Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Craziness runs in the family.

Well, life around here has been pretty well focused on the subjects of my last two posts -- my pregnancy, and my maternal grandmother. My parents went down today to visit her in a psychiatric hospital where she's been since Saturday night, when she called 911 five or six times. The police finally decided she needed to be taken in for treatment.

That was actually her second check in to a hospital this week. The first time she was diagnosed with severe dehydration, a UTI, and a small mass was found on her brain. So far, the doctors aren't saying much about the mass, except they don't think it's related to the dementia, which apparently has been going on for quite a while, possibly a decade.

Unfortunately, my grandmother been the stubborn naturalist she is, she's refusing any treatment. They rehydrated her, but after two days she ripped out the IV. They got her to take anti-psychotic medicine for a couple more days, but now she's refusing that, too, and is on the phone every day with patient rights activists. Apparently she's taken to keeping an eye on all the other patients, too, to make sure they're being treated well. She was a nurse, after all.

The hardest thing, besides knowing that she's having disturbing hallucinations, is not knowing what's going to happen next. My parents haven't hired an attorney yet, but that's probably going to happen soon, because the doctors can't share much information with them otherwise. We don't know how long they can keep her in the hospital. She's talked to psychiatrists, but it's not going to do much, since she won't take the meds, she's extremely secretive, and her brain has been imagining impossible scenarios for much longer than we realized. Apparently she said some things to my middle sister quite a long time ago that coincides with what she's told us this summer.

Anyhow, it's been pretty wearing, and the hormonal exhaustion has been setting in. It's time to cut back on activities a little, so I can keep up with the basics at home and still be in a good mood for my family. I can push myself when I'm tired, but not when I'm dizzy or really cranky. I have to eat more often, but still try to avoid sugar. NO MORE SCONES. As yummy as the one I had this morning was, my blood sugar dropped so fast I had to sit down on the floor of a toy store, and Raving Lunatic Mommy appeared not long after. Ugh.

Thankfully, the boys have forgiven me, and tomorrow's a new day. Park Day, even.

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