Rough times...

There's been a lot going on lately, some of which has been very emotionally draining to deal with, and some which has been physically draining as well.

Last week was, least to say, very rough. Tuesday meant attending the funeral of my Great Aunt (Great Uncle's wife) and as you all know, it can be very emotional to attend one, and this one was no exception. It was a stunning day though, and a beautiful memorial service, and nice chitchat over coffee afterwards.

On Wednesday my parents went out in their camper for an extended weekend as last Thursday was a public holiday. They went down to the south part of Sweden and were only about an hour's drive away from their planned night camp on Thursday when my uncle calls mum. My grandmother had not picked up her phone, and as she's now using a cellphone instead of land line and he had tried calling her several times, he started to worry and went to her home to check on her as they both live in the same city. He found her in bed, still in nightdress (this was in late afternoon) and she had suffered a stroke which had made her right side paralyzed and she had lost her ability to speak. Said and done, he called for an ambulance and the ambulance took her to the hospital where treatment began. My parents were over 250 miles away from home at the time of the call, and turned home instantly and came home at about 01:15 night to Friday, dad had probably been driving at least about 350-400 miles that day once they finally came home!
On Friday mum and I went to the hospital in Gothenburg to visit my grandmother, I wasn't in great shape myself, but I was at least well enough to drive with a lot of will power. Dad was too tired which is understandable after such a long drive the day before.
Anyways, mum and I came to the hospital and my grandmother was literally shining like the sun when she heard and saw us in the room! She was squeezing our hands, smiling as much as the paralysis allows and we even saw and felt her right side move. She was wriggling her toes and moving her right foot as if driving a car, we also heard some attempts of speech!

It's been a week since her stroke now and mum and I went to see her today again, she had movement in her right foot like on Friday, she was much more alert and awake today so when she was in her wheelchair we even went out on the balcony for some fresh air, and she managed some slurred words to the nurse while the nurse put the hoist on her to take her out of bed. Things are really progressing the right way as it looks now!
I'd be at the hospital with her every day if it was just closer to home. But with about 50 miles each way, it's just too far for me to drive more than once or twice in a week, and it's also very expensive because of the high gas price and Gothenburg having an inner city tax where a camera take a picture of your license plate and send a bill home just because you're driving on that road at certain times.

To put in perspective how it is for me to drive to and from Gothenburg: I drove both ways on Friday, spent most of the weekend and week until today in bed recovering, and on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, I was considering going to the ER due to severe pain flares in my SI joints, I was literally breathing like someone who's about to give birth, and that was from pain.
Today when I got back home, I lay down on the sofa, and don't remember much at all from the next 3 hours and it was an achievement to get up from the sofa, undress and brush my teeth and get to bed. And the SI pain is a nasty piece of work again.

I know driving may cause me to flare and cause a close to paralyzing fatigue afterwards, but at the moment it's really worth the extra suffering because I just want to be with my grandmother! Even with her making great progress with her recovery now, her going from being an independent 85 year old not even using a cane, to being in hospital and needing a hoist, in just a matter of minutes, it's scary, very scary.
We don't know how much she will recover or how fast, and then there's always the worry about pneumonia when she's in bed so much now and not able to cough well, and the increased risk of more strokes as having one tends to increase the risk of having another.
I just hope she will continue to recover! I want her to be able to communicate in the way she wants to and live as independently as possible again. We know she won't be able to live in her apartment again, so she will need to be in a nursing home due to the stairs to and from the elevator in her apartment building, and we know she will most likely be wheelchair bound from now on. But if she can just regain her ability to speak and do small things like eating, getting dressed and such, it would mean so much!

As for cellphone, mum and I had been nagging on her for years to get one for her own safety and for convenience when we were going to meet up somewhere or she was coming her or going back home so she could contact in case of delays. Little over a month ago she finally switched from land line to cellphone and last week it saved her life! Had she just had land line still, my uncle would have assumed she was just not at home, and it would have taken several more hours before she was found, and as we all know, time is essential when dealing with strokes! It's bad enough we don't know how long it took before she got medical attention, but on a positive note, she got medical attention faster than it could have been!