Sandy Emerson

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.
This is Sandy's daughter, Shawna.  
It has been quite the journey... here are the highlighted details. 
The past few weeks have been quite unexpected.  My mom slipped on ice on November 18th, which resulted in a broken femur. She had surgery a few days later and was released to a care center for rehab a few days later. While in the care center, she had another fall (she blacked out) which led to a trip back tot he hospital on Nov 30.  At this time we discovered she had been bleeding internally.   She had lost 2/3 of her blood and during a procedure to locate the bleeding, an ulcer was discovered in a very tricky spot, right on top of an artery. In stopping the bleeding, the artery opened and the bleeding became even more serious.  
So... with the bleeding stopped, she had to go off of blood thinners.  This (in combination with not being able to move very easily) led to blood clots in her lungs.    At this point the condition became infinitely more serious.
So, the doctors put in a filter to prevent more clots form moving to her lungs.  They did discover clots throughout her lower extremities.  A couple days later, it was determined that her bleeding was not stopped.  So another procedure cut off the artery under the ulcer.  
All of this has led to irregular blood pressures and now, acute kidney damage as her kidneys reacted to the contrast dye used in some of the procedures.  Currently my mom is working to clean out her kidneys.  We cling to hope and are doing everything we can to heal.
From one critical situation to the next, we are grateful to have celebrated her birthday a few days ago.  We are grateful that we have had this special time together; crying, laughing, talking, watching bad daytime tv, and eating hospital food.  We are grateful for the many prayers, well wishes, cards, and messages from friends and family.
One thing we have learned; My mom is very strong.  Even when her body is weak, her wisdom and strength inspire.