Doctor, Doctor, Gimme Some News...

By the time Daughter and I got Mother to the hospital ER, things weren't going well, to say the least.

When Brother #1 called me a few minutes after seven a.m. to tell me I needed to "Go to Mama's and put her in the hospital" (WHAT?), she had been throwing up all night.

He'd been up all night long with her (they live in the same house). He'd called my other brother (henceforth to be called Brother #2), at 5:00 a.m. because he felt like he had to get to work to put up stock that the truck had dropped off.

Now, Brother #2 ain't in the best of shape himself, in fact he is having some surgery Monday. He had been there two hours or so when I was notified of the goings on.

I slapped on some clothes (my dang teeth didn't get brushed until that night, thank God for chewing gum) and went.

She wasn't throwing up too much anymore, and even the dry heaves had left, but she'd also refused to drink even a sip of water.  Daughter went to the store and bought Pedilyte and Sprite.

When she couldn't even keep four sips of Pedilyte down without puking green stuff, I told her we had to go to the ER.

When I asked Brother #1 why he didn't go during the night, he said she refused to go. Sigh.

The staff were kind and efficient and the diagnosis came back pretty quickly - a severe UTI. Blood work resulted in more alarming news. Apparently she'd let it go on for several days without telling anyone and the infection was in her kidneys as well, which can be quite dangerous.

So instead of staying in the ER a few hours to get a bag of fluid, she was admitted to the hospital, so she could receive IV antibiotics, too.

She saw a billion different aides, nursing staff, a medical student and a P.A. from New Hampshire. She told them all about her shoulder, her hip, her shingles. They would all listen patiently, then pull the conversation back to the serious problem of the moment. Finally it was dragged out of her that she'd been feeling "not right" in her lower abdomen area for "some time" and her back pain had really gotten pretty bad.

Keep in mind she's been to the doctor at least twice lately and failed to mention that...

So began the siege by this clan of room 204. Children, in-laws, grandchildren, all.

And tomorrow (or the next day) I will talk about the subject which begins with: "Now, which one are you?"

Run, people.

Run.