Sunday, June 20, 2010

When Life Throws Insanity Your Way.....


Well the dreaded time in our lives when the worst you could expect happened to Carl's Mother.
Last Monday we got one of those phone calls you don't want to get.

Carl was just starting his work day when his Brother called to tell Carl that he had to take their
97 1/2 year old Mother into the hospital emergency as she was complaining of shortness of breath and a tightness in her chest. So Carl took the subway to Scarborough to be with his Mom and Brother.

The Dr's did the tests to rule out heart stuff and they noticed she was quite swollen from the waste down to her toes. Plus they revealed that her hemoglobin was quite low. So the Dr's gave her two units of blood.

Then they set to the task to determine why she needed the blood and that was not so clear. By Friday evening they released Carl's Mom from hospital, but still did not know what happened to her, and they asked her to return this Tuesday to meet with the Dr's, and perhaps by then some other test results would tell them what the issue was-whether she was bleeding somewhere or had a bone marrow issue.

Well, about 12 hrs after she returned home she fell and broke her hip and bashed her head and cut her arm. And a phone call at 5:46AM Sat morning had us scrambling and making phone calls.
Carl took off to the city, and I called Alex and Amber in Peterborough, to come and get me and go with me to Scarborough. Alex and Amber and Cam and Mishelle and I headed to the hospital.

The Dr's still didn't know the whys of her blood issue so as a precaution they gave her another unit of blood and morphine and prepped her for surgery.

Things did not look good.....the whole family came to see her before surgery and off she went. 45 minutes after the surgery began... the surgery was over without a hitch. They did it with her awake and frozen from a spinal so she could survive it, and she came around just about 45min after that! Two hours after that she was sitting up and eating crackers and enjoying jello and tea!

Today she is more alert and is ready to walk! So I think Monday morning she will get up and walk on a brand new hip! Now she is the 97 1/2 year old bionic woman and she is determined to walk and get to go home after recovery.

The 20th was Carl's birthday and the last time his Mom was in the hospital was 53 years ago when she spent three days in labour with Carl before they gave her a C section.

I am so surprised and quite delighted at her recovery so far. She is alert and can now recall the details of her fall, and can tell us about the weird experience she had in the morning when she awoke confused and disoriented from the pain meds, and how she knew it was not her right state of mind!

I cannot imagine living to 97 1/2 years old. It just amazes us how great her mental acuteness is even after such an ordeal.

Today she had cake with us in the hospital room with lots of the grand kids and great grand kids present, to celebrate Carl's birthday. Then she told us he was born at 2 mins before 12.

So our anniversary and Carl's Birthday and Father's day were spent apart while Carl lived in the city to help his Brother with his Mom.

So now we ask for everyone to put her in your prayers so we can hope for a good recovery for her, that enables her to go back to her home instead of having to go to a nursing home.