Again

I've talked about my sister on this blog over the years and there have been many challenges. Emotionally, physically, mentally, etc.. and I keep hoping that things will improve somehow. I think I'm coming to the realization that things may not improve, there will be issues....consistently....and this may just be the way it is. Not sure how much time will go between major traumatic thing to the next.

This morning I'm sitting here with my thoughts spinning, not really sure what to think. 

About 8:30pm last night I looked at my phone and realized I had 7 missed calls and a voicemail and a text. The voicemail was from an ER Social Worker and the text was from a police Sheriff. After talking with both the ER and the Sheriff, I learned that she apparently was driving erratically about 1.5 hours from her home heading towards the specialist hospital (backstory she has been going to this specialist hospital in another state. She did have a procedure scheduled for Tuesday, but my brother was supposed to drive her today). The police said they were called about an erratic driver, ambulance came, she went to ER. The ER social worker initially said she was confused, maybe stroke. A few hours after that around 11:30pm I was able to talk the ER DR and he said she had very high blood pressure, but scans did not show evidence of a stroke.  I then called back up there today and the ICU nurse said she is fully alert/stable and they will be moving her to a less critical care unit this afternoon.

So what happened? I still have no idea. Last night after learning she was found confused, not coherent, etc. I wondered right away did she self medicate with her migraine medication, maybe not take her blood pressure med, and either one or the other or both caused her to be confused and erratic. I called my brother last night as well and he wondered the same thing. We've both seen her have confusion, slurring, not knowing what day it was, etc..after she's taken that med, but not to the degree that she left the house (that we know of). I asked the ER Dr and the nurse last night could this have been medication related. Dr. said its possible, but they wouldn't test for that, and if they did, those tests take awhile to come back.

So here I sit processing all of this in real time. I haven't spoken to her, she didn't take cell phone with her. They don't have phones in ICU rooms. I'm concerned, I have so many questions, I'm feeling upset wondering if this was all due to her self-medicating, but leaving space for maybe medically something happened to spike her blood pressure so high, apparently it was like 220/110. Was her confusion due to the med/blood pressure/combination or both? Will I get the truth from her, will she remember? 

What's next? I'll call back up later this afternoon after she's been transferred to see if I can speak with her. I'll get to tell her that the sheriff said she did damage her car and they had it towed to a lot. Since I work with her business and can get in her system I at least was able to reach out to those she had appointments with today and let them know it was cancelled. My brother will decide about driving up there after we hear about the plan this afternoon.  

After things settle, we are going to have to make some sort of plan going forward about what to do in these emergencies. Last time there was a major medical issue and we couldn't get in touch with her, I said no more. She agreed to have a close by friend have a key and that she would be the local contact. That was months ago, I reminded her several times, but she never followed up with the friend.

I don't think she has any idea what it's like being on this side of things. Throughout all of her struggles. It's been a lot over the years....