When your grandma turns blue and you have to call 911 in 2015

WOW that was a crazy few days. Tuesday I went to my grammas house since my mom was out of town and helped her with her Telus Health thing. Its a tablet type thing that takes her BP, weight, O2 sats, and heart rate every morning. Its really kind of cool and it asks her questions about how shes feeling and it switches up every day asking her about her memory and if she knows why shes taking the pills shes on and gives her suggestions if she clicks “yes” on the “I’ve been feeling more tired lately” button… its like a check up, every day.

I’m going to try and make this short. I was there Monday, she was fine. She made me breakfast even. Tuesday, same thing. Made breakfast and went through the tablet thing and everything checked out fine. Her O2 was at 94% and her heart rate was around 74 or something like that. Everything was fine, we were sitting and chatting when her friend Jack came over and had some tea with us. I could see her changing positions on her chair a bit and she had the shakes, I asked her if she was ok and she said she was tired and was going to lay on the couch. Jack left then.

Seriously guys, within 40 minutes, she was blue in her face and her hands and she couldn’t move or walk, and she peed herself twice. I checked her oxygen and she had dipped to 74, and her heart rate was in the 200’s. I was like, oh shit. The last time this happened she had pneumonia. The home nurse came and left and basically said since she refused an ambulance, she couldn’t call one. My gramma was insistent on NOT going to the hospital but I convinced her, only if I drove her myself. I couldn’t move her though, so I had to call an ambulance.

They showed up, brought her to the hospital, and I met them there. She had a bit of a fever, and her oxygen was back up to something in the 80’s. Man that scared me though. To see a person turn blue?? Wtf. They checked her lungs because they kind of suspected that she had pneumonia again. Nothing. They basically pinned it on the congestive heart failure or her atrial fib.

She spent 2 days in the hospital. I went to her house on Friday to do her tablet thing with her again, and I was trying to help her find a way to recognize the symptoms before they get so bad that shes hospitalized. Whether its a shot of oxygen or a rest that cures her… she doesn’t remember that day. She remembers sitting in the living room talking to me and Jack, then suddenly she was in the hospital. Its hard to have her try and recognize it coming on, if she doesn’t even remember that morning. Things can go south so quickly… The last time it happened, it was 2 hours. This time I watched it happen within the hour :(

Moving on… if anyone has advice or has seen this kind of stuff, let me know…

The kids had a fun and rainy and wet halloween! We had the bake sale on Friday at the school, then dance yesterday, then carved pumpkins, then went trick or treating. Today has been a day of rest lol. The kids don’t think so, though.

Kristen <3