Grama asked Kath if she’d go to the hospital and Kath said, “Not yet, Mom.” Kath was hoping if she waited just a few more minutes the pain would go away. She hates going to the hospital. Though she is a retired nurse and spent many, many days, nites and hours in a hospital caring for the sick and injured she has always hated the idea of being the one in need of care. She’s independent like that. So in hopes that just 5 more minutes of waiting would bring comfort and release from the gripping pain, instead her blood pressure continued to drop unbeknownst to all.
Finally, she told my grama she was ready to go. So my grama asked her if she needed to call me from work or if she should call my son who happens to be home from work next door. My aunt Kath said call the squad (the ambulance), because she couldn’t stand up on her own. Grama knew she was even in worse trouble than 5 seconds before!
The ambulance arrived and true enough Kathey cannot stand up on her own. It took the paramedics picking her up, (she’s dehydrated down to not much over 100-pounds [our assessment is about 112]) and carried her outdoors to the stretcher where they began to take her vitals. The paramedic that took her blood pressure, was not happy at all and called it out 3 times to the one writing them down to assure he heard him. Her bp was 70-something over 40-something. They wasted no time getting her rolling down the road to ER. She was VERY dehydrated. I’m sure that by evening she would have been dead. She struggled to keep consciousness.
Dehydration is to be expected when one cannot keep anything down after several days of vomiting! Which was only a repeat of several episodes back to back week after week. She could never recover before she was repeating it all over again. Nourishment was a luxury she just didn’t seem to be afforded. She was withering away…
Day One found Kathey in the ER and eventually into surgery, where the Surgeon finds her small intestines riddled with scleroderma and necrosis. The scleroderma has been the root of the problem all along. All this time that she’s been having severe stomach pain -- it has been the scleroderma. With all the necrosis, the surgeon had no choice but to remove it -- infection had set in. Kathey had been running a fever. She took all of the diseased small intestine she could and left as little of it as she had to keep Kath alive. The risk is that the scleroderma could still be lurking around in there, as well as necrosis could still be residual in the fringes of what is remaining…. But no more could be taken. To take more was a death sentence. As it is, she only has a 50/50 chance of survival at this time. The first 24-48 hours were the most crucial for her….
Prayers are very appreciated!
Finally, she told my grama she was ready to go. So my grama asked her if she needed to call me from work or if she should call my son who happens to be home from work next door. My aunt Kath said call the squad (the ambulance), because she couldn’t stand up on her own. Grama knew she was even in worse trouble than 5 seconds before!
The ambulance arrived and true enough Kathey cannot stand up on her own. It took the paramedics picking her up, (she’s dehydrated down to not much over 100-pounds [our assessment is about 112]) and carried her outdoors to the stretcher where they began to take her vitals. The paramedic that took her blood pressure, was not happy at all and called it out 3 times to the one writing them down to assure he heard him. Her bp was 70-something over 40-something. They wasted no time getting her rolling down the road to ER. She was VERY dehydrated. I’m sure that by evening she would have been dead. She struggled to keep consciousness.
Dehydration is to be expected when one cannot keep anything down after several days of vomiting! Which was only a repeat of several episodes back to back week after week. She could never recover before she was repeating it all over again. Nourishment was a luxury she just didn’t seem to be afforded. She was withering away…
Day One found Kathey in the ER and eventually into surgery, where the Surgeon finds her small intestines riddled with scleroderma and necrosis. The scleroderma has been the root of the problem all along. All this time that she’s been having severe stomach pain -- it has been the scleroderma. With all the necrosis, the surgeon had no choice but to remove it -- infection had set in. Kathey had been running a fever. She took all of the diseased small intestine she could and left as little of it as she had to keep Kath alive. The risk is that the scleroderma could still be lurking around in there, as well as necrosis could still be residual in the fringes of what is remaining…. But no more could be taken. To take more was a death sentence. As it is, she only has a 50/50 chance of survival at this time. The first 24-48 hours were the most crucial for her….
Prayers are very appreciated!
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