Monday, February 18, 2008

An Unexpected Turn of Events

On Friday morning, my dad called me as I was starting my drive to Jonesboro to let me know that my mom had a bad case of the flu and had suffered from chills and vomiting the night before.

My mom definitely seemed rough, like she was getting over the flu, when I arrived. Since she seemed like she was getting better, my dad and I went on to the Reba and Kelly concert (I will post a picture or two later). Our seats were really great, and Reba and Kelly closed the concert with "Fancy," which was totally awesome.

Not awesome was the fact that my mom was still sick on Saturday. And we're talking SICK. Not just "sick." SICK.

My dad finally convinced her around noon to let us take her to a walk-in clinic. We had to wait nearly an hour and a half before the doctor could see her. The wait was horrible because my mom felt so bad and nearly started crying a couple of times because she had planned so many things for us to do this weekend and we couldn't do any of them.

Fortunately, things went relatively quickly once she was called back. After her lab work was analyzed, the doctor surprised us all by telling us that my mom actually had a really bad kidney infection and needed to get to the hospital right away!

The hospital wasn't too far from the clinic, and they weren't very busy, so my mom was admitted pretty quickly. After that, the attending doctor visited and let my mom know in no uncertain terms that she would be there for a few days, then the lab person came for more blood, and then nurses came for vitals and to insert the IV (which was incredibly hard and painful....murrr). My dad and I left that evening....nearly 6 hours after we started our trip to the clinic.

My mom looked a lot better when we stopped by Sunday morning, even though she had had several fever spikes during the night. But she was totally wiped out when we came back after lunch because another episode of chills started soon after we had left.

Unfortunately, my brother and I had to leave in the afternoon. I thought about staying for another day, but I really would need to stay for another week because she isn't leaving the hospital today. I'll probably just go back this coming weekend.

The good news this morning is that she is eating some food and she hasn't had any more chills, just fever spikes.

What a weird weekend! Also, this will be a very memorable 65th birthday for dad (it was yesterday).

6 comments:

Bianca said...

Sorry to hear about your mom. Did she ever have kidney problems before? wow I hope she recovers well and that it's nothing serious. Keep us posted. Healing vibes to you and your family.

veggielover said...

I'm so sorry to hear that! I hope that your mom feels better soon!

BethD said...

"Here's your one chance Fancy don't let me Dooooooooooown!" Gawd, I love that song! I'm a little jealous.

Sorry your mom is so ill, but I'm glad you were able to be there to take care of her. How are they treating her? Do they think it was tainted food cuz it sounds like E. coli hemolytic uremic syndrome.

7-letter Deborah, never a Deb said...

Yikes! I hope your mom is doing better--sometimes dads get flummoxed so it's good you were there.

Carrie said...

Flummoxed is perhaps a good word to describe why my dad yelled at the health clinic people. :)

Also, Beth - I mentioned the e. coli syndrome thing to my dad. You are a good scientist.

Anonymous said...

Well written article.