Sorry, I haven't posted in quite a while. As you know, my mom has been in and out of the hospital many times this year. In late October she was back in the hospital, then went to rehab for 2 1/2 weeks. After that we found her an adult family home in Marysville since she could not go home to her place. Her first few days there were fine. She even went out to dinner with all of the resident's to Woodfire Grill in Everett. Two days later, her feet were swollen. We thought it was because she was sitting too much in the wheelchair and not walking. So the staff got her up and walking that evening and propped up her feet that night. By morning no more swelling, but when the in-home care nurse came to check on her, she wanted her transported for evaluation. So, back in the hospital again. They put her on new meds and got her heart rate down. Her cardiologist was going to try a shock treatment to get her heart back in rythmn, but the anesthesiologist wouldn't do it. Said she was too weak. So, Thanksgiving Day he told us that there wasn't anything more medically they could do for her, her heart and lungs were giving out. He suggested we start hospice which would come to the family care home to monitor her.
He felt she had about six months left. That was Thursday.
On Friday when we arrived at the hospital to meet with the hospice gal, we arrived to find mom on morphine. They said that late Thursday night her oxygen saturations dipped very low and they had no choice. What a shock! So, we began around the clock having someone with her. I stayed Friday night until about noon on Saturday, got home, slept about 3 hours and then my sister called that she was deteriorating. So, back in I went. About midnight she had stabilized, so my sister and my niece went home to sleep. Being the nightowl in the family, I volunteered to stay. Well, mom only lasted till 3 am and passed away quietly. We think she gave up once the doctor told her there was nothing he could do and she did not want to go anywhere but back to her house.
We had a memorial service for her on December 6th. It was a very nice service and our longtime friend and former pastor Dave Grant participated in the service. Seann helped me put together the video and my mom's sister JoAnn was able to come from Edmonton, Alberta for the service.
It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks, but we are all working hard to make Christmas as normal as possible for the little ones.
I've been busy baking for a couple of days and George is working his shifts in the bitter cold. Luckily, he'll be off for a few days now and maybe it will warm up before he goes back.
We're hoping all is well with you and that each of you have a blessed Christmas. Thought I would include this photo of Jaden that cheers me up every time I look at it.
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