Subject: 1poormom
She had a stroke on Monday. She was in the hospital for a fall on Sunday. They were going to do an ortho eval, and then Monday she stroked. She was a hot mess. No recognition of anyone, uncoordinated movements, combative. Yesterday was the first day she recognized us, but she can't talk at all. It's not clear (to me) if she doesn't realize her sounds are not words, or if she can't understand why we don't understand. PT has her up and moving, so that's a bit better.

But the big worry is she can't swallow. They're going to do a barium/x-ray test to evaluate. At first you might not think it a big deal, but that is actually a much larger problem than ambulation. If she can't swallow, she dies. They'll test again in a few days if she fails today's test. She already failed a non-barium test (just giving her little bits of water) on Tuesday.

I have been prepared for something like this. She's been declining for a while. But it's still a bit of a shock, especially when you see her in the hospital bed unable to speak or communicate. I'm not sure if our presence helps. She desperately wants to communicate with me, but right now it's hopeless. Before we visited, the nurses said she was pretty quiet.