Friday, February 15, 2008

Snap!

That was the sound of my grandmother breaking her hip yesterday. (She fell in the bathroom).
She's in the hospital right now. During surgery this morning, they put a metal rod in her hip to hold the bones together.
It's scary for her, because she has Alzheimer's/Dementia, and she can't remember why she's there. We tell her, she keeps forgetting.
Imagine you were in a hospital, with no idea why you were there. You're being wheeled into surgery, with no idea what they're going to put in (or take out). Even as the anesthesia is making you drowsy, you have no clue what they're doing to you.
It would scare the crap out of me.
No doubt people are re-explaining things to her over and over, 24 hours a day, and I imagine it must get very tiring. She has almost no short-term memory left, and won't remember any explanation that's given. Two minutes after you've answered her question, she asks the exact same question again, completely forgetting everything that was just said.
Quite a trying situation, made exponentially worse by the current circumstances.
.

4 comments:

Amazing Gracie said...

Yeah, that's the nightmare I have - it's bad enough now and I hate to think what it will be like in another 15-20 years. ARG!
The last tangible thing my grandmother said to me was "Get out of my way, you big fat pig!"
Now, my grandmother was absolutely a jewel and if her conscious mind knew she had said that, she would've rolled over and died right then on the spot.
Age sucks but consider the alternative - or so "they" say. I tend to think that when I get that bad, someone please push the morphine!
I am so very sorry about your grandmother...
~~~Blessings~~~

Mo and The Purries said...

Sorry about grandma's hip.
The good news is: she won't remember the fall.
The bad news is: having a relative with Alzheimer's is hell. You have my deepest empathy.

hello haha narf said...

i am so sorry to hear that your gram and family are going through this. sure do hate that for you.
*hugs*

hellohahanarf

Janna said...

Gracie: Ohmygosh! What a terrible thing for her to say! That would have really made me upset, no matter what!

Morgen: Thanks for the empathy. Sometimes it feels like I'm watching a train wreck that used to be my grandmother.

Becky: Thank you for the support. I appreciate that. I wish there was a cure for Alzhaimers and/or dementia. One that really works permanently.