Thursday, February 12, 2015

Poor Grandpa Merritt

Grandpa fell on September 19th and broke his hip.  He rang the button and they came and got him and called Kelly, Susan's brother, not son.  Susan is up in Boise at their private campground.  Kelly took him to the hospital.  They decided there was nothing they could do for him that late, so they gave him a lot of pain medication and waited for the next day.  Kelly let us know and  Shawn and I took the morning off and went to see grandpa and spend time with him.  We visited for quite some time and finally got him to agree that he needed to have surgery to fix it.  He has been feeling down and talking about dying for so long, he sort of thought that if he didn't do anything he would die from this.  He would eventually, but it would be a long slow death, because he was bed ridden and not because his hip was broke.  After talking and talking to him we finally convinced him he needed the surgery.  His other concern was it was so expensive and it would take money away from the kids' inheritance.  What a guy.  He had the surgery Friday afternoon. Before the surgery Shawn and Kelly gave grandpa a blessing.  In it he was told that god was pleased with him and that whatever God wanted for him, to stay or to go, we would be happy with that decision too.  It was really touching and I think Grandpa really appreciated it.   Shawn and I went to get some lunch while it was happening, and we ran into Kelly and Jeff, and then Tonya and her husband.  When grandpa got out of surgery he was pretty incoherent.  He said he wasn't in much pain. So they didn't give him much pain medication, but all of Saturday he was pretty out of it.  He was mumbling and jerking.  That is what really upset me the most was he was jerking so much.  He seemed so close to death and I was sad, but not.  Sunday he wasn't much better.  They determined he had a urinary tract infection and that his kidney's were shutting down.  The put him on an antibiotic and also gave him liquids.  He didn't seem to know anyone, can't finish a sentence and isn't sure where he is or what happened, but he knew his name and birthday.  When we came in on Sunday he was trying to get out of bed.  We had to remind his he couldn't and that his hip was broke and he had to stay down till it healed, he couldn't believe it.  Shawn gave him another blessing, he was in pain and restless.  Not sure if he heard it but I think he felt it anyway because he calmed down afterwards.

Susan finally found a way to come down and we went and picked her up at the airport on Friday night.  Her dad really wanted her there and I was glad she found a way to get there.  It would be nice if grandpa could die.  We would miss him a lot but he is so ready to go and hasn't been really happy for the last year, and has felt useless.  It would be nice it he could be with his wife and daughters and parents again.  They finally decided on moving grandpa to a recovery center because he wasn't good enough to go back to Apple Tree, but the hospital didn't want to keep him.  They moved him over to Crestwood, which is good facility.  It has been remodeled since Jill was there, and it is very nice.  We visited him everyday and he seems more with it, but he still forgets he broke his hip, and sometimes doesn't know where he is, and sometimes he gets really confused as well.

No comments: