Nana's Coming Home

Nana is coming home on Thursday for New Year's Eve.

Although she has enjoyed spending time with Dee and her family, this trip to Dee's didn't turn out as well as her summer break. She just didn't have the energy she had then, so she has fallen 3 times.

Her foot was still in so much pain, hospice arranged to have a mobile x ray machine come out and x ray her foot. Sure enough one of the bones to her toe is broken. They can't really cast it, so they wrapped it good. Hopefully that will help it to heal faster and better. If she had to break something, I'm so glad it's her foot. I can't believe she hasn't broken anything before now! Some of her falls have been pretty bad. I hope this doesn't mean she's going to start breaking bones now, we'll have to be way more careful about falls!!

New Moon and Other Stuff

Up until this last weekend, Nana has been doing quite excellent lately. All of a sudden she's way tired and sleeping a lot lately. We think she has been experiencing a couple of small strokes, and it has taken a bit out of her. She does seem to be perking up again, though.

Nana could hardly wait and made it to see the New Moon Movie! She loved it!! We didn't see a poster to take her picture in front of, and it was way busy and we both just really wanted to get home. So we settled for a picture in front of the doors with the new Disney movie the Princess and the Frog. Nana of course had to be a ham!!

We had a great Thanksgiving. Dee came over and spent the day with us!

She'll be spending Dee's Christmas break with her. The plan is for Dee to come and get her on Friday. I'm sure they'll have a blast together.

Nana Update...

I was looking through my camera and noticed somebody has been taking pictures of Nana, I thought I would share them with you!

She has been sleeping A LOT! She still has good days and bad days. She uses her oxygen almost daily, mostly at night, but sometimes during the day, too.

She sure loves her new nurse, Rose. She not only takes the time to visit and takes good care of her, but she paints her nails and toe nails, too!

Right up Nana's alley!!

This week she painted them orange, and Melanie painted the Halloween decor over the top! Nana is in her glories!!!

Here are a couple with her Lady...

Nana sure loves those Lady kisses, although this picture doesn't look like it.

She lets lady lick her all over, I think it's YUCK!! But I guess, to each, his own!!

Out of breath

Friday night we went on another date. It was quite nice. Me, Nana, Jenn, and my Mama all went out to dinner and a movie. What movie, you ask? Well, Harry Potter again, of course. LOL.

My Mom finally sat down and watched the other movies and really enjoyed them so she wanted to watch the new one.

We went to the IHOP for some grub and to the movies right after.

Poor Nana had a real hard time this time around. She made it, but only barely. We had to make several rest stops. She even lost her breath while sitting in the theatre.

We were all a bit worried about how we were going to get her back to the car after the show was over, but luckily, the theatre had a wheel chair and we were able to wheel her to the car.

We had a great night, full of laughs and fun...but I think it's going to take a while to recuperate from this one.

I love you Nana! Hope you feel better!

Happy to Report

I went and visited with my Mom and Nana for a few hours Saturday night. I'm happy to report that both seem to be doing really well! They were laughing and joking with each other all night!

It is so funny to see Nana ask to be waited on even though she is at a point where she could do it herself. Her excuse is, "But I like YOU to do it." It cracks me up!

Just wanted to share that all is well!

Love to you all!

Nana and the Half Blood Prince

None of us thought she'd make it to see it, but she did! Saturday I was able to take her out to see the new Harry Potter movie! She had a great time! She was a bit slow and we had to make a few stops to rest, but she did it!

Here's a picture of her with my daughter outside of the theater!

And to top it off, after the New Moon preview she turned to me and said, "So do we have a date!?" So that means she's got to hold on til the end of November! Edward can be quite an incentive to stick around a bit longer! LOL

Nana & Dee Are Doing Great!

I went to Dee's yesterday to see Nana and get her meds organized for her.

I'm happy to report that things are going well.

They are having a great time!!

Change of Scenery!

Nana decided to have a "change of scenery" for the summer!

She's doing so well that she decided to go stay with Deanna while she's out of school for the summer!

They are so excited to spend some time together!

I hope they behave themselves!! ;-)

Happy Birthday, Nana!

