Yesterday, I had planned on spending the day with my aunt, exploring some areas with my camera in the east bay and around sf. We did end up spending the day together, but not how we had planned.
I awoke to a loud crash at 7am. Grandma had fallen again. She told me she fell onto the bed and the crash was from knocking stuff off of her dresser. I asked her lots of questions and observed her closely for a few hours in the morning. She really seemed to be ok. She even made me french toast, and she only cooks about once a month now.
Then, she started to act more confused than normal. Her doctor made time for us to come in and see her early in the afternoon. While we were there, she wasn’t quite in control of her body. She bumped into the wall a couple of times while walking slower than usual, and she couldn’t figure out how to step up and get onto the exam table. After a quick trip to the lab, we started to walk out to the car when her right leg stopped working normally. My aunt immediately ran back to the doctor to let her know what was going on. During the visit, she suggested an MRI to see what was going on in her brain, but we were going to set that up for sometime soon. When my aunt came back to the parking garage, she said they wanted to do an MRI immediately and we’d better go to the Stanford ER because if they found anything at the doctor’s office, they would send her there anyways.
The ER was chaotic, when we arrived. There was a line of impatient people waiting to go through the metal detector. Every seat was taken. There were cops at the doors because it was on lockdown for some reason. The place even seemed to be overstaffed, but they might have been running a drill. She got seen within 10 minutes, and since I couldn’t do anything but wait, I went to eat in the cafeteria, since we didn’t have time for lunch and it was already 5.
This probably sounds random, but I have to commend whoever picked out the photos they have blown up on the wall. They were very serene and soothing nature shots. The beautiful colors took your attention away from the fact that you were in a hospital. I think that will always stand out to me from this experience. That and my uncle giving me his Carrera 4S to drive myself home.
As I was eating, I got a text saying she had two bleeds in her brain, one slow and one fast. They think it was from the fall, but I’m still not sure if I believe that. They think the slow one could be from the last fall nearly two months ago. Next thing I know, the doctors were seeking an immediate decision on brain surgery. Not exactly what we had planned for the day.
Her children opted to operate, which they will do sometime today. I think we were lucky that this all happened at her doctor’s office just down the road from Stanford. We can take comfort knowing that she is in the best hands there. Now, we pray and wait.