Grandma Jane

Grandma Jane has been keeping us on our toes these last couple of weeks!


On the morning of Friday March 11, she called my mom at work and told her she had fallen a few times. Mom told Grandma to call her doctor and see what they wanted her to do. They made an appointment for her the following Monday.

That afternoon Mom was out of the office for a while without her phone. When she got back to work there were frantic phone calls from my Aunt Kris. Grandma had fallen a few more times. Mom wasn't answering her phone so she called Kris, who came and took her to the Emergency Room.

Grandma remained in the Charles City hospital Friday through Monday with no diagnosis. They set up an appointment with a neurologist in a couple of weeks.

I went to visit and check in on Grandma at her house on Tuesday and she was doing fine.

Thursday her beauty operator called me and told me Grandma was sick. She was worried about her and thought maybe I should go check on her. I called my Kris who said my aunt Kim was going to Grandmas that afternoon and she would check on her.

While all of this is going on my mom is in Arizona for the week and Kris and Kim left that night to go to Minneapolis for the weekend. Leaving me as the only person in the state to take care of Grandma.

On Friday, Grandma is still sick. I take off on my lunch hour to go get her some Pepto-Bismol, 7-Up, and try to get her to eat something.

When I get to her house she is back in her bedroom. I go get her up and she was able to walk to the front room. Which I thought was a really good sign. She didn't eat anything, but she drank 2 glasses of 7-Up. I called her doctor and asked if they wanted to see her or what we should do. They said to keep her hydrated.

Good. Great. Done. Check.

After work I picked the boys up and ran up to check on her again. Same thing again. Got out of bed, came to the front room, drank 7-Up, and chatted a minute.

Kris and Kim came home Saturday. So Kim checked on her on Saturday. Kris checked on her Sunday.

Mom got home Sunday morning so she went up to check on Grandma on Sunday night. That's when it really got interesting.

Mom tried to get Grandma to eat something. She took one bite and immediately projectile vomited it across the room. Mom decided that’s it, time for the Emergency Room. Luckily my dad was with her so they loaded her in to the car instead of calling an ambulance.

They got to the Emergency Room in Charles City and in a fairly short period of time it was determined that Grandma needed more help than they were able to give her. She was taken by ambulance to Mason City.

My mom called me on the way to Mason City, but I was already in bed (about 9:30). In hind sight it's a good thing I missed that call. I'm the only one that got any sleep that night.

When I listened to that message Monday morning I knew it wasn't good. I couldn't get ahold of my mom so I called my dad. He came home sometime in the night to get some rest, since he didn't really sleep Saturday night either since their flight home was overnight.

Grandma Jane had a completely blocked small intestine. She was in emergency surgery by 11:30. The surgeon didn't know what he was going to find, but only gave her a 50/50 chance of survival. Cue the tears.

I jumped in the shower took the kids to daycare and left with my dad for the hospital. At some point while I was getting ready Dad called me back and said she came out of surgery much, much better than anticipated. They removed a 12 inch section of her small intestine and she had a nasty infection similar to gangrene.

When we got to the hospital she was recovering in the Intensive Care Unit. When I saw her she looked amazing! Compared to how she looked on Friday it was like night and day. Gone was the sunken hollow look and dark red-purple eyes. She looked normal.

When she woke up the nurse asked her what her goal was. Her response, "To stay alive." She even flipped me off once so we knew she felt better. She was still a little confused on small details, but mostly her normal self.

Tuesday I headed back up to the hospital. I stopped at Grandma’s house on my way and picked up her make-up, calendar, a picture of her cats, all the things she deemed a necessity.

My uncle Mark flew in from California for a few days so we just watched Grandma sleep. Him on his laptop, me on mine. Then, she'd wake up for a little bit chit-chat and doze back off. She was much more with it now. She knew exactly what was going on and where she was.

About 4:00 pm Grandma Jane got moved to the regular surgery floor. A wonderful step in the right direction.

I haven't gotten an update yet today, but no news is good news. I'm taking Dustin and the boys up tonight to visit so we'll know more then. Thanks for all the prayers.