Mom’s Congestive Heart Failure

Living in a nursing home has been a surprisingly happy experience for my mother. She adjusted quickly and participates in almost all the activities each day. She has always been very sociable, loving to be where there will be a gathering of people. Alone time isn’t something she has ever really liked.

A couple weeks ago, we notice that Mom was retaining quite a bit of fluid in her hands and feet. The nurses assured us, this had been reported to their house doctor, who was out of town over the Christmas holiday season. They immediately started restricting her fluid intake and recording her daily output on a wall-chart. Her swelling got so bad, they had to remove the rings off her fingers, to keep them from losing proper circulation.

A full ten days later, the doctor came in to examine her. He increased her dosage of Lasix(water pill)medication and left orders for the nurses to continue limiting her fluid intake.

Getting around has gotten increasingly harder for Mom, because of the extra 50 lbs. of retained water. Her ninety year old heart has been working overtime, to compensate for this large amount of fluid surrounding it.

Yesterday when I went for a visit, Mom looked like her old self again and she expressed how much better she felt.

We were sure this might be her last week on earth, but apparently God has something more for her to do before she leaves us. Over the past year, all her care-givers at Tender-Care have grown quite fond of her. If this experience hasn’t done anything else, it has made me so thankful for each and every minute I still have my Mother around. We’ve grown very close, knowing our time together could be cut short, at any time. She will definitely be deaply missed, by her daughter Kharla.