Grandma

Haven’t really been up to much, other than trudging up and down the M62 for the past week or so. To work, to a friends wedding and to visit parents.

My Grandma has now been moved to a different hospital. Apparently she needs a skin graft on the broken leg, and so has been sent to a unit that has a specialist plastic surgery department. Unfortunately this is further away from home, making visiting by my parents more difficult, and completely impossible for virtually anyone else. Even more unfortunately, once she got there she started with a cold. I just knew that things would only go downhill from there. She now has bilateral pneumonia, bilaterial fractured ribs (probably from the fall, but also possibly from a previous fall) and congestive heart failure. Oh, and her kidneys aren’t 100% either. Not so great really.

I went to see her yesterday, and although she wasn’t good at all, she was better than I had imagined from reports from parents and nurses. She was still pink, and reasonably stable on oxygen. She’s still talking and perfectly coherant, although she was very tired by the time we left. She’s not eating (understandably now) so they’ve got her on those meal replacement drinks, but she (also understandably) doesn’t like those. She was also in quite a bit of pain, so I hope that they can manage to make her more comfortable.

The hospital staff have been absolutely brilliant. I called up and the nurses were really, really helpful and gave me the contact details for the doctor, who then called me at home in the evening to update me on what was happening. He was lovely. Can’t praise them highly enough. Apparently the next few days will be critical to see if she responds to the treatment for the pneumonia. Fingers crossed.

My Grandma has never really been ill, and is a very feisty, independent person. Doesn’t like to be dependent on anyone, and is more than capable of looking after herself under normal circumstances. The reason she’s had a few falls is not because she’s getting a bit old and doddery, but because she just won’t slow down! She runs everywhere and on more than one occasion has fallen on the steps in the garden because she was racing to get her washing in because it was raining! She still bakes every week, and makes the most gorgeous ‘flat jam’ and butterfly buns. She’s generous to a fault, and loves going out to the local pub for lunch. She’s always knitted, all her life, and she originally taught me to knit when I was very little, and when I started knitting again recently, I was amazed what I remembered from so long ago.

I love my Grandma so much, and I can’t bear to think that I might lose her now because of a stupid accident. At the same time, I can’t bear to think that she’s in pain and suffering. Here’s hoping the antibiotics do their job and she’s back to normal soon.

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