…and bad news

Well, the good news is we got Brian’s parents pretty much moved in yesterday.

The bad news is his mother ended up in the hospital this morning.

A bit of background: Back in December, Brian’s mother kinda collapsed. His dad called 911, and then let Brian know they were on their way to the hospital (St Claire’s in Dover.) She ended up being there quite a while, and this actually ended up coinciding with my own hospital stay in December at RWJUH. The immediate concerns as she arrived in the ER, was that she was mostly unresponsive, frail, and jaundiced. She is a diabetic, and her blood sugar was very high. It was later revealed that there was a miscommunication: the last doctor appointment was 2 years earlier, and the doctor said she was doing well. They misinterpreted that to mean she no longer needed the diabetes medicines (pills, at the time)! The hospital later found the jaundice was caused by clogged bile ducts, cirrhosis of the liver, and chronic pancreatitis. She is now on insulin injections instead of pills, and has other meds to control issues. She also has to have stents replaced periodically in her bile ducts.

Brian kept traveling back and forth to Boonton and Dover from our area (an hour drive) to help out his dad with numerous hospital stays, doctor visits, etc. At the original episode in December, Brian insisted his parents move close to us. They had been on the senior housing list since December, and finally got into their new apartment just yesterday!

This morning, however, she was unresponsive on our couch when they visited. Brian’s dad raced to get the blood meter, but Brian ended up calling 911 because she just got worse. Her blood sugar was very low this time: 25. I’m not sure how long she will be at the hospital this time, but thankfully she is only about a mile away from our house!