My grandmother is in the hospital

Today has been a very long day for me. I'm surviving on about four hours of sleep. And yet, I can't shut my brain off.

Yes, you read that right, my grandmother is in the hospital. It began about 4:30 this morning when my grandfather woke me to get my aunt's phone number. My grandmother could not stand. At all.

We waited for my aunt (who lives in Tacoma) while trying to figure out exactly what was wrong with her. She's not exactly a spring chicken. In fact, she's 85. She passed spring chicken a few decades ago.

So, my aunt gets here and we successfully move her from her bed to the couch so we could try to get some food, water, and pills in her. She went from semiconscious to completely unresponsive very quickly. All we were able to get in her was a couple bites of toast and a few sips of the coffee that I made. We didn't like the direction this took, so we got an ambulance. They literally arrived a minute later (I kid you not) and checked her vitals. They immediately diagnosed her with being severely dehydrated. They then rush her off to the hospital with us right behind them.

We were in the waiting room for five minutes before they told us where they put her. This hurry up-and-wait scenario would be the theme of the day. Especially the waiting part.

So anyway, she was in an emergency room for the rest of the morning and well into the afternoon while they ran a barrage of tests; including an x-ray, a CAT scan, and blood work. The diagnosis was that she had a urinary tract infection to go with her dehydration. Kind of a one-two punch that knocked her flat. Thankfully, the nurses in the ER were extremely attentive and made sure she was comfortable throughout it all.

That changed when she got a room. They decided to keep her overnight to observe her and to pump antibiotics into her throughout the night. The nurses here were, well, lax. That is other than one who looked like she was sick and tired of the others. We had made a comment when we first got the room that the catheter wasn't working out, but that wasn't removed until not long before we had to leave for the night and at one point it took them almost an hour just to get her a bedpan.

They are going to release her sometime tomorrow. It's supposed to be in the morning, but we'll see. I'm sorry if none of this makes sense, but I'm a bit rummy right now. Take care and I hope to post again on a lighter note.