My Grandmother
The doctors do not know what is causing my grandmother to be so ill. They can’t run any test because she is not stable enough. Her kidneys are failing, and her lungs are filling with fluids. When we went to visit the other night, they had her on forced air. Her heart rate was up to 120 to 123. She was struggling so hard to breath. The doctors explained to everyone that it’s like trying to run a marathon for her. She looked terrified. She kept throwing her hands into the air, and then back down as if she had no energy at all. The horrifying scene affected the entire family. I think we all broke down that night. We just didn’t understand how or why this could be happing, and we felt completely helpless. The doctors gave my grandmother some sort of medication to sedate her, and another to paralyze her. They inserted a breathing tube. The next night I went to the hospital she looked more peaceful. She wasn’t struggling to breathe, however they did have to insert a swan ganz heart catheter. The doctors said that she may be able to hear us talking but of course, she would be able to respond or move. I found out later on Friday after my last post, that my grandmother had an episode where she coded for 2 minutes. They were able to bring her back with simple chest compressions.
I called the hospital this morning to check on my grandmother. Her nurse told me that they are trying to take her off of some of the oxygen to see if she can maintain her stats. She also said that they are lowering her blood pressure medication. So far she has been able to keep her blood pressure stable. The chest x-rays are still showing fluid on the lungs. They are going to continue her on the dialysis prism machine until they get her blood pressure back up. They were able to pull some of the fluids out of her body; so that reduced some of her swelling. At this time they had no other plans to run any more test to try to find out where or what is causing this illness