Julie

We have neglected Scott’s 80 year old mama, Julie, living over there in her apartment in Topeka. Now we are making up for it.

Julie had a bad fall at Dillons over two years ago. She shattered her kneecap and shoulder socket. The rehab was hard and left her with a limp and afib. But it didn’t keep her down. She continued to live on her own and drive to the mall every day to walk over two miles.

Two weeks ago, she fell again in her kitchen while doing the dishes. She was unable to get up and called her sister. The ambulance took her to St Francis where she was x rayed, determined nothing was broken and sent home.

Shari stayed with Julie for two days and nights. She seemed fine other than saying her hips/bottom hurt. The third night, Shari slept at home. When she went back in the morning, she found Julie unresponsive in a pool of vomit. (This was NOT your fault, Shari, in any way, I know you think so). Julie was again taken by ambulance to the hospital where it was determined she had a massive brain bleed and was then air lifted to KU med center.

We spent two days and nights in the neuro ICU in the nice part of KU med. The room was amazing, the services to visitors stellar, and the nurses were so caring and helpful. They even braided Julie’s hair!

Julie had a breathing tube in and a catheter, Iv’s and a feeding tube but could squeeze both hands and move all her limbs and answer questions with a yes or no nod. It was determined that her lower sacrum had two tiny breaks. Scott and I stayed the first night overnight in the room.

After two days, Julie was moved to the surgical ICU in the older part of the hospital. The accommodations were much different, one bathroom all the way down the hall for all of the staff and visitors, no way to get ice or coffee on the floor, only a recliner to sleep in, and little privacy for Julie or the other patients, some only had curtains for walls. But the nurses were still very, very nice and helpful.

Julie has made very slow progress. She got the breathing tube removed which allowed her to talk but not swallow at first but eventually, she has regained the ability to swallow. She can sit up and stand with lots of assistance and can weight bear to transfer, again with lots of assistance. Her blood pressure has been all over the place and she remains in afib.

After 10 days, Julie is still confused. She can tell us what she needs and what hurts if she’s in pain. She knows her full name and birthday and most days recognizes Scott and Shari and I. She doesn’t know the year or where she is or what happened. She has moments of incredible clarity where she remembers who people are on facebook and asks really good questions. She says the sweetest, funniest things. She talks about going to church, Christmas, going to games. One day, Shari told Julie that Scott was on his way to come see her. She asked, “Why’s he gonna do that?” Shari told her, “To see you.” She said, “Hallelujah, I like that.” For a couple days she was sure it was June 1980 but she gives a different month and year every time she’s asked (for the first 4 days they asked her every hour on the hour and told her the right answers). When Shari played EArth Wind and Fire, Julie said they needed to go to Stormont Vail because they had a singles dance there. She told us that she was getting married that weekend. Once, they asked her who the president was and she said, “tell me who.” Shari told her “Donald Trump”. She said, “No seriously, who is the President” and then laughed and laughed when Shari told her. Once she told us she was waiting to get picked up for dinner. She told me that she put her shoes on one morning and drove to a game. She told Shari that she had 4 kids and their names were, “Scott, Diane, Hannah, Leah and Joel.” (My family). Then she said their names were “Julie, Peggy, Deanne and Jackie.” (She and her sisters). Yesterday she thought Shari was her mom and they were at the post office. One day she pushed on a stuffed animal to try turn the tv on.

But every day, she’s been pleasant, happy and funny. She tells the nurses thank you. She doesn’t complain unless something hurts bad. I only hope that if something like this ever happens to me, sweet, kind things come out of my mouth, too.

I have driven to KU med three times now and spent three nights in the recliner in ICU. Scott has been up twice and plans a third turn this weekend. Shari has taken the brunt of this and has spent most of the 10 days there by herself with Julie. Max (Shari’s son) and Peggy (Julie’s sister) have helped where they could. Others have visited. Its hard to be up there.

Today Julie started eating puréed fruit and yogurt. She was transferred to a regular room on the 5th floor. The doctors plan to drill holes in her skull and drain the blood out on Thursday. We are hopeful that this will work. Either way, Julie will transfer next to a rehab hospital and we are working on that being in Topeka.

We don’t know the future but we know that God is good and he holds Julie in His hands.