The world lost another very dear soul this week.  My aunt died Wed. Sep. 27, 2006 about 8:20 pm  in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

She was in so much pain and so ready to go.  She collapsed and in 5-10 min. she was gone.   I’m so glad I was there to help her go.  She was so peaceful looking when they let us see her let us see her in the hospital after they had prepped her.  I’m glad she didn’t linger. 

 She is no longer in pain and I firmly believe she was with my mother, her sister; and her husband and other son and daughter-in-law in minutes of breathing her last breath.

She was one wonderful classy lady.  Her mind was still sharp, she read the newspaper every day, dusted the house and did the dishes and her own laundry up till the last two weeks.  She also dressed up every single day until the last week. The pain was just too much for her to bear.

She was the only person I knew who could wear white while cooking spaghetti sauce and not get a bit on her.

She took on 3 children that weren’t hers, raising the sons of the man she married and if that wasn’t enough for her, she and my Uncle had my mother and move in with them. I was about 3 at the time.

With lots of love she took us on and became my second mom. We loved her so much and she taught us so much.

 Goodbye  Aunt Mary.   You were the dearest soul and you were and are loved very much.   We miss you so much.

I learned quite a few things this week. 

1)  When going to a DR with the elderly having a problem be prepared to be sent straight to the hospital.

2)  Always carry a list of her medications and dosage and DR. who prescribed the RXs.

3)  Carry a copy of the living will and DNR

4)  Pack a bag of the essentials, like underwear, dental supplies, a book, hearing aid batteries if applicable.

5)  Hospitals use one-size-fits-all diapers with the little sticky tape.  They are made for the very large and fall off the very small.

5)  Stay with the patient as much as possible if admitted to hospital.  They are very understaffed and cannot come the minute called.   I got the water, helped her in and out of bed, freshen up and even learned how to hook up the monitors and unhook them.  Helped her with her food trays.

6)  Don’t hesitate to ask questions.  Of everyone!

7)  Recliners are very uncomfortable beds.

8)  Cafeteria food you serve yourself is weighed and very expensive.

Being in the hospital, even just for testing is very scary for the elderly and they need someone to be their ears too because they don’t always hear everything the Dr or staff is saying.

My aunt, who is 91, had been having extreme back pain since Sunday.  So I took her to the dr on tues.   Of course her regular DR was not working that day so we agreed to see the partner whom I’ve met and like.

Dr did an ekg and insisted aunt had to go to the hospital immediately.  And of course, the Hospital we wanted to go to was full and had 9 cardiac patients waiting to be admitted.   So we went to another one.  Dr had made arrangements with a Dr at that hospital to admit.  

So what was supposed to be 2 nights in the hospital turned into 3 as the cardiac specialist did one test at a time.  He found a few  little things but nothing major.  Gave her some new medicines and finally let us go home Friday afternoon. 

I must say the staff was wonderful and I’ll be sending the hospital a commendation on the day nurse who was male. He even sat with her when I went home for a few hours for a much needed bath and she was worried because we weren’t back when she thought we had said.

 

Found this on the Two Moms in A Blog site.  Thought it was kind of neat.