And Life Continues

I know only by the calendar that it is Independence Day. Things are crazy at the house of Episcogranny and Taciturn. We do not wish to be unpatriotic (we both are military veterans, after all), but Life intrudes.

T even forgot to hang our flag out today. Most unusual.

First off, Mom is in the hospital and has been since Wednesday. I spoke with my brother earlier this week which prompted my earlier post. The night previous to the day she was to have her lung tapped, though, she could not sleep due to the pain in her pre-gangrenous feet. In fact, she was screaming. My brother and his wife got her into their car and took her to the emergency room. It took lots of IV pain medication to get her to the point she did not scream. In the meantime, the doctors ran a couple of tests which made them realize that both feet are gone. On top of that, her lab tests indicated that she had had a mild heart attack.

Yee haw.

Three quarters of a litre of fluid was drained by the lung doc the next morning from her right lung. Preliminary reports are that is clear. My brother spoke to all of her doctors yesterday morning while he was awaiting some outpatient surgery for himself (!) that had been scheduled a few weeks ago. The plan for Mom at present is to get her stable medically, her pain under control, then proceed with a double amputation.

I tried to call Mom's room on Thursday. A staff member answered the phone to tell me they were working with her so she couldn't talk. I asked her to tell Mom that I loved her. I tried again yesterday am and the phone just rang. After I called Dad, I found out she was sleeping most of the time and simply was not answering the phone.

That was the first time in my life that Mom could not speak to me if I wanted to pick up the phone to call her. It occurred to me that I should get used to it.

Brother had arrived home from his outpatient surgery an hour before I called and talked to me a few minutes. He told me he had not called two of our brothers; would I do it? Sure. So last night I spoke to a brother who just moved to Washington State by the Canadian border to start a new job. He has no vacation time. He was a bit panicked. I used my best ICU nurse skills in explaining the situation to him. This am I called my other brother who lives in Richmond VA. He was glad I'd called since he was going to call later today. He deals with chronic illness himself--he has Parkinson's Disease--so he sounded calm. He also has a clear head about what the end result probably will be. He and I spoke about all of us "children" praying for each other as well as for our parents at this time. I haven't spoken to any of my brothers about prayer for years.

Needless to say this has been a tad stressful. I clean when I'm stressed, and my house looks pretty good right now. And have I been turning out the bakery goods! I have hot dog rolls in the oven right now. I will make coffee cake for in the morning. I am reassured by my brother that Mom is getting excellent care at the local hospital, which is all I ask.

And we are keeping close eyes on airfares, just in case.