First Update About Mom

Okay Family and Friends... this is the way I'm going to produce updates on Mom's health situation.

As some/most of you know, Mom is in Coast Fork Nursing Center. She is there technically for physical therapy with the hope that she will get strong enough to go home. The doctor has expressed that mom, "could live another five years." but doesn't expect she'll live another year and that it could very likely be less than six months. However, hospice people assessed her and said they didn't feel she was quite ready for hospice. Before I continue, here's a brief recap:

Mom recently had shingles... which as a lot of us discovered... Really Sucks! The shingles are gone and she is no longer contagious, but the effect of having had shingles is that she has been left with excruciating nerve pain. The shingles and the subsequent nerve pain left her primarily bed-bound. This went on long enough she was loosing strength and had actually begun to consider physical therapy in order to try and regain strength. Before we could pursue that, she began to retain water at an alarming rate. She was taken to the hospital and spent about a week there with the staff trying to find ways to stop the water retention. While there, it was discovered that her congestive heart failure had worsened and that led to the water retention. while in the hospital she lost several pounds of water weight and then gained it back plus some---nearly 50 lbs in a week. After the doctor exhausted all but the most extreme/invasive options (which would be unsafe for her anyway), it was determined she would be moved to Coast Fork for physical therapy..

So, She's been in Coast Fork almost a week (as of this posting 4-27-2012) and has gained more weight---about five lbs in the last couple days. I still need to get a specific weight increase number. One of the things mom wanted me to put out there specifically was how much water weight she's gained and how quickly. She said she wanted people "to know that water is gaining on [her]"

Some of you know she moved her bed from home into Coast Fork. I think for a lot of us that was a little jarring because it seemed like she had shifted from being there for therapy to being there to die. I talked with her specifically on this point, and she hadn't thought of it that way at all. She just was unable to rest on the uncomfortable beds they have there. Her hope is that she will be more able to do the physical therapy because she will actually be able to rest in her own bed.

I asked her specifically "where she is with all this" (meaning what is she thinking about her prognosis and current circumstance) and she said, "This may sound like a stupid answer, but I think either I'm going to die... or I'm going to get better." What she basically meant was this is either "it" (the issue that ends her), or she'll get better and defy the doctors prognosis (again). She knows the reality of her situation and that she could die, and even might die. She doesn't feel an impending sense of death, but there are moments that she feels she may not have a lot longer to go.

That's the update for now. I know it's about as clear as mud, but that's how it is for mom currently.

A tidbit to add about her physical situation. They are not able to give her enough diarhetic to take the water weight off without it negatively affecting her kidneys which are already in an early stage of failure.

I pray mom will stick around a good long time, and that she'll get healthy. But as she would say... She wants to stick around if there still a purpose for it, but she's ready for the Lord  to bring her home too.