Note To Self (A Grandma Update)

Okay, from now on Grandma does NOT get Flouracene. The eye doctors will simply have to try some other dye to get the macular degeneration tests they need done. We went to the doctor yesterday, a gentleman named Dr. Peairs. I mention his name simply because he and his stafff deserve all the positive recognition I can possibly give them. They are wonderful. Anyway, Grandma had the gamut of testing done and had just finished a test for macular degeneration where they inject some dye into the bloodstream to get pictures of the blood flow to the vessels in the eye, when she had a reaction to the dye.

First, she felt nauseous. This is apparently a normal side effect and the tech/doctor? taking the test gave her a little puke tray (Do they even have a real name?). Well, then she felt faint and we moved her to a better chair. Then she got a little worse and we moved her to the floor. The nurses came in and gave her oxygen, started an IV, took her sugar and her blood pressure. Everything was fine, but Grandma started to lose comprehension. I thought she was having another stroke. The nurses and tech called the ambulance. They came and whooshed Grandma to Mercy Hospital, which she loathes because they almost always keep her for a few days.

She was doing much better almost from the beginning, but the hospital ran the normal battery of tests on her, anyway, to try to find out why she had the "episode." All the tests came back clean, so they, for once, sent her home the same day. We only spent five hours there, surely a world record.

Of course, while we were at the hospital, my aunt and mother told me to blame them if Grandma asked about why she was at Mercy, and I, being conscientious and STUPID, told them I'd be honest. I figured Grandma wouldn't think of it. Nope. She has to prove me wrong every time. She asked me directly where she was. I answered "Mercy." Ooh, was she pissed. She told me flat out, "I said I never wanted to come here again." So, I did CMA a little and told her I didn't know that and that I had told the EMTs Mercy because that's where all of her records were. I'm getting the Hyde Treatment, today.

My lesson out of this, though: Copy the informatioon from the binder that we have at home into my PDA so I'm never without it. The names and dosages of the meds would have helped greatly at first. Oh, and lie through my teeth and blame my aunt from now on. Grandma's almost always nice to her, so she won't suffer from it.

Cheers.