Friday, November 10, 2006

Could it be...... a BLOG??!!??

Hehehe... are you blown away, or what??  LOL
 
It's been a while since I have written anything. A little because I have been busy and a little because I haven't felt I have anything to say.  But I have been dwelling a little bit on the hospital stay my Mom recently had and a couple of 'things' about it. 
 
I had been away for a little R&R for three days and while I was gone she had begun to fall ill. My first full day home she was very sick and couldn't keep anything down all day. We finally took her to the ER to be checked out. 
 
Just to set the scene a little more completely, we are talking about an 85 year old woman who barely eats on a good day. She was throwing up about every 30-90 minutes and getting very dehydrated and definitely felt as bad as she looked.  My mind set was along the lines of this possibly being her time. I was very stressed and teary and fortunately had "My Harriett" who had agreed to accompany us to the ER... and hold my hand so to speak. 
 
We spent four hours in ER before Mom was finally admitted to the hospital. They poked her until her arms were purple (common with dehydration), took x-rays, blood, and anything they could extract and put in lots of fluids. All the while she was on a small bed in a cubby hole of the ER and just wanting to go back home. 
 
Then it came - my 'sign' that Mom was going to make it through. She looked up at the IV through half mast eyes between moans and asked, "Do I have to wait for all that to drip into me before I can leave?"  I assured her that the fluid would all have to flow into her at which she said, "Squeeze it!"
 
"Squeeze it?" I asked.
 
"Yes. Squeeze it so I can go home." 
 
I knew Mom would live. My other sign was when she was wheeled back from radiology and told me to "sit up."  Only my mom!
 
During the months of packing and planning our move to Utah, 18 months ago, I had my doubts that she would live long enough to make the move with us. Now I think she's going to outlive us all. 
 
Just in case you are curious, she had a severe bladder infection which traveled into her one only partially functioning kidney, and caused all the problems.  She spent three days in the hospital and then returned home to us. Her first full day in the hospital was absolutely incredible. I went to visit her that afternoon after work and she was so lucid. She remembered exactly what they did to her that day and told me everything. She even wanted her pharmaceutical book so she could look up the antibiotic they gave her. The next day she kept asking me why I put her in the hospital and now she doesn't even remember being there. How I miss that first day!