Interruption

I am going to interrupt my stream of consciousness writing from my mother's point of view today to give you a little up-date on what's happening now.  Mother spent 2 1/2 weeks at a Senior Care Unit in a nearby hospital.  I was so hopeful that the doctors there would perform a miracle by taking her off of and adjusting the many mood altering type drugs that she is on.  Let's see, there are 2 anti-depressants, one anti-anxiety, 2 STRONG pain meds, one med for Alzheimers, 2 drugs that they were giving her "as needed" to calm her drug, plus numerous other drugs that could possibly be causing her to have some of the problems she has been having.  The first thing that the doctors there did was to discover that she had a terrible UTI that was caused from 3 major bacteria.  So, since none of the antibiotics she had been on recently were working, they put her on a very high powered one that had to be given by injection.  The UTI was cleared up after a week, but then she ended up with a yeast infection, which of course, she is being treated for now.  I was so grateful that this UTI was treated so aggressively.  She has them ALL the time!
Then, the doctor took her off medicine that she's been on for a long time for Parkinson's, which I really never thought she had to start with.  She has had a tremor for years.  Her doctor in the past diagnosed it as a familial benign ?????? tremor.  My sister and one of our daughters has the same thing.  Her tremor has gotten some worse over the years, but until she was in this nursing home no one had ever mentioned Parkinson's, but what do I know?   So, the doctor in the SC Unit said that this med. can cause a lot of the symptoms she was having, like intense itching, etc......
He said he took her off her sleeping pill, but she wasn't on one so I don't think he did or that he knew what he was talking about.  I questioned this, and he never really admitted that he messed up on this one.
He double one of the anti-depressants and one dose of the other one.  He added another Alzheimer's med which I had actually asked the nursing home doctor about putting her on a long time ago.  That doctor said that it wouldn't help Mother.  Who do you believe?
He finally decided to take her off of one of the drugs that is supposed to calm her down.
What these doctors don't understand and wouldn't listen to me about, is that my mother reacts very differently to most meds than most people do.  If something is supposed to "calm" her it is very likely to "rev" her up instead!  I have seen this happen numerous times, and I tried to tell this doctor that, but he would not believe me or listen to me or something.
Anyway, last Wednesday, a week ago today, I went to a meeting of the "team" consisting of a doctor, the administrator, an RN, the social worker, and me.  They were very smug about the fact that Mother had been calm for two days.  I told them that I hoped and prayed that they had "cured'' her, but that she has days like this quite frequently (not so much lately, though) and that it probably wouldn't last.  Oh, but they were very sure that she was all better.
Wrong!  That very evening she became very upset and anything but calm.  That's when they decided that maybe they did need to take her off one of the drugs I had been asking them to take her off of all along.  It didn't help, though.  She's still on so many others.
I could be wrong about the drugs causing some of her issues.  I have no idea, really, but neither do they, because they won't even try!
So, my sister (who came in on Sat. and just left today) and I decided that she just needed to come back to the nursing home.  She is just 5 minutes from my house, is in familiar surroundings and people, in her own bed, in her own room with her own pictures on the walls, etc.... She begged me to bring her "home" to the nursing home nearly every night when she was at the hospital.  It broke my heart.  So, now she's back.  She isn't really any better or worse than when she went.  I guess in one way it is a good thing that she went.  We realize, and she does, too, how much we love the nursing home she's in compared to that place.  I can visit at anytime of the day or night here, whereas, the visiting hours were very strict there.
I could go on and on, but I won't go on anymore.
I will get back to trying to get in her head in my next post, but I just felt compelled to write about this experience.
I hope and pray that my body gives out before my mind!!!!!  I don't want my children to ever have to see me like this or go through the decision making when I no longer can make decisions for myself.  That and taking care of the finances are the hardest parts, well, besides seeing her so upset at times.  I can handle confusion, but not the hysteria and frightened states.
I don't know what all I just wrote, or even if any of it makes sense, but it sure made me feel better to get it out!!!!