Second Update About Mom

Hi All...

Here we are.  Had a bit of a scare with mom today (04-29-2012). While at church I got a call from the nursing facility saying Mom was unresponsive and being rushed to the hospital and I should "really get there". That put me into a lit bit of a panic. So, several of us kids (grown adults, but you know... her kids) converged on the hospital ahead of the ambulance. We were told mom wasn't there yet, and that was likely because the EMTs have to stabilize her before they can start driving... and she was not stable. They got her relatively stable and made it to the hospital.

When she arrived she was responsive. The EMTs and the doctor that assessed her felt that the nursing facility may have overreacted a little, but said "better they be a little overreactive than the other option." Since she was there they tried to get some of the fluid off of her, but there was little they could do. They talked about manual drainage, but determined the risk of infection outweighed the short term benefit (only 2 - 3 days relief at best). Ultimately the "unresponsiveness" was determined to have been "very brief" and likely was really just the pain med she had been given in the morning. [side bar: Demerol has a tendency to drug her enough that if you ask her a question she'll look at you and think she's answering, but her mouth isn't moving. In less stressful times that has been a source of amusement to both mom and I. Yes. I tease her when she's in the hospital. It makes her laugh and that helps.]

Mom is back in the nursing facility and resting this evening. On a non-medical note, this morning I felt compelled to grab a guitar pick (I haven't carried a pick or played guitar in months) and low and behold once we got mom back to the nursing facility some friends showed up with a guitar in hand. I played and we sang for her. It was good.

Back to medical subjects... The doctor who took care of mom today was the same doctor who saw her right at the start of her shingles episode. When the doctor realized mom was the same person, she told us she hadn't recognized mom because her health decline had been so rapid. She said, "I thought this was a chronic situation. I had no idea she was the same person. I didn't realize her decline had been so steep." The doctor went on to share with us about how she had to hospice both of her own parents at different times which leaves her always concerned with making sure a patients comfort is cared for. The doctor ordered another hospice evaluation, because she seemed to think mom is ready for hospice. (For any who don't know, Hospice is end of life care for individuals who have less than six months to live.)

So, the feeling on this end is that mom may be closer to the end than any of us would want.

I hope... we hope... mom hopes that isn't the case, but (and I don't like to say it this way, but) it's probably time to start saying some goodbyes. Without a miracle... it may not be that long. I'm not trying to create a false sense of urgency, but I'm also not going to downplay the situation. I cant help but think about dad. The doctor gave him four months... four days later he was gone. You'll have to decide what that means for you and mom.

One family member sent me an email with 1st Thessalonians 4:13-18 in it. I think mom would find it comforting. So, I'll end with that... and for this, the poetic nature of the king james version seems well suited:

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.