Mary Jane’s Story

Site created on November 11, 2021

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.

As some of you may know, Mom has had a rough couple months with some health issues. Let's go back to the last week of August.... Mom took a little spill one night and slipped off the side of the toilet. Fell between the toilet and the wall, hitting her back on the tp holder. Fortunately for us, it was one of the nights that Dawn spends with her so she was able to get her up. Mom walked back to bed said she felt fine, her back hurt where she hit it. Heidi and I spent the whole next day with her, playing cards having lunch and what not. We were asking her all day if she was ok or if anything hurt more. 'Nope, just a little sore where I hit the tp holder'. We checked her out, no bruise or even a red mark, so we believed her. Well, come the following morning, Dawn was getting ready to leave for work and asked Mom how she was doing. Her response ' I had a little trouble with my breathing. It was hard to take a deep breath'. So off we go to Urgent Care to get her checked out. Come to find out, and feeling horrible we didn't take her in right away, we are told that she has some concerning finds on her xrays and she needs to go directly to the ER. So be it, off we go to the ER to find she has 2 broken ribs, a crack in a vertebrae and a partially collapsed lung. Talk about feeling like the worst daughters ever!! Hind sight 20/20. Moving forward, she had a chest tube put in, multiple xrays and scans and spent Labor Day weekend in the hospital along with Heidi and I keeping her company and in good spirits. She was discharged and came home to stay at our house so we could keep an eye on her. Full recovery and back to her old self in a matter of a couple weeks. She is one tough cookie, as the docors and nurses told her they wouldn't have believed she was going through what she was with so little pain management. Extra strength Tylenol, her pain med of choice!!
She 'graduated' as she says, from Home Health Care PT and OT within 2 weeks.
Moving forward to October 8th, she called me to the bathroom for some help because 'her right leg fell asleep'. Helped her to the bed, no function at all in her right leg. Called 911, Sherriff arrived before the paramedics. The Sheriff goes through some stroke protocol with her, passes with flying colors. She was lifting her leg straight up, bending it and walking on it with no help. What????? Exactly what I said. Paramedics examined her and all they find is her heart rate elevated a bit. She passes on the trip to the ER until later that evening it happened again. So..... off to the ER, with Heidi and I along for the trip.
A scan showed 2 small areas in her brain which indicated she had had 2 mini strokes. After a short stay in the hospital, she came back to our house on October 13th. The morning of October 15th she told me she was having some chest pains. 911 once again. This time she was taken by ambulance to the Cambridge hospital to get checked out. After a full day in the ER they found a bed for her at Woodwinds hospital in Woodbury. Transferred that night by ambulance. BTW, an EXCELLENT hospital and staff!! She spent the weekend there with the findings of congestive heart failure. From what we were hearing from the doctors her heart function was down to about 30% and we weren't sure if she was going to make it to her 94th birthday, right around the corner. Then.... the big one. Around 6am, Tuesday morning, I received a call from the hospital informing me that during the night she had suffered a massive stroke and had no function of her whole left side. By the time I got to the hospital they were loading her up to move her to the U of M to attempt to remove a large clot in her brain. By the time I got to the ER at the U of M they were taking her into surgery. After what seemed like forever, the surgeon told me that the surgery went amazingly well. Text book, couldn't have been better. Within 2 hours after surgery, she was moving her left leg and arm and able to speak fairly well. She spent a couple days in the ICU then moved to a regular room. Low and behold, the Queen of Amazing recoveries once again surprised us and we celebrated her 94th birthday in the hospital on October 24th. The next day she was moved across the river to the U of M Riverside hospital where she would be staying at the Acute Rehab Center for 4 + hours of therapy every day. A combination of physical, occupational and speech therapies. Once again, the recovery queen, or cat with 9 lives or just a woman with very strong faith in the Lord and an amazing amount of family and friends praying for her, was discharged after only 10 days of rehab therapy. Once again 🤯🤯🤯!!!
Moving forward to November 4th, the day she returned home. To her home. The home she has spent 60+ years in and her last connection to our dad, the one that built this home. She returned home with 24/7 assistance from family. She was doing pretty well for a couple days and then her legs started giving out on her. That was ok, we could still manage to take care of her, until early Monday morning, Heidi had to take her back to the ER. Shortness of breath, some bleeding, and some chest pains. They kept her for observation and ended up admitting her. Her heart has been pushed to its limits and she now she has started retaining fluid. They treated her with diuretics and changed some medications around, adding some new ones and eliminating others. Eventually they were able to get her stabilized enough to release her, under her wishes, to return to her home where she is now. She has chosen to not return to the hospital and she has started on hospice care as of yesterday, November 11th.
Her heart has given its all and has finally tired out and she knows there is no way to fix it and has accepted that.
She is home where she wants to be, able to have as many family members and friends with her at any given time. No set visiting hours or limit on only 1 visitor per day. She has a large family, extended family and numerous friends and now she can visit with any one of them that would like to stop by.
We will be at her house. Feel free to stop by, send a message or card or give any one of us a call.

Sorry this got to be so long, but like I said..... it's been a busy couple months!!
Prayers are always welcomed and appreciated!!

Thanks for taking time to catch up with what's been going on.

Mary's kids,

Terry, Bill, Randy, Heidi, Dawn and Gayle

Newest Update

Journal entry by Gayle Yatckoske

Here is a link to Moms obituary.

www.holcombhenryboom.com/obituary/mary-high


Also, you can find a livestream of the funeral service on Wednesday at Twin Cities Grace Fellowship website or on Facebook.

We want to thank everyone that has been praying for us, sending messages, food and just being here for support. 

A special thank you to Fairview Accent Care Hospice. Moms RN Sam was absolutely amazing and so very helpful to us. She helped guide us on this journey with Mom and was with us along the way. Very, very thankful for the whole hospice program.

Rest well our sweet mother. We have another angel watching over us.
🙏🙏🙏🙏
God bless you and keep you all safe.  Amen
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