Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Nighmare Week

One of my sisters called this last week and said my mom had been feeling sick the whole past week and thought it might be her gall bladder. She had an appointment for last wed. in which they set up a ultrasound for this past Monday. I talked to my mom by phone 6 times on Friday and about the same on Sat. On Sunday morning my sister called and said she had taken her to the ER in town as she was in severe pain and would call with what was going on. An hour later she called back and said it was her heart, her t-wave's were high as well as her enzymes. She was being transported to another hospital 40 minutes away. I told them I would be home in about 4 hours.
That was Sunday morning and it is now Tuesday night. What a nightmare!! When I got there they were taking her in to look at her heart and perhaps do the balloon proceedure if needed. It was 5. At 7 they came out and said that she had a 99.99% blocked artery, but they couldn't do the ballon because it was in a split, where if they put the balloon in it could block another artery and kill her.
The only thing they could do was open heart surgery, one artery, perhaps two.
We of course were freaking out. It was 7pm and 12 hours later from the beginning of this nightmare they were telling us to sit tight for a five hour open heart surgery on our mom.
Thankfully, an hour and a half later the surgeon came out and said they only had to do one bypass and it went well. They said she had had a heart attack sometime during the week, but they thought it might be minor damage. Something we won't know until they do further tests.
Yesterday was one of the worst days of my life. My mom had a bad reaction to the pain meds and it started effecting her mental health. I will probably always have a vision of that ICU scene with my mom laying there acting in ways a child should not have to see. She also begged us personally to help her until I finally felt myself about to explode with rage at the situation. I calmly stated, "ok, I am getting REALLY angry." My sisters were crying and it was about as horrible as possible.
Finally they took her off the meds and gave her some pills for pain and the whole nightmare finally stopped. She was much improved.

Today they took her out of ICU and she has to try to walk and breath and all that kind of stuff. I will be here until Saturday at the hospital.
Gretch was such a super great person the past couple days. Getting us hotel rooms and calming everyone down. She did have to go back home and I miss her so bad I cry just for that reason alone sometimes. I wish she wasn't so far away.
Those are the basics. This is a hospital computer and people are waiting. I will get spammed, but so be it. I can't get back on tonight.
The good thing is that my mom is going to be good, with some diet and exercise.
That is not going to be easy.

2 Comments:

At 7:38 AM , Blogger Star said...

I am so sorry to hear about your mom, but glad that they were able to catch it and do the surgery.

My dad had a triple bypass two years ago, and came through it quite well.

It is very difficult to handle a sick parent, it is a bit of a role reversal. I hope that your mom recovers well and that you are able to hold up.

You are in my thoughts.
Michelle

 
At 11:31 AM , Blogger d t l said...

Thanks for the kind words! It is hard to watch our parents suffer for any reason. Seems bypass surgery is all too common these days, but at least it isn't like it was twenty years ago.
I am glad it worked for your father also. Just a quick question, was he able to change his diet and exercise lifestyle? I would think this would be quite the wakeup call, but I am not convinced my mom will change.

 

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