This has been a week I wasn't expecting. Tuesday night my mother called me and was having trouble getting a deep breath. She described it like having concrete in her chest. This wasn't totally surprising as she'd been sick with the flu and her usual, but recently rather severe, allergies. What was unusual was how sick she sounded. I immediately hopped in the car and drove out to her place.
I was alarmed when I got inside the house and found her standing, having just finished dressing. Her breathing was extremely labored. We got into my car and I drove to the Heart Hospital of Austin. We were in the ER from 1030pm that night until 1pm the next day at which time she was admitted to a room.
The ER Dr decided to do a CAT scan of her chest to get a good look at her lungs. While the scan confirmed that her lungs were in bad shape with bronchitis and emphysema, the frigtening surprise came in the discovery of an aneurysm in the ascending aorta of her heart. A serious, fairly large aneuryism would be 3-4 cm. Mother's aneurysm is 7 cm.
So she's facing open heart surgery to repair this bubble on her heart. The surgery would be difficult for someone my age who had never smoked. For a 70 year old who has smoked for 50+ years, it's far more than difficult. The odds are not on her side. Currently the Dr's are working on improving her lung function. It's a slow, slow process without much improvement as of this writing.
I've got to admit that I'm really scared about all this and I'm really exhausted. I got virtually no sleep the first 26 hours and was just running on anxious energy. No one else has the time to watch over mother's care so it's largely fallen to me. It means visits to the hospital in the morning and evening and verifying every medication and procedure. It's also not clear how long we're looking at before she can have surgery. But I'll keep on doing what needs to be done because that's what you do for the woman who brought you into the world.
The bottom line is that this son is not yet ready to lose his mother. She's stuck by me and shown me unconditional love always, even when I wasn't very lovable.
I'm scared and hurting.
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1 comment:
Oh my gosh, I know this is a pretty late reply but how is your mom doing? I'm a young girl myself with a mother that is always really busy and never has time to relax. Recently she's been having some body problems like allergies and the flu and i'm really scared for her even though I never show it. I always tell her to relax but she never does because she has to work. As much as I want to, I cant do anything about it. She has the flu right now and is making dinner for my dad, which she shouldnt be doing. She should be resting. I hope everything gets better for both of us. (:
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