Episode 71 - March Madness


I'm sitting in the hospital room, again partaking in blog therapy.  As I face these final episodes, I am sad they will end, but grateful for the record I've kept of this last chapter of a wonderful life.  (Also that the blog has helped others, garnered me so much emotional support and possibly kept me from qualifying for a 12-step program.)


As I look back over the past three weeks, the term March Maddness fits so well.  March 1 - Grandma was taken to the hospital after falling out of bed at the care center.  In the early morning hours of March 3, she fell in her bathroom and again was taken to the hospital. She was admitted for five days.  She was doing well back at the care center, but when we saw her this past Saturday... she said she wasn't feeling 'that great' but that wasn't uncommon either. 


Monday, at work, I got several calls from the care center beginning about 10:15.  I was told they could hear no bowel sounds and were in touch with the doctor for a course of action.  If they didn't get the desired results, she'd be taken to the hospital for x-rays to check for an obstruction or something.  I checked back at noon (they thought they'd know at 11:00, but no word).  They said they were trying one more thing and would let me know by 1:00.  I missed their call at 1:08. When I called back at 1:15, the ambulance was there.  I quickly shut down my computer and gathered my things.  I'm not sure I put anything away.  I fully expected to return - if not today, at least tomorrow.


Our DIL from Columbia, MO (Bea) was spending her Spring Break from her senior year of college with us. Her husband (son, T.) has recently moved to Arizona to start a new job.  I called her as I headed out of town to let her know:


Bea: Do you want me to go with you?
Me: Do you want to?
Bea: I'm not dressed.
Me: You have two minutes.


Two minutes later, we were on our way west out of town. I was confident the ambulance was ahead of us.  Several miles later, as we ascended an incline on the roadway, I saw flashing lights.  Getting closer, we could see it was two ambulances. I slowed as we approached and saw the first one was from McVille.  I pulled over in front of it.  I got out and ran back to it (yeah, I didn't pull over "right" in front of it.)  The driver motioned me to the passenger side and rolled down its window.  I told him, "You have my mother." and he told me to open the door and come in.


There were four attendants with her, one I recognized.  His grandparents had been good friends from church and the community (both gone now).  He explained that Mom had experienced chest pain enroute and their crew had been called out to assist.  They were running a test and starting an IV to help her pain. She was conscious and obviously in pain.  She knew I was there and after maybe 10 minutes, they were ready to transport her. I told her I'd see her at the hospital.


As I stepped out of the ambulance the sky opened up with an imprompteu hail storm.  I ran the 50 yards or so back to my car, while being pelted with ice.  I hoped this wasn't an omen of a pending plague.  Bea had been making calls in my absence to T and also to enlist prayer troops.  We proceded on to the hospital while I wondered "What the Sam Hail was going on?"


At the hospital, Bea and I were directed to the ER waiting area.  I wasn't alarmed in the wait.  When three women came out and said Grandma's name, we rose and followed them.  One was Grandma's nurse... another a social worker, the last along for the ride I guess.  She went off in one direction as we went off in another.  They led us to a "Consult Room" which looked earily familiar to me.  I believe it was this room I was escorted to when I had brought a friend from work, who'd been called to the hospital because her husband had had a heart attack.  It was this room in which I prayed with friends when their son had been in a serious car accident.  I didn't like this room.


They explain: The tests they have run show Mom is having a heart attack and has in fact been having it for at least a day.  I was shaken.  There is damage to her heart.  Do I want any extraordinary measures should it stop?  I was unshaken.  No.  I started to cry.  Why was it so much easier to tell medical personel this when my loved one was not in distress?  Bea asked me if I wanted her to call DH.  Yes.


I called Belle's Daddy who works very near the hospital.  "Grandma has had a heart attack. I need you to come to the hospital."


BD:  She'll be ok though won't she?
Me:  I don't think so ... just come now.


I called my son in Chicago as Bea and I headed back to where Grandma was.  I told him what was happening and that I'd be in touch when I knew more.  I asked the social worker to call Pastor Tom.  As we opened the door and I saw my mother lying there - I knew two things: I was about to experience something I never had before... and that God is in control.

So ends Episode 71