Another Bought Lesson

The buyer this time...my mother. A few weeks ago while visiting my parents, I noticed that my mom had this horrible cough. I asked her about it and she said her Doctor had prescribed antibiotics, but she just couldn't shake it. She said it was a dry cough and once she started, she coughed for it seemed like ten to fifteen minutes. I told she needed to go back to the Dr. Russell and have him do xrays. Two weeks passed and everytime I called I would ask her if she'd been to see Dr. Russell. Of course she hadn't, but she was still coughing and now her energy level had plummeted. She also said she was breating and wheezing just like my grandfather was on the night of his death. So when I talked to her the past Sunday, she said she was planning to go the next day. Of course I called to find out if she'd been and she told me that Dr. Russell was out and she was going the next day. While on my break my mom called and left a message, "Call me on my cell phone when you get a chance." So when I called her I told her that I knew she was in the hospital and she sounded surprised. I informed her that (1) I knew something was serious by the way she was coughing and (2) she left instructions to call her on her cell phone. Anyone who knows my mom knows she never wants anyone to call her during the peak hours on her cell, she tries to conserve her anytime minutes for emergencies.

She said yes, Dr. Russell told her she had to stay because her oxygen level was low, her blood pressure was up and she had a lot of fluid. Her diagnosis...congestive heart failure. This is the second time in the past ten years my mom has been hospitalized with this condition. I think this time will be her wake up call to start eating and exercising. She has lost fifteen pounds since being admitted, a lot of fluid. She is to be released Friday morning, so I'm packing up tonight, so I can help out around the house. She said her house is a wreck, but Richard Carson has told us not to sweat the small stuff and believe me in the grand scheme of things, a junky house is small.

It is times like this that I'm glad I'm only three hours from my parents. I told my sister not to worry about trying to to to AR. She is seven hours aways, just started a new job and has a family to tend to, so this is where I can pick up the slack and drive down to take care of our parents. Plus, there is a party I want to go to Saturday night!