Mom is home

After dropping my sister at the airport on Tuesday, I went back to the hospital and got the news that my mom was being released.

We brought her to my house, where she will spend the rest of her days and she has settled in quite well. I am getting used to the new routine and hopefully things will go much smoother soon. Hope Hospice has stepped in to offer all the support I need and I am grateful.

Rob and the kids have sacrificed a lot to get my mom here and I couldn't do it without them. I am hoping to get back to work soon and get life back on track.

Thank you for thinking of my mom and keeping her in your prayers. They worked! The hopsital staff was shocked that this woman made such a recovery.

Tired Smiles, Lynne

Thursday update

Things are going well. My mom left the ICU today and is now in a much more comfortable room without all the bells and whistles (literally).

She has had some wonderful nurses taking care of her. I have no idea how they can do what they do, but we are grateful. I have written down all the names of everyone who has helped her and I plan to do something very nice for them really soon.

My mom was very excited to sit in a chair today. She has been asking to do that since she started talking yesterday. She said "that's much better" and we all laughed.

We have been making arrangements for her care after her release. It looks as though she will be living with Rob and I for the rest of her days. We are fine with that decision but I have to admit, I am nervous about caring for her. At this point we are unsure how much care she will need but Hope Hospice has stepped in and offered full assistance for me which will be a nice transition.

Again, thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

Smiles, Lynne

Thursday update

First of all, thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers for my mom...it's working! Keep it up!

Tuesday was not a good day. I went to the hospital expecting for them to try to remove the ventilator tubes (as was their plan) but she was much too figity and they didn't want to try.

We were very disappointed.
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES!

Wednesday was a very GOOD day. My mom is off the tubes! She is breathing on her own. Her stats are strong and she even ate some applesauce. My sister flew in from Maine and my mom noticed her and said "Tracey" and held her face and kissed and kissed her. It was a very "kodak moment".

I will post all details later as I am headed back to the hospital. There are a few concerns still...like, can her heart take this event? But overall she is improving. She really is a strong woman.

Thanks again for all your love. We are feeling it!

SMILES, Lynne

Update on My Mom

Well, we are 48 hours into this event and there have been some small (yet positive)changes.
As you know in this situation, we take what we can get!

There were no changes overnight but within a half hour of me being in the room with her today, she started to wake up. She tried to sit up (she is strapped for safety) and she tried to swing her legs off the side of the bed. The day nurse felt that it was a positive sign and passed the info to the Dr.

He suggested that they shut down the breathing machine for an hour and she if she can hold her own for a while. After the hour they would check the oxygen levels in her blood to see if she was ready for the breathing tube to be removed.

She did great for the hour. It really must be an awful feeling to wake up and have a tube jammed down your throat. She gagged a bit but did seem to stay relaxed as much as she could. The key was to keep her heart rate down and get her breaths stronger and deeper.

The nurse had her blood labs done and she still had low oxygen levels. They felt that she could use another day of machine assistance. We will try again tomorrow.

I will post another update tomorrow.
Lynne

My Mom

As you may or may not know, my mother is battling lung cancer. She is a tough woman, but just when you think she has been dealt enough, something else comes her way.

On Saturday, my brother (who lives next door to her) got a phone call at work, from a concerned friend who hadn't been able to reach my mom at home all day. He got to her house about 4pm and found her in the bathroom unconcious.

He called 911 and they intebated her right in the ambulance and took her to the emergency room. Her temperature was 107.9.

I received a phone call that no one wants to get..."Mom's in the hospital, I found her unconcious and it doesn't look good".

We have no idea how long she was in the bathroom and that couldn't make me feel any worse, knowing that she was probably there for hours, helpless.

What seems to have happened is that she turned on the AC to cool off her house, but the fan was not on when my brother found her, so the house was over 110 degrees.

She suffered from heatstroke and is now in the ICU still unconcious. It's been 24 hours.

Today she did make some positive steps. When the doctor spoke her name, she did open her eyes. She also seems to respond to us kids talking to her. Even my sister Tracey in Maine talked to her on speaker phone and her heartrate went up by quite a bit. This gives us hope that she is still inside that frail body waiting to get stronger, before she makes her grand appearance again.

Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers as we would really appreciate them.
I will update when I have more info to share.

Lynne

Does bad luck rub off?

My sister seems to think that perhaps Ben left some of his accident prone ways in Maine.

Here is a photo of My Nephew Kyle's foot after a "fun" day at camp. Congratulations on joining the stitches club Kyle. Tracey, welcome to the emergency room club! Glad you could join me. I believe that it takes 3 or 4 visits to get the plaque on the door of the waiting room! Just 7 or 8 and you will get a visit from DHS! Just Kidding.Hope you feel better soon, Kyle!