I thought I was being SO CLEVER. I was going to get Elegante Mother on her feet little by little, and get her back to her usual schedule. NOT!
I posted about those plans early on Wednesday morning before we went off to exercise. EM walked into the area of the building where our class is held, but rather than exercise (she really isn’t ready to resume exercise yet), she sat and chatted with a friend. Our teacher was making a short trip, so I stopped to talk to her for a moment after class.
A member of the class is moving to California, to live near her daughter, so we were going on to a farewell breakfast following class. EM retraced her steps to the car, saying that it was tough going, but she made it. She walked into the restaurant a few moments later.
We had a pleasant breakfast with friends. It’s as much a social hour as a mealtime when we go out. We limit the breakfast trip to once a month. Usually we meet to celebrate the birthdays of that month, so we combined that celebration with our friend’s farewell.
About 10:45 I went to pay the bill, and EM rose, and said she felt dizzy. The ladies stood with her while I brought the car around, and she was able to make it to the car, and hoist herself in, with just a little help.
I had to drop off books at the library, and send some certified mail at the Post Office, and then we headed for home. It’s very hard to quantify Mother’s comments about being wobbly or about shoulders that hurt, or other ailments, so I let myself be guided by frequency and tone of voice. I was still thinking that things were going to be all right when we got home.
I pulled into the garage, hopped out of the car and unlocked the back door. I realized that Elegante Mother was speaking to me, and things sounded bad. She said something about it getting dark in the garage…and I FLEW back to her.
She was standing there with her dark glasses off, looking very frail and wobbly, and more than a bit uncertain. I put my arms around her and tried to position her so that she could sit back in the car, but the door was locked. No keys, no phone in hand; I was totally unprepared. EM leaned against me, and said she couldn’t stand any longer. She oozed down my front. I helped her to a seated position, and then to lay back. My mother was laying on the garage floor!!!
I called for paramedics. The guys were GREAT! Three firemen walked up our long drive first, and then the ambulance came up the drive. EM was already recovering. They whisked her off to the hospital, and I followed after making a few phone calls.
EM was in the emergency room for some time before she saw the doc, but nurses bustled in and out, and she had several tests taken. I think she arrived about 11:30 or so, and they weren’t able to find a bed for her until after 5:00. By then EM was getting just a little impatient, and she would much rather have gone home!
The docs decided that the new medications that were prescribed last week finally amassed a sufficient amount in her system to drop her blood pressure like a bucket filled with lead! The doc decided that EM would have to stick around overnight for observation. By this morning the effect of her drugs had totally worn off, and she was in good spirits. They took her off almost all the drugs, and we’ll add them back a little at a time.
We have another visit scheduled with her doctor. It’s become a once a week thing lately! I’ve got to get EM healthy simply because I HATE hanging at the hospital or sitting in the doctor’s waiting room.
EM’s upper respiratory “stuff” is improving. She rarely coughs now. YEA!!! Maybe health is just around the corner! Don’t hesitate to kid me the next time I make sounds like things are under control!
Arrrgh!!!
It's just my state of mind!
I’ve had a few trips to the hospital with my dad in recent months. Scary, glad EM is doing better. Wish her well from me.
With the knowledge gleaned from my own (late) mother’s situation, I can imagine the situation with the medications. Medication can be troublesome, even lethal, if too much builds up in our system. You/EM caught it early. Good for her and you!!
P.S. Not much of a camper are you(My mother was laying on the garage floor!!!) I’m sure that EM is no worse for her time on the garage floor. That was the least of her worries! ;^)
Cop Car, I could have caught this earlier if I was able to gauge the seriousness of EM’s comments. She may say, “I feel wobbly,” three days in a row, but she doesn’t give me any indication if the wobbliness is changing at all. It’s difficult for me to tell if the situation is getting worse, or if it’s a minor problem that may clear up on it’s own. Of course “getting wobbly” is a bad example. I should have called the doc the first time she said she was wobbly.
As for EM lying on the garage floor….it just struck me as the last place you’d ever think she would be. Mother on the garage FLOOR!!?? It WAS the least of our concerns, and she wasn’t there long. The firemen and paramedics were there fairly fast.
No….we’re not a camping family. My dad thought that camping out was going to a motel so you could use their swimming pool. None of us are very interested in sharing our space with mosquitoes and bears! *G*
Meds can be tricky, especially the ones that have to be “ramped up” into the system then stabilized.
A friend has her elderly mother living with them, so I have seen this 1st hand. They too hve a hard time deciphering how she doing and have to rely a lot on her weekly (sometimes bi-weekly if there seem to be problems) doctor’s visits.
WIWAK, when our family took a trip, Dad and we kids would sleep on the ground beside the car while Mom slept in the car. She was afraid of snakes.
It is hard enough interpreting our own bodies, let alone someone else’s. Certainly it would never have crossed my mind to take Mom to the doctor had she noted that she was “wobbly”. Good luck in this mind reading act.
My heart was in my throat as I read this, Buffy. What a harrowing experience? I’m certainly glad the firefighters and paramedics didn’t take as long as it did to eventually see a doctor. It is so ‘not right’ for ill people to have to suffer such long unreasonable waits once they get to a hospital — especially when they have a heads-up that someone is coming. I’m certain the paramedics let the hospital know they were bringing EM in.
Bogie, you’ve just described our situation. Mother was prescribed a strong diuretic. She was to take half a tab for three days, and then a whole tablet starting the fourth day. Guess which day of that schdule was Wednesday. Yup…..the first whole tablet. Thanks to the treatment for the upper respiratory stuff we will have seen the doc weekly for a month by next Thursday. Even HE has to do some guessing about what she needs, and he’s not always right. Mother is a tiny person, and just a minor change in her eating habits can throw things that used to work into a tailspin.
We’ll just have to keep trying things until we have it right.
Cop Car, I can not imagine my mother lying on the ground! Like YOUR mother, mine is deathly afraid of snakes. And, her father created a prototype of the pop-up camper way back in the 1920s, and when they went fishing or camping, everyone slept up off the ground.
Yeah….I’m adding “mind-reading” to my list of jobs. Clearly, I didn’t think that “wobbly” warranted a trip to the doc, but it may in the future.
Roberta, the part where I knew I wasn’t in controll of the situation was harrowing, but once I called the paramedics, things were fine. At that point, Mother was already recuperating (she was lying down, so the blood pressure issue was temporarily resolved), and I had six burly guys helping me shortly after that. All I had to do was make several phone calls, and head to the hospital.
I need to explain about the delay in the hospital. She had attention and some tests even before I arrived. Then, there was what seemed like a long wait for a doctor to arrive. In fact, they were waiting for her situation to stabilize. They were waiting for some of the tests to return, and were watching her blood pressure and heart beat readings. Most likely the last two hours of the wait had to do with the hospital being filled to the brim. She might have been into a more comfortable, more private situation sooner, but they were waiting for a room to open up. Ultimately, she was moved to an “overflow” ward, and she was just fine there. She had a private room toward the end of the corridor, and there were only 25 rooms in the ward. We arranged for flowers, a book, a crossword puzzle book, and the newspaper to keep her busy, and called to order dinner. She told me that she got some sleep, so the floor must have been quiet.
I’m sorry if I implied that she received less that sterling care.
I could be in an ER for ten minutes, and it would seem too long. What about you?? *G*