Today is Nana's Birthday!
I don't have much to post about yet, We're planning her special bday dinner tonight. She requested KFC chicken, fettuccine, & salad and brownies for dessert.

Then on Sunday we'll have our family get together because most of us are in California right now!!

I'll post pics and details later!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

**Update - here are a couple of pics of her enjoying her bday dinner, Yum! And of course her Bday Brownies! She had several calls and cards show up in the mail wishing her a happy day. Thanks, Everyone!! It makes her day! And best of all, her DVD's that she ordered, showed up! She watched the first disc right away.

Much Better!

Nana seems to be much better for now! She has come out of the funk that surrounded her brain last month. She can hardly remember the stories we tell her of what she said and did. I guess, No more Lortab for her!!

She still has some pain in her hand and wrist, but it seems to be managable with the Ibuprofen.

A Memory...

I was listening to my i-pod yesterday and remembered how fun it was when in the summer of '79 we would get into Nana's car at night and drive the highway on the beach with all the windows down listening to Earth, Wind, and Fire's "Fantasy" and "September". She'd be singing and we'd all be having a great time!

Horrible Weekend!!

I won't bore you by going into all the gorey details, but Nana is coming out of a horrific weekend.

It all started on Friday, the 10th. She woke up with a little ache in her arm and shoulder. It progressively got worse over the weekend and was back on lortab. By Monday she was saying and doing weird things. I was planning a trip with my family to Canada for Doug's Dad's 90 Bday. We planned on Nana spending the weekend (16th - 21st) with Gina, at her house. But by Tuesday, we realized that with Gina having to work on Thursday and Friday, there was no way that was going to work. Nana just was in too much pain and not able to really care for herself anymore.

She spent a couple of days in the Avalon Care Center with Jenn and Gina by her side whenever possible. Saturday morning the girls decided that with Gina off for the weekend, they could take better care of her at Gina's house as originally planned. They jumped through some hoops and were able to get her to Gina's. She spent Saturday through Tuesday morning there. Again, with both girls at her side. These girls were a HUGE life saver! They did a FANTISTIC job taking care of their Nana for me!! I am so grateful to have such a GREAT support system!!

They all had a rough weekend, with a lot of confusion, disorientation, and even some hallucinating on Nana's part. But all in all, they all fared well.

We are all back home now, things are calming down considerably as far as Nana is concerned. The pain seems to be at a minimum and her confusion is leveling out again. She seemed pretty with it most of yesterday.

Thanks Again, Gina and Jenn, I couldn't do it without you! I Love You, Both!!!

No Big Surprise!

Nana has decided to stop taking all preventative drugs. She is only taking any drugs that provide comfort in this process.

We recently went through a revamping again of all Nana's drugs. She made a decision almost a year and a half ago (when she went on hospice) that she was done with doctors and she just wanted the natural process of what was killing her to take it natural effects. She was hoping to just get more and more tired and just fall asleep one day and not wake up.

Well we all know what happened...she started getting better! Go Figure!! The first of the 2008 they went through her drugs the first time and took all the diabetes, cholesterol, blood pressure pills out of her regiment. We thought they took all preventative drugs out, then. But we recently found out that they didn't.

It all started when I got a call from the pharmacy saying that one of her drugs would need special approval before they could refill it on a regular basis. I called her nurse and asked her what do we do? She's not "seeing" a doctor. It was the one that protected her tummy from all the meds she was taking. She said, well, maybe she doesn't even need it anymore. We changed her aspirin to enteric coated to protect her tummy and quit the drug to see if her tummy got upset at all. After 3 weeks, no change, cool, one less pill to pop. I then asked if there were any more pills we didn't really "need". They suggested discontinuing two more.

After some prayer and consideration she decided, again, to stop taking all preventative drugs.

I guess, we'll have to wait and see where this leads!!

Nana Update...

It's sad to have to say that Nana has had a hard couple of weeks.

About a week and a half ago, she fell coming out of the bathtub. Gina was here and she knew if she wanted a shower she had to do it before dinner because the showers are busy on Saturday night. She was in a hurry, She tripped over the edge of the tub getting out and fell into the toilet.

It's just been down hill since. She is weak and sleeping more and is experiencing a lot of chest pain on and off again. After examination, the nurse believes the pain is not from her heart, but from her fall. She must have bruised a rib or pulled (damaged) a muscle. It certainly hasn't been fun for her.

