Describe Connie Salquist

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Connie Sallquist is a quick-witted, ornery, seventy-eight year old woman who grew up on a small farm outside of Volga, South Dakota. While attending a small kindergarten through twelfth grade school house for education, Connie picked up the habit of smoking at the age of fifteen. Sports consume her life. Her eldest daughter was a cheerleader for South Dakota State University. She spent years watching her daughter play basketball in high school and at Vanderbilt University. Now she attends her granddaughters’ volleyball and basketball games on a regular basis or watches them online. Her down time is spent watching college basketball, Nascar,, baseball, and even golf. “My favorite athlete was Jeff Gordon, but since he retired I switch to Jordan …show more content…

Her particularly favorite sport was basketball. She remembers, “We don’t play like you do now. It was three on three. You either played offense or defense. I was defense. I was good, very scrappy,” Connie describes. Now-a-days she enjoys yelling at referees from the stands and giving her two cents on coaches. She has even gotten in a few fights with opposing teams’ parents in the stands. Even with her quirks, Connie Sallquist may seem like an average midwestern, sports-loving woman, but she is far from it. Facing odds that no one thought she could defeat, she proceeded to prove everyone wrong. And unlike most patients, Connie was able to walk out of hospice alive and healthy. She is a true miracle. While her life may not be back to the normal it was a year and a half ago, she’s aspired to a living condition that didn’t seem possible. Connie is loved by everyone she meets. All of her granddaughters friends refer to her as grandma. “Everyone calls me Grandma Connie. I’m everyone’s grandma,” Connie explains. Last year when her granddaughter’s volleyball team found out about Connie’s condition, the entire team donated money towards a bouquet a flowers and a card to send to Connie’s room. A few weeks later, Connie was able to attend her first volleyball game of the season. After the game, every player on the volleyball team came up and talked to her. She knew each and everyone of them, but each of them knew …show more content…

This is an infection rooted from the same virus that causes cold sores from within the body. Herpes encephalitis is a brain infection caused by the immune system that basically eats away at a portion of the brain. It is usually found in cases involving young infants. the symptoms include fever, headache, seizures, focal weakness, and on rare occasions memory loss. If caught in time, this infection is curable. The doctors thought that they had caught her infection in time, but things seemed spiral downwards after she was diagnosed. After the hallucinations, Connie began to forget crucial pieces of information. She still believed she was living on her farm in Volga. She couldn’t identify one of her granddaughter who had come to see her. Some days she didn't have the ability to speak. Soon another symptom of the infection arose. Connie would receive seizures. After a week in the hospital receiving treatment and medication, nothing seemed to be working. Connie could barely wake up for more than a few minutes at time and when she did those moments were filled with confusion and drowsiness. After much deliberation, her family decided to transport her to hospice. Once moved to hospice, Connie stopped receiving medication for her infection. She was taken off of her food tube and was left to feed herself if and when possible. Many people came to visit her to say their goodbyes. Friends she hadn’t

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