Episode 4: Real Talk: My battles with Mom's health
This episode is dedicated to those of us who are considered the sandwich generation. That is, we are looking after our elderly parents, and also looking after our kids. I have been looking after my mom for the past year through a series of illness that just seems to get worse and worse. She started out the year with severe weakness, and dehydration, and getting diagnosed as having lactic acidosis. She was finally recovering in May, when she fell down the stairs and broke her right shoulder, and injured her spine. Requiring her to do shoulder replacement surgery and staying in a rehab facility for 1 month, where she was released as she had plateaued and her insurance company would not cover her to stay in a facility anymore, as such, she was sent home with the expectation of homecare being administered immediately, but that was not to be.
It took 2 months for her to get homecare as well as to get a caregiver from the state, as we could not afford one of our own. During that time, I was her sole caregiver. As such, I had to work from home fulltime, even though it was required that I would in my office 3 days per week. Thankfully, I have a very understanding manager who gave me permission to work from home as I had no other choice since Mom could not take care of herself.
Since getting a caregiver, it just seems that she has drastically gotten worse. Physical Therapy started after almost 3 months of her being released from the facility, and then stopped as she was too weak to do the exercises. As such, I took over her PT but that didn't do much for her. She gradually got weaker and weaker, and then started having a fever and coughing of which had us call 911 to have her taken to the hospital last month. They discovered that she had pneumonia, and kept her for 4 nights, and released her with a 4-day supply of anti-biotics.
She seemed to have recovered, only for almost a week now, showed signs of being sick again. This time she was talking to people that were not there, seeing people who were not present, having cold sweats as if she took a shower, skin cold as ice to the touch, and complaining of feeling cold at the same time.
We rushed her to the hospital via ambulance. This time they said that she has not sign of any infection as all the tests came back normal. We are waiting on the results of her MRI which will show if she had a stroke, a brain bleed, a blood clot, early on set dementia, or Alzheimer's.
It is extremely difficult to see the woman that I have known all my life like this. My heart is breaking, I feel helpless and there is nothing that I can do. SO I put my faith and trust in GOD and what I know that HE is ABLE to DO. PLEASE PRAY WITH ME!!!
