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.!!