost Wasn’t….

Hemingway, do you know where Mom is?

No, but she’s sure been gone a long time!

The Mom Explains:

It seems like 2020 has turned out to be quite the challenging year. We all apologize for not being on our blog for so long, But I have a good reason. It all started on April 11th. I was outside raking and trying to clean up things in the yard. I was frequently taking rests but it didn’t seem to help. I finally decided to stop and I had a sharp pain that went all the way through my chest to my back. I took some aspirin right away and convinced myself that I had twisted some muscles with all the raking and weed pulling. The next day I rested and felt a little better. On Monday I went to work (actually I walked over to the computer since I was working from home) and then went to an eye appointment. I noticed that I was kind of spinning out of control so when I got home I sent a note to my doctor. I told her what had happened and how I felt. She called me back quickly and told me to go to Emergency.

My brother took me over to the hospital on April 13th and since Covid was making it hard to do anything, he had to just leave me there. I was hooked up to all kinds of machines and poked with all sorts of needles. The docs told me that I did have a heart attack on Saturday and it was a major one. They had determined that I wasn’t still having a heart attack, but my heart was very ticked and was kind of bouncing all over the place.

I got moved to a room and was hooked up to a monitor. During the first couple of days, one of my medical team members tested positive for Covid. They gave me the test, but mine was negative. However, I had to be put in quarantine.

On April 20th, I had open heart surgery and had a single bypass. I went through all of this without anyone I could hug. I ended up staying in ICU for several extra days because of the quarantine. I had yet another Covid test and it was negative. Once I finally got to a regular room, I started doing exercises and seemed to be improving. When it came time for me to go home, one of the nurses had noticed I was having trouble breathing. They ordered a chest x-ray and discovered fluid on my lungs. They tapped both of them and then I was finally able to go home, after spending 20 days in the hospital.

I started physical and occupational therapy at home and then I noticed I was having trouble breathing again. Back to the hospital for another chest x-ray and then back again so I could be tapped. (I’m on blood thinners now and they have to kind of wean me off them for procedures.) Oh, and another Covid test.

I was doing really good until I noticed that I couldn’t even cross the room without huffing and puffing. My therapy sessions were pure torture ‘cuz I couldn’t breathe. My cardiologist set up an echocardiogram for me. That didn’t show what they expected it to show so we were back to square one. I became my own advocate and told them I couldn’t live like that.

You guessed it…………back to Emergency and yet another Covid test (which was still negative). Last weekend I was in the hospital. By the way, my birthday was on June 11th and I actually had a good day, even though I couldn’t do much. They diagnosed me with congestive heart failure and while in the hospital I lost 17 pounds of fluid. The change was amazing. I could breathe and I didn’t have all the pressure on my chest.

It’s now been two months since my open heart surgery. I am finally on the road to recovery. The boys have helped so much. Just their purring and paw pats mean so much.

We are hoping to get back to blogging, but it’s been kind of hard. This is the first time I’ve really felt good so maybe the three of us can get some things posted soon.

Thanks for reading through this long explanation. If you have any friends or relatives in the hospital during Covid, do all you can to encourage them. I was lucky because my niece is a nurse at the hospital so I was able to have a “visitor”.