On a Serious Note...

As many of you know, my Grandmother had a stroke on July 15th, 2006 and passed away on October 31st, 2006. What you may not know is that her only sister Laura, lost her husband of 65 years in June of this year. A week later she suffered a heart attack.

It was touch and go there for a while but luckily she pulled through. She has had several setbacks since then and most recently a fall in her front yard that put her back in the hospital and then a nursing care facility because she cracked her pelvis bone. Anyway...below is an update from my cousin who has been wonderful enough to spend so much time with her over the past 4 months. I wished I lived closer.

It was hard enough loosing my Grandmother last year and now all this with my Great Aunt around the same time of year has been very difficult. Thanks for taking the time reading this and take care of yourselves.

Jeremy

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As some of you know and some of you don't, my grandmother fell on September 17th and has been in the hospital and then in a nursing facility because she cracked her pelvis in 2 places on her left side. Since then, I have been back down here in Concord, CA off and on visiting her, taking care of things around the house, bringing her changes of clothes, etc.

On this past Monday, she was released! (into my care) So here goes the rest of the report:

Well, Grandma IS home and doing pretty well with her "tough love" physical therapist granddaughter. Heh Heh

She definitely does need someone here still though. We get up approximately every 3-4 hours during the night for help with the restroom, getting water, etc. etc.

Walking to the bathroom from the living room is a much further walk than it was from her facility bed to the bathroom (her bed was even the closest one TO the bathroom at the facility) so by late evening, her legs just "won't work" as well to get her to bed. The first night it required walker, wheelchair, etc. etc., I managed to get her to bed because we both thought she'd be more comfortable there. From that night, she's been able to walk herself there with the constant assistance of the walker. (She has to use the walker to walk anywhere right now due to the pain of her cracks.)

She has an appointment with orthopedics on October 15th.
Meanwhile, she's been able to walk further and a little bit more and a little bit more each day and is slowly weaning off of her pain pills. She had been taking them "round the clock" every 6 hours but has managed to stretch it to about 8 hours now so we're getting there!

I'm not sure how long I'll be here, but I WILL be home (Klamath Falls) NEXT weekend (13th, 14th, etc.) My folks will come to be here for her that weekend. After that, if Grandma still needs help, I'll be around during the week, and she'll hire someone for her for weekends.

Jenny