Last year my mother (aged 70) almost died from atypical pneumonia. She had a dry, unproductive cough for months, that kept getting worse, until finally she couldn't breathe. When I finally forced her to go to the doctor, her lungs had been perforated, infection got into the pleural sac, and then healed. She was drowning.
She was also self-medicating with a combination of Motrin and wine, so she had a perforated ulcer, and melanotic stool.
Needless to say both her white blood count and her red blood count were off the charts, and the ER doctor thought she had some form of leukemia.
She had to have a thoractomy and two (at least two, maybe three) drains in her chest.
But, she has a strong heart and is healthy in general, so she came out of it ok but she is smaller, and greyer, and has less ummph, and gets tired easier.
I am trying to prepare for her inevitable next bout with a cold or the flu, planning to force her to come here and stay in the guest room with its own toilet in the finished walkout basement.
Last time her place (she lives alone) was a minefield of used tissue that didn't quite make it to the trashcan, and the trashcans didn't have a plastic bag liner, and the cat box was in the bathroom, and stuff like that. Imagine going to someone's house to take care of them and having to run that minefield. No thanks.
Now imagine someone in your own household gets sick, from what, you don't know. Do you isolate them? How? How do you handle their soiled tissues, and bedding, and clothing, and dishes and cups and silverware? How do you clean the toilet and the sink? Toilets and sinks splash when you scrub them and rinse them. How do you prevent your face from being splashed?
Do I let her cats and the dog sleep in her bed and if so can the children pet them?
Stuff like that. |
