It turns out Mom decided she needed to move the green waste bin out to the curb. Having had the transfusion on Tuesday she felt like she could do everything, in spite of our directions on not lifting things, moving things, etc. Of course, she fell. Fortunately, Mrs. Loi was looking out their window and saw her fall because Mom is unable to get up on her own when she falls. She ended up cutting the skin on the upper side of her right thumb joint. Because she has a low platelet count due to the leukemia, she was bleeding profusely. Here's what she left on the side of the bin; I'm no blood spatter expert but it looks like the bin fell over with her and she dripped on it when it was down and also once it was upright again. There is now a trail of blood drops up the driveway and in to the house. There used to be a trail from the back door in to the bathroom but I cleaned up the parts on the linoleum floor.
I cleaned up Mom's thumb as best as I could with the non-stop bleeding and wrapped it so it would stop bleeding and start clotting. It was looking good so I went back to sleep (still a little under the weather). When I woke up a couple hours later I hear Mom telling Dad to help her sit up because she can't breathe! Apparently she went to take a nap next to him and had difficulty breathing. I could hear her wheezing and her breaths were shallow. I told her we were going to the emergency room; she said she was fine (which is also what she told the triage nurse). So I challenged her and said if she could sit up by herself and stand up and walk to the family room and not have any breathing difficulties then she did not have to go to the emergency room. Of course, she couldn't. So we went.
They were busier than they have been on any of our other visits. After the intake by the triage nurse, we had to wait. There was a really amazing 9-panel artwork piece; I think it would be a nonaptych, though Wikipedia only gives names for up to 8 panels. The name of the piece is Ka Wai 'Ola ma lalo na 'Ohe Ikaika by Arthur Johnsen. It means "Water of life under the strong bamboo." It looked like it was painted on textured canvas but it is actually giclee on canvas.
It turns out it was a good thing I took her in for the breathing issues. The ER doctor said anytime an elder falls and hits their head they should go to the ER to be checked for a concussion. (Mom had a bruise on her left temple that was not visible at 6:30 but was now obvious. Turns out Mom also had bruises on the heel of her left hand, left hip, and left buttock.) The CT scan showed no internal brain bleeding problems. With all the moving around, Mom opened up the wound on her thumb so it started bleeding all over; there was such a big spot on her gown the nurse said it looked like someone had shot her in the stomach! After they cleaned up her thumb it was also obvious it was much worse than it looked this morning. She ended up having 7 stitches and will have to follow up with her primary care physician on it. As for the breathing, the EKG showed no issues with her heart but the x-ray showed some fluid in her pleural cavity; I need to give her the furosemide to help drain the excess liquid off and continue to monitor her.
FYI - I was unable to take my usual photo of the monitor in the ER. My phone started acting up after I took the photo of the artwork and would not take any more photos. So you are also missing my wonderful lunch of peanuts, beef jerky, and cranberry juice from the vending machine. Mom had no lunch since they were not sure what exactly was going on and whether they would have to sedate her for anything.
Happy Birthday to Tsi-Cy-Altsa!
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