showing or suggesting that future success is likelyAt 3:41 a.m., to be precise, I gave Mother an inhaler treatment with her combivent - 2 quick puffs & off to sleep. I'd just barely got to bed 2 hours before. Mother was up the first time about 1 a.m. Don-Mike had beat me to bed, which is highly unusual. He's usually up later than I am. He was tired though. He told me on the way to bed that he turned off the door & shut the light. He was asleep by the time I got the computer & the rest of the lights turned off.
At 7 a.m. Mother was gasping for breath. I gave her a Xopenex treatment, but didn't finish it because she was tired. By the time Laurie came at 8:30, Mother was having a hard time breathing, she was gasping actually, & reached for her inhaler. I told her I didn't want to give it to her so soon after the Xopenex treatment. In hindsight, I should have just given it to her. She was having a panic attack. She told Laurie she didn't feel like having a shower. Laurie called the home health nurse, Sherri Ransom, & the ER to tell them we were coming in.
Sherri came to the house & Laurie & Sherri helped her out of the house. I didn't feel like Don-Mike & I did much, except kind of flutter around. Laurie had to tell me to get dressed though. I was so fixated on Mother, I forgot I wasn't dressed. It's a good thing I did get dressed, we were over there from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. A man had been bit by a rattlesnake & we kind of got pre-empted.
When we arrived in the ER, her oxygen saturation was 82. Almost as soon as they put her on their oxygen, her O2 levels shot to 92. After they gave her the breathing treatment using something besides Xopenex, her oxygen sats shot to 99. Dr. Jacob Curtis was the doctor on call. He ordered a chest x-ray just to be sure there was no fluid on her lungs. They didn't change any of her medications, but did change the regulator on her portable oxygen tank. She doesn't breathe deep enough to trigger the regulator & so she's not getting any oxygen.
And at home? We don't know. Someone from Cache Valley Oxygen is supposed to come by & check the concentrator. As soon as I leave, they will come by. I know it. I can sit here & wait all day, ALL. DAY. & no one will come by. As soon as I leave to run my errands, they'll be by.
So, what did we find? Little old ladies (LOLs) don't breathe very deep. I'm grateful I have my mother to help me learn these lessons. I guess I didn't do a very good job learning them as a mother of young children, now I get to have a second chance as a caregiver of an elderly parent.
One lesson is to get yourself dressed first. If you are going to run your mother to the emergency room, get some clothes on yourself first. Your mother doesn't have to get dressed, she can show up in her pajamas.
If I had learned this lesson as a mother of a young children, I wouldn't have to keep trying to learn it. One morning I was on my way to the day care with 2 small children. I had fed them, don't remember if I had dressed them, but little boys don't necessarily have to be dressed when they show up at day care. They can still be in their pajamas. We were on our way out the door. There was snow on the ground & I looked down & I was in my robe & slippers. Uhh! It would have been nice if I'd have had a home health aide ask me if I was going to get dressed before I made it clear out to the car.
So, the first thing a caregiver is supposed to do in the morning is get dressed - to your shoes. And not just any shoes, but appropriate shoes.
