Setbacks

Well I've made some really good progress on my dissertation. Long way to go but it feels SOOOO good to be racking up the hours and adding pages. I have plans to see a critically ill friend in another state next week right after a luncheon at the prison for the other intern and me. Our orientation for the consortium is on the 31st, but this is just for our local site. So I was going along happily, preparing to meet some friends for breakfast yesterday when I got The Call. Or at least we thought it might be The Call, but in the end it seems we got a reprieve.

My dad called my sister to tell her that he awoke to the bed shaking and discovered my mom having what looked like a grand mal seizure, but her skin was ashen and her lips were blue, one side of her face was sagging and her breathing was hoarse and erratic. He called 911 and then my sis, L. He thought she was having a massive stroke and was sure this was the End.

L called me and then we waited for close to an hour to find out if Mom was still with us and if so in what condition. When he finally called she was sitting up, talking and had good grip with both hands. So far she's had a CT scan and echo cardiogram and today she's scheduled for an MRI. The only thing that's show up so far is that her vesicles are enlarged, which is a result of her old age hydrocephaly that she had surgery for 6 years ago. They didn't put in a drain and my dad has been resistant to the surgery due to the risks of general anesthesia at her age. It's likely the pressure from the fluid buildup caused a seizure. Anyway this morning she was chipper and seemed her normal self. Last night she got up with all sorts of things attached to her and hauled them along behind her to the bathroom rather than waiting for a bedpan and this morning she tore out her IV. Sigh... this is good though, as it's her normal, uncooperative self. She's had memory problems for ages and they seem about the same, not worse, so hopefully she didn't lose any ground...

I certainly lost ground though. Yesterday was a complete wash and today hasn't been much better. Going to try to get back on track this afternoon with a few hours work. All the calls have been made to friends and relatives now but I'm still not very focused. I'm still recovering from being told this is IT, this is The Call we've been dreading, spending an hour thinking my mother might be dead, and then having it all go away again. Whew! Little hard on the system, that.

Oh, and then there was the cutoff brother in law who e-mailed me to say how much he has enjoyed exchanging e-mails this past year, but how he will never be in the same room with my parents or speak to them again and probably that was going to apply to L and me too, but do keep e-mailing by all means. Oh but don't worry I won't keep your sister, K, from interacting with you. Wow... nice timing!