Mama just got out of the hospital, the 3rd visit in a little over 2 weeks. This last time she was in for 5 days. The heart meds they'd sent her home with from the first 6-day stint were making her so sick and miserable, she wasn't eating. When Mama doesn't want to eat, there's something seriously wrong. After 2 or 3 days of this I finally got her to eat a small piece of toast. A few hours later she was projectile vomiting and I happened to feel of her chest when the paramedics came and could feel girgling and roiling.
We wanted to go to Mercy as that's where her doctors are, and we'd had a good experience there, but it's 15-20 minutes away. They said they didn't think she'd make it that far. I told them that we absolutely did not want to go to Washington Regional, so they said they'd take her to Northwest in Springdale. They drove her on a code 3 going 55 down Thompson (Business 71), in busy Friday night traffic, running stop lights when it was clear, the whole nine. It was very scary. I tried to follow behind at first, but they were gone from my sight pretty quickly.
By the time I arrived at the ER, they had her in a room with a mask-type apparatus covering her face and already had her undergoing treatment for pneumonia and whatever other symptoms were presenting. She was in the ER for about 5 hours undergoing treatment before being admitted into the hospital. She responded well to the treatments, and every day brought improvements - but not without some challenges along the way. She's in a very hard place to diagnose since cardio-pluminary are so interconnected. It's hard to know what's brought on by the heart pulminary-wise or if the pulminary issues - of which we know next to nothing about at this point - are contributing to the recent escallations with the heart symptoms.
We got her home on Wednesday in the early evening. She headed straight for her chair and went right to sleep. I was able to wake her up to eat something. Later, I helped her get ready for bed, and she slept for a few more hours waking up only once. She slept some more for most of the morning and early afternoon until the home health nurse and later the aid came to see about her. I spent the afternoon talking to her doctors and various health care people involved with her care. In the evening, my brother came by for a surprise visit. Steve had practice with the band he and his brother and a couple of guys have been in the process of re-forming, so I asked if Dailey could stay while I got one of her prescriptions filled and went by the Verizon store to see about my phone.
She was brighter and more bubbly than I've seen her in quite a while. It was so nice to see! She's eating, which is a good thing. I'd really like to see Mama have at least one more good run, you know? I'd like to see her have the strength and the wherewithal to do things she enjoys. She doesn't think this is impossible, and neither do I. There were lots of people in her corner praying for her. Mama told her best friend, Corky, that all those prayers must've been the thing pulling her through because she wasn't sure she was going to make it.
These close calls have been pretty nerve-wracking. Perhaps she's just making sure we're all awake! :D In any case, God has made it very apparent that He hears with compassion and answers prayer, and I'm very relieved and happy about that right now.
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