Reflections

Getting straight to the point, my mother is still alive. She's in the ICU and she was given a breathing tube to assist her because she was doing so poorly. As of 1:15am she is in stable condition with acceptable vital signs and under sedation. So all things considered, she is holding her own at the moment.

For those of you that don't know, she has COPD, which basically means she has difficulty breathing. She's been diagnosed with this for a few years now, but unfortunately she hasn't been a good patient. She has ignored orders to stop smoking and she doesn't exercise or take care of herself. I'm not harping about that though, those were her choices, but they've led to her being where she is at what I feel is an early age of 58. She's always been well aware of all this, but continued to live that lifestyle. To say the least, she's stubborn!

My previous post early hinted that I might be mean or bitter and I thankfully wasn't, but I think I know myself enough to know that eventually you will be subject to a rant or more about this topic. Part of this stems from the relationship I've had with my mother. We've never broken off ties or lost touch with each other, but our relationship has been strained for many many years. We aggravate each other, and I'm often accused of being an arrogant ass and know-it-all, and those are some of the better days.

My current frustration with her though is very closely related to tonight's event. I've been politely after her for months now to switch her disability insurance from Arizona to Illinois because I didn't think she looked healthy and in my opinion she needed to have medical checkups while she was here. She fought me tooth and nail the entire time for reasons she'll probably never truthfully tell me, and now she's lying in a bed sedated and being forced to breathe.

To compound matters, she's previously stated she didn't want any types of resuscitation should her health fail, but she never had that put in writing and the medical staff at her hospital followed normal procedures. My sister Teri is flying in tomorrow from Arizona and together we're going to make the hard decisions depending on how she is holding up at that time. Tomorrow will be a tough day for sure.

While this drama was playing out we had some emergencies and problems of our own here at my house. Meva and I aren't too sure exactly what happened, but our dog Gus bit our daughter Sarah in the face and opened up a gash below her left eye that needed stitches! So here I was trying to coordinate and acquire information for everyone and make my way to see my mother in the ER, when Sarah needs to go for a visit herself. With it being a Friday evening, Meva and I figured it would be around a six hour visit as we wait for stitches, which because of my mother couldn't have come at a worse time.

Since Meva is a Physician Assistant, she could actually do this herself, except we're not in the habit of carrying sutures and sterile equipment around with us, even at home. So, Meva drove to her work and got everything we needed for this so that she could do the procedure herself here at home, thus saving us at least 4 hours. Once Meva got back, we put the boys to bed (it was already past their bedtimes anyways) and together we gave Sarah two stitches in her cheek right on our living room floor! Sarah is doing OK, she's a tough little monster. Our dog Gus however is on borrowed time. He's either going to live with Meva's parents or he's going back to the adoption agency we got him from (that was all a part of the adoption agreement).

But wait, there's more!!

Meva has a bad habit of not putting the cordless phones back on the chargers when she's done talking. Because it wasn't stressful enough to just deal with the above on its own merit, the phones were constantly dying and made the entire process more difficult than it needed to be.

Friday was also supposed to be the day Meva's mother came home from the hospital at the end of almost 6 months of treatment for cancer. It took us a few hours (and a Dr. Meva Medicine Woman episode) before we could even call, and then we had to limit the duration of the call to save the juice. It turns out she didn't get discharged yet. Hopefully that will happen this weekend--it sucks having both mothers in the hospital at the same time.

And to put a topper on the evening, as I was bringing Ryan to bed to tuck him in, I was holding him and giving him his normal extra hugs and kisses, he got sick and threw up all over me and himself while Meva was still on her way back with the stitches, leaving me alone to get puked on and deal with the clean up and the other two babies. Let me just tell you that I have been thrown up on quite a bit by the triplets since they all had reflux when they were born, but this was the absolute worst and most foul-smelling vomit yet. It was truly Exorcist quality stuff, so that required a nice unexpected shower for the two of us!!

But, that was my evening and that's how things currently stand with my mother. I 'll fill everyone in on more as I get the info and have the time to do it. Wish me luck!