Long over due post
I'm sure I learned as early as others, if not earlier, the fundamental fact that life is not, in any way shape or form, remotely fair. This is a fact we live with everyday; our mere existence on this planet, definitely our social status, whether good or bad, is not fair. That's the way things are. Another fundamental fact even more difficult to deal with is that we will all get sick at some point or another, and if you are lucky enough to never get sick, the undeniable truth of life is that you will die, and that will be the end.
In October my step-mother's mother was in a terrible accident. She was hit by a van, on the driver's side of her car. She had to be removed from her vehicle with the jaws of life. She was taken to Omaha for care, where she spent nearly two months in the ICU. She had surgeries to fix her legs, neck, vocal cords. She fought through all of this. At the beginning of January she was released to a rehab facility at the retirement community where my step-mother works. Through all of this my step-mother has been the advocate for her mother; as an LPN she was there to make sure her mother was getting the best care possible. This was no easy task, our medical system is so broken. She was constantly fighting to ensure her mother got the care she needed. This whole incident has made me wonder how anyone who didn't have someone devoted to them full-time could get the care they need and survive a stay in the hospital.
I got a call the other day that things have taken a turn for the worse. It's not the injuries from the accident that are the problem, it's an infection she got in the hospital that is making my step-grandmother very sick. She has an infection on her heart valve, most likely from the tube used to intebate her, and that infection has gotten into her blood stream. These infections people get in hospitals are particularly nasty, often resistant to antibiotics and carried around by staff from one patient to another. These are killers. They have put her on a nine-day course of very heavy duty antibiotics, and my step-mother, who has been tirelessly upbeat about her mother's prognosis, has said the chances are not good. That if this doesn't work, it will be time to think about putting her mother into hospice. My step-grandmother is very tired, she was moved to the hospital in the town where she lives because she wants to be home. She can't swallow anything.
It makes me really sad to think of all the pain this poor woman has been through, all the difficult surgeries. And it's not her injuries that are causing her trouble now, but an infection. Isn't life a bitch.
In October my step-mother's mother was in a terrible accident. She was hit by a van, on the driver's side of her car. She had to be removed from her vehicle with the jaws of life. She was taken to Omaha for care, where she spent nearly two months in the ICU. She had surgeries to fix her legs, neck, vocal cords. She fought through all of this. At the beginning of January she was released to a rehab facility at the retirement community where my step-mother works. Through all of this my step-mother has been the advocate for her mother; as an LPN she was there to make sure her mother was getting the best care possible. This was no easy task, our medical system is so broken. She was constantly fighting to ensure her mother got the care she needed. This whole incident has made me wonder how anyone who didn't have someone devoted to them full-time could get the care they need and survive a stay in the hospital.
I got a call the other day that things have taken a turn for the worse. It's not the injuries from the accident that are the problem, it's an infection she got in the hospital that is making my step-grandmother very sick. She has an infection on her heart valve, most likely from the tube used to intebate her, and that infection has gotten into her blood stream. These infections people get in hospitals are particularly nasty, often resistant to antibiotics and carried around by staff from one patient to another. These are killers. They have put her on a nine-day course of very heavy duty antibiotics, and my step-mother, who has been tirelessly upbeat about her mother's prognosis, has said the chances are not good. That if this doesn't work, it will be time to think about putting her mother into hospice. My step-grandmother is very tired, she was moved to the hospital in the town where she lives because she wants to be home. She can't swallow anything.
It makes me really sad to think of all the pain this poor woman has been through, all the difficult surgeries. And it's not her injuries that are causing her trouble now, but an infection. Isn't life a bitch.