Catherine Jacobson Walther aka "Catherine the Great"

I am only posting a brief post for now. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to get more here later.

Grandma passed quickly over the last weekend. She maintained her independence until the very end. Last week she slept a lot, but managed to continue to move around the house and eat some food. She was in pretty good spirits and continued to make us laugh. On Thursday last week the Hospice nurse and I talked about her and she said she really felt like she had a few more months in her. That almost broke my heart, because it meant we would probably have to move out before she went.

Friday morning she got up and showered with her aide Nubia (the best aide ever!) and was up to the bathroom on her own. Friday evening when I took her the last of her pills I helped her get her stockings off and she attempted to get out of her recliner to get to her chair. She was unable without my help, in fact she almost did not make it into the bed. It took an hour for me to get her situated that night, between shortness of breath and the lack of mobility. As soon as I got her into bed I told Mike what was happening and called Dad. We determined that we would rearrange her room the next morning and get her a hospital bed from Hospice so we could help her more.

During the night she got up about 3 am and managed to get herself back to the recliner. She was very confused and disoriented, and once again it took all of my strength to get her back to bed. Mike and I were up early and started rearranging the house, and trying to keep grandma safe. Grandma did manage to ask very clearly if we needed to call Cathy, and I told her Dad was coming and we would contact Cathy as soon as we felt it necessary. She moved into the chair for a while, and by the time mom and dad came it took two of us to get her back to bed. Saturday her speech was almost unintelligible, occasionally she would go to great effort to get out a word or two. Mostly she slept.

It took all day to get a hospital bed, but in the mean time Susie (one of the wonderful Hospice nurses) came and helped me toilet grandma (we were doing bed changes at this point.) All day long we worked on ideas to get her from one bed to the other, but when the time came she rallied enough to stand up and turn. Ever the lady, she did not want to inconvenience anyone.

Saturday night we got to be late, and around 1:45 am she managed to get to a folding chair next to the bed. Fortunately Dad was staying upstairs for the night and heard her knock some statues off the dresser. He ran and got me and we put her back to bed. She stayed in bed for the rest of the night, and we all got some rest. Early in the morning she Dad and I changed her again (much to her mortification and Dad's) and got her settled in bed. Susie had told us if grandma had a TIA (mini stroke) it would resolve within 24 hours, and by Sunday morning she was talking better and back communicating better. We thought she was going to rally again! Sunday afternoon an aide came and helped to once again get her clean and comfortable. What a blessing once again.

All day Sunday Grandma was very uncomfortable and moving a lot. We tried hard to relieve her pain and make her comfortable. By evening she was breathing hard and coughing a lot so I decided to check her oxygen saturations. She was in the mid 70s and I realized that things were going to happen quickly. Dad had returned after church and I had him start making phone calls. I called the Hospice nurse on call and he gave us instructions on medications that would help decrease Grandma's pain and agitation. Once Jay arrived and they gave her a blessing we started the medication. We gave her a dose at 9:45 pm and her agitation decreased measurably. We were able to give them to her every 4 hours after that, and each dose seemed to make her more comfortable. At 5:45 am I gave her a final dose and sat with her until 6. Then I went to feed F. While I fed F Dad went to check on her and found that her breathing had stopped.

I can not express the wonderful help that Hospice has been to our family. The nurses and aides have been kind to the kids, to Mike and I, as well as helpful with Grandma. Nubia has been so kind, especially to S. Every morning for the last few weeks he has run up the stairs to great her yelling, "I talk to Nubia!" Then when we would find her he would clam up and be shy. Nubia would talk to him and play with him for a moment before starting to attend to Grandma.