…But barely. I arrived home (Southern California) yesterday around 11:00 a.m. I was on the road, leaving the Bay Area around 5am. Work today. My brother came in from Sacramento to relieve me from watching mom. According to mom’s surgeon, as of this past Monday, her post-op status on the gallbladder removal itself looked good. On Tuesday, mom saw her primary care physician for review of her pneumonia. She had x-rays done just an hour or two before that appointment. Upon review of those from some 10 days ago against the current ones, her left lung has dramatically improved. She’ll probably be back for one last set of x-rays in three weeks. Hopefully all will be in tip-top shape there.
Now, we just have one last hurdle…the pain in her right side that she has been dealing with for the past 2 weeks, since the surgery. There is a possibility that she has matter (stones) remaining in her bile duct which the gallbladder connected to. She sees the gastro-intestinal specialist today to get her consultation. But we’re hoping the worst may in fact be done with.
See, Tony got a major scare Tuesday, given his lack of ‘medical’ prowess.
The scoop…
Mom and I had just gotten back from her primary care appointment at about three. She had not had any lunch, if you even wish to call a diet of primarily liquids and minimal soft food “lunch.” A precursor here. Typically about 45 minutes to an hour after eating or rather ‘drinking’ her lunch, she starts in with pain in her right side. At that point in time, the worst pain she had experienced with this was rated a 9 (of 10 by mom). In any event, around 4 p.m. the in-home nurse arrived to check on my mom’s blood pressure, body oxygen levels, pulse, etc. Toward the end of the visit, close to 5 p.m., my mom finally had to excuse herself to go to the restroom since the pain was so bad. The nurse was done with her work and showed herself out of the house.
I had been fumbling through my mom’s purse to find her medical card. The nurse hadn’t been gone for more than 3-4 minutes. Suddenly I hear mom yell, “Come quick Tony.” I bolted into my mom’s bedroom, around the corner, and into the bathroom. I caught my mom just as she was slumping forward on the “throne.” When I pushed her back up, she was staring at me, more like right through me. I got absolutely no verbal or visible response from her. Not even any blinking of the eyes. All I could see was my dad’s face when he went comatose in those last few hours that he was battling cancer. I was borderline freaking. I thought my mom was having a stroke. I wanted to run downstairs and outside to see if the nurse might still be out front completing paperwork but I knew I couldn’t leave mom where she was without her getting hurt. I had my cellphone at my side and contemplated calling 911. Then I said to myself, “Just get her over to the bed first.” I picked her up under her arms and dragged her over to the bed. As soon as I sat her down, I got a bit of a visual reaction from her but no verbal. I then laid her on her back and started to pull her legs up and around to the bed. She snapped out of whatever she was in.
Mom could see my panic and asked what was wrong. I told her she blanked out on me for about 2-3 minutes. I told her I was calling 911…she said no. She wanted me to take her blood pressure first. Did she say blood pressure? My gosh, I hadn’t done that in years. I got it done with the assistance of a call to my ‘nurse’ sister. Her BP initially came in at 70 over 30. Hello, can we say, “Are you alive mom.” Way too low. Fortunately it slowly elevated and by the time we had gotten off the phone with the emergency advice nurse, it was up to a more reasonable, though not ideal, range for mom.
So does that sound like a real phone event to deal with…not! I have to say, it’s tiring monitoring and watching someone on a minute-to-minute or hour-to-hour basis. I got home yesterday and simply headed over to my sister’s house to lay by and swim in the pool. And it felt soooooo gooooood!
Hopefully I didn’t bore you all to death…just needed to get this off my chest. What matters is she is OK. Time to move forward.
P.S. Sending some big hugs and well wishes out to Bigg and Spider as they progress through their rounds of chemo. Keep them in your thoughts please as this stage of treatment is not fun and is taxing both emotionally and physically.
OK! It’s my last fling of the summer. And what an unbelievable 5 months since graduating the first week of April. I have been truly blessed in that respect. I’m glad I got to meet several new people along the way. So if you didn’t already pick up on it, I am heading up to Toronto to spend time sightseeing and meeting up with friends, their partners/boyfriends, and other bloggers. There’s one special bud I’ll be seeing…I’ll leave it at that. I’ll also be seeing the likes of Jeff and Al. I even discovered that Jason is heading up to Toronto too so we are hoping to all gather up Saturday or Sunday. And I hear that Friday night is Bear Night in Toronto…my heart be still. LOL. Should be an incredible Labor Day weekend.
