Visitors Today

As noted in previous posts, Mom's moving to the Abraham post after tomorrow. The address there is:

1203 KEMBLE ST.
UTICA, NY 13501



Exchanged some more text messages with Jennifer today. She told Mom about the transfer tomorrow, but she's still pretty confused overall. However, Mom had some visitors from her workplace, Conmed, and Victor, her pastor from the Ilion Presbyterian Church. She did recognize them and had a fairly coherent conversation, so at least she knows there are lots of people who care about her and have come to visit.

Not sure what the number is there, and I'm not sure if Mom is going to be up for talking on the phone anyway. I'm going to be there this weekend, so if anyone wants a direct update, call me on my cell phone: 313.300.8452.

Abraham House is a go!

Jennifer got to the hospital a little while ago and just sent me a text that the Abraham House is all set! She's going to be transferred tomorrow at 11a.

Mom is doing better than yesterday, but is still confused. She's at least communicative with Mom, but was wanting to get up to go to the bathroom and that's no longer necessary as she's been outfitted with a catheter. She was also trying to unscrew her IV. Perhaps the fentynol has lingering effects and it may not have completely warn off yet.

On another note, I got an e-mail from NWA that there's a fare sale to select cities, and I can use 15,000 frequent flyer miles instead of the usual 25,000. I started reserving something for next weekend, and I thought, well maybe something could work out for this weekend. It did! I'm able to fly in and out of Syracuse for the 15,000 miles arriving late on Friday, and leaving first thing Monday morning again. I'm a big believer in coincidences that happen for a reason, so at least if God isn't going to wash away Mom's cancer, perhaps he's at least pushing some other buttons for once!

Abraham House

I spoke to Martha tonight, one of the nurses at the hospital and she said that Mom was more responsive this evening, still confused, but at least communicative, so that's a good sign. She even said that had her up out of bed walking around! I didn't see that happen during the weekend, but I think there's a lot more that goes on there during the week. (She might also count moving from the bed to the commode "moving around" so who knows.)

I did some more googling about the Abraham House tonight, and it seems like a good thing. It's supported by a number of charities in the area including the First Presbyterian Church of Utica, and Hamilton College. There were many positive references to it, and I didn't see anything that jumped out as "don't bring a loved one here."

Jennifer said that the Case Manager was still working with the insurance company to get the transfer and on-going doctor visits approved, but I have to believe that it's meant to be. Think about it, a place with only two beds has one open at the exact time that Mom needs it? I really can't imagine anything going wrong at this point. Just trying to think positive didn't cure Mom's cancer, but hopefully positive thinking can at least get this one victory for her!

Hmmm I'm not sure what to think!

Well, Jennifer got feedback from the nurse that the Abraham House has an opening. They only take 2 patients at a time, so it sounds like timing worked in our favor.

However, Jennifer said that Mom was sleeping, and that Hunsicker reported that Mom was delirious earlier today. The last note I received from Jen was that she would open her eyes but otherwise completely unresponsive to Jennifer. However, if she was delirious earlier today, they may have given her a sedative or something.

St. Luke's Home

Jen talked to the Case Manager today, and it sounds like St. Luke's Home behind the hospital is the way to go. They're trying to get approval from the insurance company now. The other facilities in the area accept medicare or cash. It may be possible for Mom to get some kind of early acceptance into the Medicare program, but I'm not sure how that would work. She was fairly confident before that she would be able to get that once the COBRA coverage ran out. We'll wait and see what we hear tomorrow, and then let everybody know when and where she's being transferred.

This is the same facility that Anne Tanguay was in last year and it seemed pretty nice the couple of times I visited her there. There were a couple of cats that wandered around, but hopefully they won't jump into bed with Mom!

Next Steps

I'm back in Michigan. Mom's in the know about what's next now, so now we hope that things can work out. The case manager assigned to her is off today, so I'm not sure what progress they'll make, but it's likely we'll be hearing more from them later today or tomorrow about what insurance will cover. I just want her to be comfortable.

BTW anyone reading this blog

BTW anyone reading this blog who hasn't quit smoking yet should have their head examined!

added a Fentanyl patch today

added a Fentanyl patch today but still lots of pain. got a new id bracelet to indicate dnr. i guess it wasn't official until today.

not a great day. lots

not a great day. lots of pain. dr. razia told her she's in no shape to go home and will likely be going to a nursing home. more ltr

Saturday Night in the Valley

I'm back in the hotel tonight. I stayed at the hospital until about 8.30 and she got to a point where she finally needed morphine today. She had been going pretty well with hydrocodone today, but she had an incident when we walked Lisa out to her car where she fell out of bed! I guess she called the nurse to get help to go to the bathroom, and couldn't wait any more. She ended up on her rear end, and didn't appear to hurt herself, but she may have had some after effects because she was really having some pain just before I left. The morphine goes right into her blood stream, so that helped right away, and she was resting comfortably when I left.

I guess the next step is to work with the case manager next week to see what we can set up for hospice care. There's really not a lot of room at the homestead, but there seems to be a number of places around that sound like they have the right philosophy.

I'm not really sure what the future holds from here, but I'm going to plan on heading back to Michigan Monday morning as planned, and then we'll just play it by ear from here.

Uncle Bill and Cousin Lisa were here today too!

afternoon update

talked to case manager today but she didn't have much to offer. She said to check back on monday and they should know more. mom's resting now. She's gone back and forth with being "with it" and she's showed signs of her sense of humor.

Mom's having a lot of

Mom's having a lot of pain today. she's likely going to have morphine at 11.30 today. hoping to talk to case mgr today.

Update from Nurse

Just talked to Courtney, Mom's nurse since this morning. She confirmed that the transfer to St. Luke's home had been cancelled, and she wasn't sure what the next step was. She said that Mom is resting comfortably now. She guesses that she got worked up earlier when going down for a test, and got short of breath. Her paid also escalated at that point, but once she got the morphine she felt better. Courtney said that the case manager will be there until noon tomorrow, and that we'll be able to talk to her more then.

No good news to report

Jennifer got Mom's phone charged up, so she was able to text me from the hospital. No big updates regarding hospice or other next steps. Her only immediate report was that she was crying because of how much pain she was in and utlimately got a dose of morphine. She was better once she had that.

Have I mentioned lately how much this SUCKS! I just hope she's able to manage the pain. I hate to think of her having to endure pain while having to comprehend what's to come..........