Jackieinpdx's Blog

My mother was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday after a couple of emergency room visits last week. She had surgery to clean out her carotid artery, the one that wasn’t previously operated on. The surgery went OK. However a couple of hours later she was in critical condition, actually they coded her. Her neck/throat area had swollen so much that she could barely breathe. She had lost a lot of blood. They do not know from where. Mom vomited pretty strongly and may have ruptured something. Anyway a couple of hours later the report was that the next few hours were critical and I don’t know if she was conscious or not or still under the effects of the drugs that knocked her out for surgery.

My niece (who my mother lives with her mother) works two blocks away from me picked me up yesterday and we went to the hospital  When we got there my sister Debi that my mom lives with was there along with another sister and her two 20ish kids, my aunt, my brother and his wife. My niece and I went in to the ICU to see my mom. She still had the breathing tube in so she couldn’t talk. The nurse told us to ask her yes and no questions. At one point my mom gestured to her feet. My niece asked her if she wanted her foot rubbed and started to rub it. My mom tried to shake her head no but with as my niece called it “all that biznezz” around her face and neck it was difficult. Then Erica said “Oh, you want me to take your sock off so I can show Jackie that you had your first ever pedicure and have fancy toenails?” Yep. I knew then that she wasn’t in as bad of shape as she looked. So they were able to take the breathing tube out later in the day. Mom was glad to be able to talk. The nurses say that she will probably be in ICU another day or two and then be released Monday if all proceeds well.

It was really hard for me to see my mom with all of the stuff stuck in her and her throat all bandaged up. ICU is not a place I will ever be comfortable in after Tara’s two stays with the cardiac arrest episodes. I did talk to Tara yesterday and she said she really doesn’t want to visit her grandmother in the hospital and certainly not when she is in ICU. And Tara can’t even remember a thing about her two stays in ICU. Tara said that if mom is out of ICU on Sunday and I go with her she would visit. But she would prefer to wait until her grandmother is at home.

Update – I just got off the phone with my sister and she said that if all goes well tonight mom will go home tomorrow. So today Tara did go to the hospital to see her grandmother but had a tough time and couldn’t go into the ICU by herself. One of my sisters and her daughter went with Tara but mom was  already asleep. My sister said that Tara freaked out and had a really hard time stepping foot in the ICU.

Filed under: family | Tagged: family, hospitals |