About a week ago my Grandma fell and has had excruciating pain in her hip ever since. She refused to go to the doctor because her doctor is on vacation until after Christmas. However the day before Christmas Eve the pain was so bad that she finally relented and let my brother and mom bring her to the ER where they found out she just had a really bad bruise and put her on Vicadin.
Christmas Eve morning Mark and I drove to Willmar. My parents were both working; my brother was at their home when we arrived but he was not looking very good. He told me that he hasn't been able to keep anything down all morning and had this unbearable pain in his stomach. A few minutes later he and I took a little trip to the ER. Mark stayed home to wrap the presents my brother hadn't been able to wrap for himself.
When my dad got off work he came to the ER, he then told me that mom had just heard from Grandma and she thinks she is having an allergic reaction to the Vicadin because she too can't keep any food down, and is shaking uncontrollably. We then decided that dad should stay with Cam, and I should go help grandma since she needed some water and couldn't move from her bed.
It is at this point that it should be noted that I never once even considered being a nurse...not even as a child. If I see people throwing up I feel the need to do the same, blood makes me queasy, and seeing a needle pushes me over the edge of sanity. I did make some improvement in this area a couple of years ago when my dad was battling cancer. I took some time off of work to be his in home nurse...and so I have become a little more comfortable with the medical field and caregiving. I was not however prepared for the situation that I walked into next.
My Grandma is 87. She lives on her own in an independent living facility which is basically like a college dorm for the elderly. She still cooks and bakes her award winning cuisine, she entertains, and goes and visits the elderly in nursing homes (even though many of the people she is visiting are younger then her). She has a quick wit that takes so many people off guard. For example when she was in the ER the other night the nurse asked her if she was taking any illegal substances, grandma quipped back with "No, I only sell them". When I walked in her apartment on Christmas Eve however, I saw my grandma how I never had before. She was shaking so violently that when I got her a glass of water she couldn't hold it, I needed to try to control the shaking of her head long enough so that she could get the water in her mouth. Thankfully a few minutes later my mom called to say she was on her way over and that she had talked to the on-call physician who told her that Grandma was indeed showing symptoms of an allergic reaction to the Vicadin. So we gave her some benadryl and after she got sick a couple more times she was able to rest comfortably and was feeling much better the next day.
Meanwhile my brother was still in the ER. He was having blood work done, had x-rays of his abdomen taken, and then finally a CAT scan. In the end it appears that he had a kidney stone that he passed. So he was able to some home and rest/celebrate with us after all.
So now the day after Christmas I am glad to report that everyone is on the mend. Christmas was a little more eventful then I had initially thought it would be, however it was not ruined. I had time with loved ones. We had a lot of laughs, and now we have some great stories to reminisce about at a later date.
