Time for an Update?

Here we are, and it's a few days since I've updated you. Last you heard, mom had been transferred from the hospital over to the extended care facility. Well, that didn't last long. There was some sort of problem with some anti-anxiety drugs that they gave her, and so she was having trouble breathing, and they sent her to the emergency room early on Saturday morning. These things frustrate me, because of course I'm so out of the loop, I don't know what's going on. And the nurse in the ICU scared the hell out of me, telling me that mom's lungs and heart are in terrible shape, and making it sound like she might never be well enough to leave. WTF? That scared me, and some other things scared me, and it sounded like gosh, she might die anytime now, and maybe she had given up, deciding that her quality of life wasn't going to be what she wanted, so she was done. So I cried, and I called my grandma and made her cry, too. Grandma has already buried two of her four children, and would not like to outlive any more. So we got the whole family all worked up, and had a fairly surreal Saturday. Sunday, I called to see when they thought she might be taken off of the ventilator and be allowed to wake up, and instead of talking to the nurse in the ICU, I was able to speak to my mom, who was feeling MUCH better, was awake and alert and more chatty than she's been in over a week. I spoke to her doctor, who didn't mirror any of the concerns that the nurse the day before had shared with me. I'm still hoping to talk to another doctor about a more long term prognosis, and this is part of what is hard about being so far away...sometimes they don't want to give out information over the phone, and when they do, sometimes I don't think to ask a pertinent question until much later, and I don't know what the hell is going on.

I just called and spoke to my mom a few minutes ago, and she sounds great. She is more lucid and coherent than I've heard her in awhile. I believe this is because they have her off of the Paxil. She's asking for lemon drops, because her throat is so dry. I have a cousin in Anchorage, so I'm going to ask if he can bring her some. But more importantly, she is coherent enough to realize that although she has very little control over her life and its schedules right now, she would like to know what is going to happen, so she can give it some predictability at the very least. And she is planning to discuss this with her physical therapist and doctor, which is a huge improvement over her wanting me to call her nurse and ask her to go in and help her change her tv channel, which was how she was under the Paxil.

So that's the update, where we are now. Mom is doing well. Not as well as if her lungs were healthier, I suspect. But well. I'm not sure how long it will be before she is moved back to the extended care facility, and not sure how long between that move and her coming to California. But at least things are looking up.

And I thought of updating you on Saturday, telling you of all of my fears and how she might die at any time, but just talking to family about it was making me cry, and I hadn't told all of her friends and family yet, and didn't want folks to learn about it via the blog. I wish none of you would find out bad news, should it come, via the blog. But for today at least, the news is good, and mom's in fighting shape, looking forward to moving to CA and being closer to more family, though of course she will miss Richard and Kathy, and her beloved Hooligans, and her many, many dear friends in Juneau.