My Mom by Jayne Marshall

I have some sad news. My Mom, 98 years young, passed away this morning.

Seven weeks ago she fell and fractured her pelvis. There is nothing they can do for a fractured pelvis except let it heal. A week after the initial doctors visit I took her into emergency because she was in so much pain. They took an X-ray and said it was healing and gave here some stronger pain pills and that really helped.
I couldn't get her to eat or drink much and as a result she became dehydrated. I had some home health care help but there were times when she would be alone for a while. She would sit at the table in her wheel chair and read the paper or watch TV. I didn't realize how much the dehydration was affecting her. I came home one time and she wasn't at the table. I went into her room and she wasn't there. I found her in the Arizona room on the floor. I think she thought she was in her bedroom and was trying to transfer from the wheel chair to the bed. The reason I'm pretty sure this was the case is because she had taken out her dentures and put them on the bar. She had never tried to do anything like that before. I had to help her transfer from the wheel chair to the couch or her favorite chair and to the toilet, but she could pretty much transfer to the bed by herself because I had a guardrail that she could take a hold of.
I called Wayne and he came over and helped me get her into the wheel chair. She was pretty much out of it so we decided to call 911. When they got there she was much better and could answer some of their questions but they took her to emergency because of her blood pressure--over 200. They kept her in the hospital for a week to re-hydrate her and to get the blood pressure down. After that they sent her to a skilled nursing facility (nursing home) for physical therapy. I thought she was doing quite well in PT but after 10 days they said she was not making enough progress to warrant staying there and that she would be released this coming week.
The whole time she was in the nursing home it was an up and down process. One day she would be very happy and very alert and the next day she would be in la-la land. Many times she wouldn’t eat so I would feed her and tell her she had to eat and do her exercises so she could come home. Last Monday she said I don’t think I’ll ever come home. On Wednesday she was great -alert, happy, no slurred speech- and I was feeling good about her progress and then yesterday, Thursday, she couldn’t keep her eyes open. That’s also when we had the meeting about her progress. On Friday morning she ate breakfast, went to sleep, and just didn’t wake up.

Up until the time she broke her pelvis she was doing fabulously. She did the dishes, swept the patio, dusted and did other little duties around the house. She was ready to go any place at any time. All that changed when she fell. I already miss her but since she was not going to get any better and was going to need 24 hour care--which meant a nursing home which she would have hated--I’m not as saddened as I would have been if it had happened prior to the fall. She had a wonderful life and was loved by many. She’ll also be missed by many.