More Than You Want To Know

Every time I come here, I apologize for not blogging in so long.  And every time it seems I go longer and longer without blogging.  Funny thing is, this year my New Year's resolution was to BLOG MORE. Can you say, Failure?  

So, the day before I was going to do the Cabin Reliever at the local museum - (a reminder since it's been so long - I was invited to showcase some of my collections along with other collectors on a Saturday afternoon - an event intended to get collectors out of the house and people out to see our collections) - my Mom had a doctor's appointment.  Her therapist thought she could benefit from oxygen therapy, so she needed to go to the doctor to have that approved.  When they checked her oxygen level, it was pretty low.  They said she needed to go to the hospital.  After a little discussion about the flu and the crowded ER, they decided to call an ambulance so she could bypass all that waiting room nastiness.  Her O2 level was plenty low, so it was completely acceptable to get the ambulance.  She just didn't want it.  

Once she was at the hospital and oxygen, her levels went up, but her legs were swollen and she had fluid in her heart and lungs.  In the end, she was admitted and I stayed with her for six days and nights.  I think I had no more than three hours sleep each night.  I did get five one night  - but only one the night before.  I swear, hospitals will kill you.  I had to leave the room a lot and be out in the public areas and I was terrified of the flu.  By the last two days, I just stayed in the room, used her bathroom and stayed away from all the germs.  She was diagnosed as having Congestive Heart Failure, which sounds fatal and horrible - but it really is just something to be watched because that is what caused the fluid in her legs.  Her actual heart is great with no blockage.

She got released at 8:30 on a Friday night - left to drive the hour and a half home to have an Oxygen delivery at after midnight.  I got home at 1:15 am.  After her discharge papers were signed, the nurse said she would call for a wheelchair to help us out.  Tick. Tick. Tick. Forty five minutes later we were still waiting.  Now, I know things take time at the hospital, so I didn't cause a fuss.  But, it was getting late and I wanted to get out of there.  She was sitting on her bedside commode (there was no chair), fully dressed with her big coat on (it was 4 degrees that night) waiting for the wheelchair to take her down.  I was standing in the doorway looking down the hall for the wheelchair to arrive when I overhead a nurse on the phone say, "Yes, we have a room open, but the prior patient won't leave the room."  I thought that was funny because who would stay there after they had been discharged?  A few minutes later, a nurse arrived in the room ( I assumed to apologize for it taking SO long to get the wheelchair) and to my SURPRISE, she said she was the hospital/patient liaison for the floor and we needed to exit the room and the hospital immediately since she had been discharged.  

This is where it gets a little fuzzy, but I know I dropped a lot of f bombs.  

"Why the F would we want to stay in this F'ing place after we have already been discharged???? We are F'ing waiting for an F'ing wheelchair!!!!!!!!"

The wheelchair arrived in no less than five seconds by one of our sweet little girl aides.  She apologized all the way down the hall and in the elevator - there had been a shift change and the nurse that discharged us forgot to call for a wheelchair and the new shift didn't know what was going on.  It really was a nightmare.  We got to her house about midnight and I had to sort out her old meds and get her new meds lined out.  I was so tired, I was sobbing, "I'm going to kill her!" I was terrified of mixing up her meds.  But the nurse came out the next day and said I had done it all perfectly.  Thank GOD.

(So, the point of that story is to say I wasn't able to do the Cabin Reliever.  Maybe next year.  Fingers crossed.)

But wait, there's more....

While she was in the hospital, they prescribed her massive amounts of diuretics.  She lost 14 pounds in fluids in those six days.  She was still on the diuretics at home and lost even more fluid.  Her therapist was working with her last Thursday and her left arm fell off her lap and she couldn't use it for awhile.  She tried to grip and nothing would grip.  Her therapist was concerned she was about to have a stroke, so another ambulance came to take her to the hospital.  After lots of MRI's and CT scans, they discovered that it was not a stroke, but that the diuretics had depleted her kidneys and she was having a loss of muscle use and muscle spasms.  So what fixed her in the fist place, made her end up back in the hospital again.  We were only there one night this time while they ironed out her medications.  I never left the room except for one fast trip to the Vending Machine room where I spent $13 on Cheetos and M&M's.  A gal's gotta eat.  :D

I will say that even though she was in the hospital, they determined that she has a healthy heart with no blockage, good lungs, her kidneys are good again, her brain is good, her Carotid Artery is clear and on and on.  So that is all really good news.  

I'm sure that is way more medical history on my Mom than you were ever wanting to read, so I apologize.  But, it's always good for me to document these things for the future.

I've been thinking ahead to the Junk Ranch.  It makes me super nervous to commit to anything anymore with impromptu hospital stays and doctor appointments.  Plus, my Dad just turned 80, but KNOCK WOOD, he is fit as a fiddle.  

I'll be back sooner than later I SWEAR and I will share junk and stuff, I SWEAR!