I thought for sure it would ruin her self confidence in taking her showers, but with much trepidation, she did it! She realizes that she just needs to take her time and be more careful.

Draper Temple Open House

We went to see the Draper Temple Open House back the end of January, it was great! While I was there I did all the checking on if it would work to be able to take Nana. It seemed it would be a piece of cake. So I came home and asked her if she was interested. She said yes, So we finally got around to it.

Jon wanted to take her so I just let him. We had a day when we had a car here during the day that she could actually get into and off they went. I think this one is cool because you can barely make out the temple through the window. I didn't notice it right away!

A Senior Citizen bus showed up just before they did, so they had to wait for a wheel chair, but it was all good.

I forgot to send a camera, but I texted Jon and told him to take a couple with his camera phone. Aren't those just the most convenient little things?!!

They both seemed to enjoy the excursion and Nana couldn't resist buying lunch on the way home!! Carl's Jr.!!

Nana Must be Feeling Better....

I just have to mention that Nana is doing better and better. We're not sure how why or how long this will last, but this is where we are at now!

On Sunday she decided she would attend Sacrament Meeting. We go to church from 9am to Noon. Sacrament Meeting is last @ 10:50am. I told her we would come back to get her between Sunday School and Sacrament Meeting. I told her to be ready by 10:30. Well, 10:30 rolls around and I didn't have keys to any of the cars, I had to wait for SS to get out (10:40) to get someone to go get her or get any keys to get her myself. (Doug was actually teaching so I couldn't interrupt). But I figured we still had plenty of time. I only told her to be ready that soon because if we got away that early I wanted her ready. Anyway, Jon was the first one out and I asked him to go get her. Apparently, she was afraid we forgot her and didn't want to miss the Sacrament, so she decided to start walking all by herself!

How she managed to get her walker off the front porch without falling, I'll never know!!! She was down the street and to the corner by the time Jon got there! She said she was waiting 15 minutes on the front porch before she decided to try to come on her own. Well then she must have been ready quite a bit early, because she was to the meeting on time! I'm sure it took some time for her to sit there, then get the idea to start on her own, work up the courage to actually do it, then actually get the walker not only out the door but down the porch, then she had to walk all the way to the corner! I think she was ready a lot earlier than she thought!

I about had a fit when I found out what she had done! All I could think about was her falling off the porch with that walker and breaking something!!! She didn't, though! For that I am truly grateful!!

I had to make her promise not to ever do that again!! (unless, of course, the house was on fire!!!!!)

Another Update

Just a little note to say Nana is doing pretty well these days!

She actually took a shower all by herself, today!! She says she wants to make me proud of her by doing what she can for herself. She said it was hard, but she was glad she tried. I told her that's how to do it!

She seems to be experiencing little to no pain in her arm, hand and shoulder in the last couple of weeks. We are very happy about that.

Love to you all!!

Nana Update...

Well, I thought I should write an update on Nana. She actually has had a very rough month both physically and emotionally.

She started to have pain again in her shoulder and arm and into her hand. I mentioned this back on the Dec 17th post. It only has started letting up just the last couple of days! We are so happy to hopefully see the end of that. Unfortunately, it has left her very weak again because of being in bed a lot this last month. She has to work herself back up to where she was before.

The only problem is I don't know if she wants to work herself back up. Emotionally, she's feeling like she's tired of hanging around. She thinks it would be easier to just pass on. It's hard to get her to understand that it might not be easier, she would just be trading one set of problems for another set. That's sometimes good, but sometimes, not so good. Unfortunately, we don't usually get to choose our problems (or I like to call them learning experiences).

We had to put a heating blanket on her, it just seemed that no matter how many blankets I put on her, she was cold. At first, when I put the heating blanket on, I put it on top and it didn't seem to help much. So I remade her bed and put the heating blanket closer to the bottom of the pile, with blankets on top to hold the heat in. That seemed to do the trick! Now she's all snug and warm, she doesn't want to get out of bed!! All she wants to do is stay in bed and watch her shows!

Hopefully, things will continue to improve and her spirits will improve with it.

Love to all!!