As we nurses know, never jinx yourself. We were having a great, "issue-less" day at work yesterday, when one of us uttered those words aloud. Two minutes later, one of our night nurses called out sick. Two minutes after that, my cell phone started ringing.....
Nana was complaining of chest pain. Not unusual, except this time she was also very shaky and weak, and she felt warm to the touch. The ambulance had been called and she was on her way to Milford Hospital. Thanks to my fabulous coworkers, I was out the door in 15 minutes and on my way.
Thanks to a good report from Nana's caregivers, everyone at the emergency room was aware of her strengths (a wonderful attitude) and her weaknesses (a terrible memory at baseline and chronic leukemia.) I was relieved to know that Nana was flirting with the EMT's when they put her on the stretcher...
As always, Nana was very happy to see me, announcing to the medical staff, "This is my daughter Nancy. Aren't I lucky to have her?" She smiled broadly, but her eyes were tired and she looked very weak. Her temp was 103, her heart rate was a little high for her, but she continued to entertain all of those around her. Chest xray negative, urine test negative, blood cultures negative. She sipped some ginger ale and held my hand.
The doctor came in and talked to us about her condition. "She seems to be doing ok now. Temp is down, and all the tests that we have done so far have come back negative. We could keep her overnite and order a few more tests that would be a little more invasive, or we could send her home and watch and wait from there." Since one of the worst things that one can do is take an Alzheimer's patient out of her familiar environment, we voted to watch and wait. We headed happily back to Compass, where Mom was greeted with hugs and squeezes.
I went back to check on her this morning. She slept through the nite, and she had no fever. I told her about our adventures the day before. " I was sick? I went to the HOSPITAL?"
All is well that ends well. And this ended well-- I got an extra hug as I walked out the door :)
