Update On Mom

Last Monday Mom had another little fall. It wasn’t as bad as her first one but it scared us enough that we took her to the family doctor to have her checked out. He told us to just keep an eye on her and that she looked pretty good , she even tried to say a few words to him which was a big improvement from the last time we took her in just a few weeks earlier. The next couple of days she actually seemed more alert then she has since her first fall, she was even able to answer a few yes or no questions my dad would ask her and NO she would not like to go to Costco! LOL I don’t know why that is funny to me, but probably because I always dread going to Costco too! 😛

Thursday we took her to get a MRI. Her Neurologist wanted to get one to compare it with the one she had 4 or 5 years ago when we first started to notice mom’s speech declining. He is hoping to get more answers on what is causing her Aphasia. Right now he suspects she Has Primary Progressive Aphasia.

http://www.mayoclinic.org

Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) is a neurological syndrome in which language capabilities become slowly and progressively impaired. Unlike other forms of aphasia that result from stroke or brain injury, PPA is caused by neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s Disease or Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration.

Dad and I were a little worried that she would have a hard time staying still during the MRI, but she did a great job! After the MRI I watched mom for a couple of hours while dad went to an HOA meeting( he is the president). As soon as he walked into the house and sat down his phone rang, it was Dr. Ziegler her Neurologist, he had just read her MRI and wanted us to take her straight to the ER in Provo, there was more blood on her brain than they saw last month after her fall, they were concerned for her safety. So we jumped up and headed straight to the ER. When the Neurosurgeon that was on call came in he discussed how he would like to drain the blood off of mom’s brain, he described it as cutting an inch size square piece of her skull and cleaning out the brain. This all sounded a bit scary, it didn’t help that he looked like a guy from Tales from the Crypt! No offense but he looked way too old to be still practicing!! We agreed to her having surgery but Nancy and I started to panic a little about letting this guy do the procedure. Doug knows Dr. Reichman who is another neurosurgeon who is supposed to be the best, luckily he agreed to see mom early the next day and he suggested we drill a small hole and drain the blood, which sounded way less intense than the other surgery. So friday morning they did the procedure.

When the Dr. came to talk to us after the surgery, he said she was doing great and then warned us that they had to shave her head! If you know my mom at all you know that would be devastating to her if she was fully aware of what was going on. After they got her all settled into her room in the ICU, my dad went straight out and shaved his head to make her feel better! My dad is such a sweetheart, he just loves her so much!

Luckily they only had to spend one night in the ICU, the room they had her in was freezing, the heater wasn’t working and to make matters worse the air was blowing the whole time! They ran out of recliners so my dad actually spent the night in a makeshift bed with two folding chairs! He’s a trooper for sure! He also whipped up one of his hats that he makes that night for when she is able to cover her head.

Mom has been moved to a normal room, her drain is removed, she is up and walking like a champ! We are hoping if the scans all come back good tomorrow she will be able to come home!

This has been such a hard time for me, I hate to see my mom like this, it just breaks my heart. But having my brothers and sisters around and watching my dad’s love for her helps and all the love and support from my close friends and family have been great too! I didn’t get any pictures but my brother Brent( who lives in New Jersey) was in town this weekend and we got to spend a lot of time together this weekend at the hospital and it was great to catch up with him and then saturday night we all got together and had dinner and as it always seems to happen when us siblings get together it took us straight to the good old days and we sat and reminisced for a few hours, just what we all needed I think, It’s sad that it takes something like this to bring us all together, but in times like these there really is no one else who I would rather be with than my family!