I have some other blogs about various things, such as music, reviewing DVD's, one for interactive story telling. but this one I decided to use for my own space. The space that I take up in this world, the air I breathe, me me me me. A place to gripe, cry, complain, and just get things off my chest. So here goes.

I got a call today around noon. It was my mother. She lives about 10 miles from me. I had found out that she was sick from my sister-in-law Friday night. She said she was short of breath and was really couphing quite a bit. I and my sister-law wanted to take her to the hopsital to get her checked out. We had talked about the clinics all being closed and she would not be able to get in until Tuesday after the new year. We then called my sister and told her what we were going to do. She told us she would call mom and then call us back.

About 30 minutes later she called back and said she didn't think there was anything to worry about. She thought she had the same thing as her husband, which she thought was probably the flu or a cold. She said 3 of her kids and her grandkids had the same thing, and that someone should just go check on mama in the morning.

Well that sounded logical to me so I in turn contacted my sister-in-law and told her what the new plan was. The next Saturday my sister called me and said that she had talked to mama and had been told she felt better, so no worries. We would call her again Sunday and make sure she was still ok. I might add here that my mom will be 70 in March, has lung disease, heart disease, a pace maker, and several stents. So when she gets sick it seems we worry a little more about her.

Anyway, I got a call from her around noon today and she could hardly breathe and wanted to go to the hospital. I told her I was on my way. I immediately called my sister-in-law and told her to go over there until I could get there. Hey it is Sunday and was just lounging around in my jammies. I threw some clothes on, called my sister, and out the door I went.

My sister did not go, she said her husband woke up feeling worse also and that she didn't want to leave him and he was thinking about gonig to the hospital himself. No biggie to me, I totally understand that.

I got to mama's and my brother and sister-in-law were there waiting on me. My sister-in-law was sitting with mama on the bed and my brother was flipping through the TV channels. I tried to be lighthearted and make her smile by saying. Hey mama, can we call an ambulance? that would be so cool and all the people in the apts would wonder what was going on. To my surprise, she said yes. Then I knew she was probably sicker than we thought.

We didn't really call an ambulance but put her robe and slippers on and loaded her into the car. My brother and sister-in-law with my mom in one car and me in my truck. I thought it better to take more than one vehicle in case one of us needed to leave.

We got there and there were already 3 people in the emergency rooms and no beds. So we waiting unti they got through with one and moved them out and finally after about 20 minutes of waiting she got a bed. In the meantime my sister called and sure enough she was bringing her husband in too. My mom kept telling them she couldn't breathe, they hooked her up to a moniter and told her the O2 saturation was like 92 and she was ok, it was probably congestion.

They took the moniter off of her. She continued to compain she could not breathe so they hooked her back up to the moniter and gave her some oxgen. She had some really bad couphing spells during this time and it really was a good thing she had the oxygen on. Finally the Dr came in and saw her. He told her she was on the border of having pnuenomia but if he did what he told her to, she could go home. Then he asked if she lived alone, which she does. Then he said they would take the O2 off of her and watch her saturation but really would prefer if someone stay with her. Her saturation stayed at about 92 which wasn't too bad and then it fell to the low 80's and he said she was staying.

We got her in a room and they did all the things they do, hooking up IV taking blood, and then they gave her a breathing treatment. She only had one couphing spell after the treatment so that was good. They also gave her antibiotic and she started getting sleepy so we decided to leave so she could get some rest.

I called at about 10:30 tonight to talk to a nurse to see how she was and I was told she had been given her breathing treatment and her meds and that she still was short of breath, but she was sleepy at the time. I wasn't sure I should go back to the hospital tonight or not. I was afraid if I did that my mom wouldn't rest well knowing I was sitting in a chair, so I chose to stay home and get up early and get in there before the Dr comes. I already have my clothes out so I can hop into them and go should we get a call that we need to come.