Grandma's hospitalization

I hesitated to write about this but thought that I should since I have written about Grandma quite a bit.

On Sunday night, my grandmother had a massive heart attack and stroke. The nursing home had her transported to the hospital immediately where they tried to perform a catheterisation on her heart. They were unable to perform the procedure and it is not clear to me if her condition deteriorated at that point or it was the calcium blockage or a combination of the two.

They found that Grandma has a calcium blockage and explained that her heart has been working hard for a long time to force blood through the aorta; however since the heart attack as weakened the heart muscle by 35 – 45% it is no longer able to provide the volume of blood required to overcome the blockage.

In addition, she is being treated for a lung infection which may have been caused by vomiting during her heart attack. Apparently this is very common.

There also appears to be some internal bleeding as her hemoglobin level has dropped to 8.

Today they were able to start removing the respirator which is progress. Yesterday, her resting heart rate climbed to 154 when they tried to remove the respirator and they had to heavily sedate her.

The neurologist determined that she had suffered a stroke in the right side of her brain which is impacting her ability to move her left extremities. They were unable to get her to move her left arm but they got some movement on her left foot. Of course, the major issue at this point is her heart.

My aunt if flying to Atlanta from Paris. She will arrive tonight.

Please keep my grandmother in your thoughts.