Monday, May 19, 2008

A Year Ago Today

This was my mom in Florida in July, with her beer on the beach...



A year ago today everything changed. We were at Kings Island and did not stop at my parents as it was around 930 before we got out of the park and Tyler was DRENCHED from the one ride and my mom had not been feeling well. We were home maybe 1/2 hour at the most and my sister called and said they were calling 911 for my mom as she was very confused. We all decided to go and then my sister called back and said she fell in the bathroom. The story on that was she kept saying she had to "pee" and my dad said then go..she would just sit on the side of the bed confused (she was FINE before this). Well when the paramedics got there they said Go to the bathroom..she got up and went in her bathroom as 3 men stood there. My sister gets there and says where is she..they said in the bathroom and she said she is moaning..they open the door and she FALLS out and hits her head on the nightstand and cut her legs on the floor and door. She was A MESS!!! We at this point thought maybe she had a stroke.
At the hospital they thought she had some type of infection and starting treating her that way. Hank took my dad home during the night and my sister and I stayed. Around 4 they moved her to a room so I told my sister to go home and I would stay..the next morning when the new nurse came in I said I thought she looked BAD and she was breathing labored. She said I am glad you said this as what the night nurse has written up and what I am seeing is not the same...my moms DR. happen to be walking down the hall so he was in the room as soon as he was paged. He checked her and then told me we had to make a decision on life support as her organs were failing and he did not give her 24 hours but he thought it would be more like hours. (I will never forget this as long as I live). I just sat there in shock. I went in the other room to call my sister to get her and my dad up there..as soon as she answered I lost it..thank god the nurse was there as she took the phone from me. They came up and we had a meeting with another Dr and a nurse and this is when the Dr. said I can not say she was Cancer for sure but I am 99.9% sure she has pancreatic/liver cancer by the x-rays. My parents have always said they wanted a DNR so this is what was decided. They were surprised she made it through the day and as the day went on her blood pressure and heart rate came up. She was in ICU for almost 2 weeks and then in another room for around a week and when she came home Hospice was involved. She never walked with out a walker again and she started Chemo in June. We did get her to FL. in July (we all flew) and she came home and we found out she had blood clots in her legs and was in a hospital bed at home from then on. I am SO THANKFUL that we got her to FL as she loved the beach..not the water..just the beach. The Dr said with chemo she would guess 6 to 9 months and my mom said OH GOOD I will be here for Christmas..well the chemo was not working and she got worse and passed away in Sept. She made it 4 months to the DAY from when they gave her less then 24 hours.
Tyler said the other week that he thinks Grandma is in Vegas in Heaven playing the slots and winning and having a heck of a good time.. I choose to agree with him!

3 comments:

Suzanne said...

Ty is so insightful! I know how much she loved the beach and it was truly a blessing that you were all able to go as a family.

2 kids...3 martinis said...

Oh Diana, I could feel how hard that was for you to write, but I hope it made you feel a little better today. These dates get burned into our minds forever it seems. Your mom sure was a fighter coming back from the brink and staying with you for some more wonderful times. She was so lucky. And so were you.
I like the way you and Tyler choose to see it now, with your mom in heaven at a casino! I'd wouldn't be surprised if my dad's up there too playing blackjack and knocking back a few in between his hunting and fishing trips. Maybe they've met? :)

Immortal Woman said...

I lost my mother over 10 years ago, sometimes I think I am the only one that remembers the day. I wrote her a poem this year. "It is not just another day 5/6/08" on my blog. The date of your loss just never seems to fade.