Wow... what a week.
Last week I was sick and stayed home from work for 3 days, then it was the weekend. Yay!
So I go back to work on Monday. It felt good be back into a regular schedule. And then around 3 my mom sends me a text:
"Back in hospital going into surgery right away"
Great.
At first I thought she was joking, no such luck.
So after work I go in and stay the night, slept for 3 hours and watched George of the Jungle and started the 5 hour Pride and Prejudice. She almost fainted while going to the bathroom. Did you know you can fit 5 people into a bathroom? Well they can and thankfully that night she was made a priority, which was saying something as that floor was full of patients. Rough night.
Next Day:
The surgeon comes an puts an antibiotic into her sack around her lung through her chest tube. The purpose of this is to inflame the outside of the lung and the sack around the lung to create scar tissue that will act kind of like flue, keeping the lung open so it doesn't collapse anymore. After 2 shots of morphine, toradol, and a numbing agents provided by the doctor, her pain, on a scale from 1 to 10, was a 20.... for 45 minutes straight then it slowly, ever so slowly, went down to an 8 over the next 4 hours.
Longest 5 hours of my life. Before bed she did go on a walk, obviously feeling much better than a few hours before. Good news is that night we both got 8 hours of sleep and we had a SUPER nice (and cute) CNA named Trinity.
The 3rd day was pretty good, she was able to go to the bathroom by herself and she went on a a few walks. The Pulminologist did order a test, which she was super afraid of because the way he described it... well it was scary.
"We are going to blow albuterol directly into your lungs and inflate them as much as they can go." He told us. "Will I need 1 or 2 shots of morphine?" My mother asked.
After pausing he answered "Anything we do right now is going to hurt."
Way to get her excited! *eyes roll*
She asked several nurses what it was going to feel like and the one who gave her a real and truthful answer, Matt, she didn't believe. Probably because he was the one who tricked her into walking ALL THE WAY to the window her first time staying in the hospital. ;) She finally did believe the nurse from respiratory who explained it like this: "First we are going to do a nebulizer, which just is an oxygenated form of albuterol to help your lungs function better. Then we will blow air into your lungs to expand then and you will suck in and then blow out, against the air that is blowing in." And that is exactly what happened. Thankfully that didn't hurt at all, in fact she said she felt extremely good after that, like she had just got off the tredmill. Now she just has to do that 4 times a day so her lung scars in the right places.
Today her chest tube came out and she might be able to come home! I came home this morning and slept for a few hours then went grocery shopping.
She had an x-ray but they still don't know if she will be coming home tonight or not.
I am glad my work is being so kind. They said I could take as much time as I needed. If she has to stay in the hospital, I'll probably sleep with her tonight and then go to work in the morning, if she comes home then I'll stay and take care of her. Last time she said home was a lot harder than the hospital because everything was so much farther away.
Lisa (our Realtor) gave me a ride home today, she commented that someone my age shouldn't have to do what I am doing for my mom, at least not yet. But here I am, having done it 3 times in the last year. I think that is ok, life experience. I am glad I have the ability to be there for my family and to help them with what ever they need.
