The Most Important News: Mom is awake and has been released from the hospital.
Thank You, everyone, who prayed for Mom or sent positive thoughts our way. Your concern was truly uplifting (I’m sorry, I haven’t responded to everyone’s emails, comments, and texts yet) and I really feel like it made a difference. I cannot thank you enough.
She’s been home since last Wednesday(?). I don’t know anymore, the days all blurred together into some kind of horrific nightmare, to be honest. The past week and a half has been a trying time and altogether too surreal for my taste and most of the time I felt like I was trapped in a dream I couldn’t wake up from. This feeling was probably further exacerbated by the fact that I was getting, on average, 5 hours of sleep per night and spending 18 – 20 hours a day in the hospital.
Anyway. Mom is home, but she’s definitely not even remotely recovered. The pulmonary embolism caused a cascading effect in terms of damage and deterioration. She cannot, as yet, lift her arms above her chest (her right arm is the worst), the pneumonia caused some sort of problem with her lungs, and she suffered some sort of condition that I cannot pronounce or spell – muscle death, so she is also weak and quite unsteady. I’m also concerned about minor brain damage, but testing for that will have to wait another week, apparently.
Not to say we’re not grateful. We are extremely, almost painfully, glad she’s back. 10 days ago I began the heart-rending process of beginning to plan for her funeral, which was not at all unreasonable for the time. We, including her doctors, were not sure Mom would ever wake (one of the longest waits of my life), and we weren’t sure she would be able to survive a combined attack on her heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, and muscles. It seemed almost impossible that anyone could recover from all that – AND wake up from a coma.
Miracles obviously do happen, but it was not an experience I would ever care to repeat. And I do mean ‘ever’.
Now, of course, are more endless doctor’s visits, tests, and physical therapy. It’s going to be a long road, and I really, really hope Mom has the patience for it – something she’s not exactly known for :)
But, for now, she’s in her bed and we even bought her new books last week (The Son Of Neptune and Snuff), which means she’s relatively happy and comfortable – though annoyed as hell she can’t get up and down the stairs without help and sleeps for 12 hours a day.
The next 12 months are going to be interesting, to say the least.
For tonight, though, I’m going to call it a night and get (hopefully) enough sleep. Until the next post (which I fervently hope is not health or family related at all), I want to thank you again for your concern and patience.
Sweet dreams!
