A Thanksgiving Story and a brief warning about Carbon Monoxide poisoning
I had written a friends only post a month or so ago about all the drama in my life, which included my mom getting sick.
This is a warning story, but I think it's going to have a very happy ending.
in brief, Mom came to visit me shortly before I moved to my new place, and wasn't "right." Her emotions were flat and she was confused. We rushed her to the hospital, fearing a stroke, and she stayed for several days, had CT scans, MRIs, etc. No stroke, and they couldn't figure out what was wrong. But she got better, and came back to herself. It was like it had never happened.
My deep-down fear was some kind of dementia, because her mother (age 95) is now in the nursing home with end-stage Alzheimers. And Grandma's sisters all went through it, then died of pneumonia, all in their mid-late 90s. So of course that was my secret fear.
Over the last week, she started deteriorating again, but not to the point of feeling we had to rush her to the hospital. She still seemed to be able to take care of herself and carry on a conversation, though strained. However, I think she was doing a good job of faking it, and hiding the fact that she's been having hallucinations of CIA plots and other bizarre things. In fact, she had told me (after she got well) that she'd had strange hallucinations for a month or two of me being a CIA agent and a clone. If she were 25 years old, I'd start thinking schizophrenia or something, but mental illness just doesn't spontaneously appear in someone that old, and she has no history of mental illness.
Cut to the chase...last night, my aunt and uncle arrived at her house for a few days visit, and I was going this morning (two hour drive), with Thanksgiving dinner at her house. I made pies and everything! When my aunt and uncle got there last night, her house was cold. Furnace was out. She said she wasn't cold...even though the midwest was hit with the first major winter storm yesterday, and it was COLD. They said it was freezing in her house, and they called the power company.
Power guy came out, said the wind had blown out the pilot light, but no idea whether that happened yesterday or a month ago. (Was very windy yesterday, 50 MPH winds, so hopefully just happened)
However...he then detected carbon monoxide, and ordered everyone out of the house immediately. He said "God blew out that pilot light," meaning that it took the furnace going out to discover the leak.
They all went to a motel for the night and didn't call me until this morning (bah, but I understand their reasoning).
So now people are headed HERE for T-giving dinner, we've decided the turkey was poisoned and Boston Market will be doing our dinner. (YAY FOR THEM FOR BEING OPEN!)
I've called Poison Control, and we are discussing taking her to the hospital when they get here. Problem is, she's very paranoid, thinks nothing is wrong with her, and we're worried it will feed into the CIA plot thing. We don't want to freak her out. And the fact that she spent the night in a motel with good air means most of the CO would be out of her blood. So we're debating all of that now and trying to figure out the best thing to do.
We'll deal with getting the furnace fixed tomorrow or the next day, and she'll stay here with me until it's fixed and she's back to normal.
The symptoms of ongoing Carbon Monoxide poisoning: hallucinations, confusion, memory disturbance and EVERY SYMPTOM MY MOM HAS/HAD. The ones they usually list are things she might not complain about (she is very stoic), or she may be so confused she didn't know: stomach problems, headaches, etc.
The bad news is that my poor mom has been being poisoned for god only knows how long. The good news is that we may FINALLY have an answer on what's been wrong with her. The doctors were all stumped and made no diagnosis.
And the best news of all is that God, or a guardian angel, or something blew out that pilot light and caused them to have to call the power company, who discovered the leak. Before my aunt, uncle and cousin slept there, and before I ended up with a tragedy on my hands.
My mom is alive, though sick, but she'll get better and now we know what we're dealing with. And my aunt, uncle and sweet little cousin are alive. (She's actually 16, but always my baby. I love her so.)
On this Thanksgiving Day, I say THANK YOU to my guardian angel, whoever you are. This is the best Thanksgiving ever.
As I learn more about carbon monoxide, I'll be back, on a mission...
This is a warning story, but I think it's going to have a very happy ending.
in brief, Mom came to visit me shortly before I moved to my new place, and wasn't "right." Her emotions were flat and she was confused. We rushed her to the hospital, fearing a stroke, and she stayed for several days, had CT scans, MRIs, etc. No stroke, and they couldn't figure out what was wrong. But she got better, and came back to herself. It was like it had never happened.
My deep-down fear was some kind of dementia, because her mother (age 95) is now in the nursing home with end-stage Alzheimers. And Grandma's sisters all went through it, then died of pneumonia, all in their mid-late 90s. So of course that was my secret fear.
Over the last week, she started deteriorating again, but not to the point of feeling we had to rush her to the hospital. She still seemed to be able to take care of herself and carry on a conversation, though strained. However, I think she was doing a good job of faking it, and hiding the fact that she's been having hallucinations of CIA plots and other bizarre things. In fact, she had told me (after she got well) that she'd had strange hallucinations for a month or two of me being a CIA agent and a clone. If she were 25 years old, I'd start thinking schizophrenia or something, but mental illness just doesn't spontaneously appear in someone that old, and she has no history of mental illness.
Cut to the chase...last night, my aunt and uncle arrived at her house for a few days visit, and I was going this morning (two hour drive), with Thanksgiving dinner at her house. I made pies and everything! When my aunt and uncle got there last night, her house was cold. Furnace was out. She said she wasn't cold...even though the midwest was hit with the first major winter storm yesterday, and it was COLD. They said it was freezing in her house, and they called the power company.
Power guy came out, said the wind had blown out the pilot light, but no idea whether that happened yesterday or a month ago. (Was very windy yesterday, 50 MPH winds, so hopefully just happened)
However...he then detected carbon monoxide, and ordered everyone out of the house immediately. He said "God blew out that pilot light," meaning that it took the furnace going out to discover the leak.
They all went to a motel for the night and didn't call me until this morning (bah, but I understand their reasoning).
So now people are headed HERE for T-giving dinner, we've decided the turkey was poisoned and Boston Market will be doing our dinner. (YAY FOR THEM FOR BEING OPEN!)
I've called Poison Control, and we are discussing taking her to the hospital when they get here. Problem is, she's very paranoid, thinks nothing is wrong with her, and we're worried it will feed into the CIA plot thing. We don't want to freak her out. And the fact that she spent the night in a motel with good air means most of the CO would be out of her blood. So we're debating all of that now and trying to figure out the best thing to do.
We'll deal with getting the furnace fixed tomorrow or the next day, and she'll stay here with me until it's fixed and she's back to normal.
The symptoms of ongoing Carbon Monoxide poisoning: hallucinations, confusion, memory disturbance and EVERY SYMPTOM MY MOM HAS/HAD. The ones they usually list are things she might not complain about (she is very stoic), or she may be so confused she didn't know: stomach problems, headaches, etc.
The bad news is that my poor mom has been being poisoned for god only knows how long. The good news is that we may FINALLY have an answer on what's been wrong with her. The doctors were all stumped and made no diagnosis.
And the best news of all is that God, or a guardian angel, or something blew out that pilot light and caused them to have to call the power company, who discovered the leak. Before my aunt, uncle and cousin slept there, and before I ended up with a tragedy on my hands.
My mom is alive, though sick, but she'll get better and now we know what we're dealing with. And my aunt, uncle and sweet little cousin are alive. (She's actually 16, but always my baby. I love her so.)
On this Thanksgiving Day, I say THANK YOU to my guardian angel, whoever you are. This is the best Thanksgiving ever.
As I learn more about carbon monoxide, I'll be back, on a mission...