(no subject)
Jason, at eight AM after bursting into my room: Mom was in an accident.
Me, totally confused because wtf just woke me up?: What?
Jason: Mom was in an accident.
Me, still not comprehending that someone is speaking to me: What?
Jason, getting short-tempered: Mom was in an accident!
Me, totally terrified: WHAT?!?!?
Jason, rudely and using fake sign language because I must be deaf or something: Mom was in an accident, wake the fuck up!
Mom hit a motorcycle in a very low-speed, low-impact collision on her way to work this morning. She said she just didn't see him. She called Dad. The officers asked him if he was okay or whatever, because she looked a hell of a lot more freaked out than they thought she should, because really it wasn't a serious accident. They said the motorcycle and driver were scratched and bumped and angryfaced, but okay. Dad tried to get her out of that car and into his to get her to the hospital, but she couldn't stop holding on to the steering wheel and she couldn't get her on her feet or whatever. One of the officers called an ambulance and Dad came to pick up Jason and me. So we're sitting in the waiting room for a worryingly long time, and I'm only tearing up a little bit and Jason is making jokes about his car and Dad is sitting there doing whatever. And then the ambulance driver comes into the waiting room. She had a seizure in the parking lot of the hospital. Seizures are a new development. "You made the right decision calling us," the paramedic said. She aspirated when they gave her the medicine to stop the seizure or something so they intubated her.
For like the first hour or two of this before she got admitted to the ICU? I couldn't stop tearing up. I wasn't outright sobbing but I was pretty fucking close. But when they brought her to ICU they stuck us in this waiting room and I drank coffee and bitched about being forced to watch Sports Center (I know far more than I ever wanted to about the ref who rigged NBA games and Sterns' comments...) and by the time they brought us back to see her, I was mostly okay.
I was the only one there when the doctor said she was okay to have the tube pulled out. Dad was under the impression that nothing was going to change for awhile so it was safe to go pick up the car from where the officer parked it. And like. I kept hoping he would walk back in and I could leave, because it was horrible and she was uncomfortable and in pain and crying and trying to pull it out and gagging, but he didn't until they were almost done with it all. And like, I couldn't leave her even though I was no help whatsoever because she's my mom. She would have stayed if it was me in that position.
She doesn't remember any of that, except the very last which wasn't so bad compared to the very beginning. She's tired but she's speaking and coherent and giving people The Eyebrow and everything. There was this bad spot when she needed to have blood drawn for works and the chick from the lab couldn't get the vein. She poked twice and it really hurt Mom, she asked her (politely I might add) to get someone else, and the second woman got it in one try. And then someone who knows her model of ports came in and stuck her through that.
And yeah, we're home so all parties involved can get sleep. Dad's going back early tomorrow and I need to call the dentist to find out what time my appointment is at.
One of the doctors or nurses suggested that she might have had a small seizure and didn't realize it, because she'd never (known she) had one before.
The nurses are seriously awesome. They're friendly and they tell me everything that's going on, and everyone lets me mother everyone else, and it's not an event worthy of The Big Freak Out anymore, I guess. She's still in the ICU but they'll move her to a regular (spacious!) room and her regular oncologist will be back tomorrow and all this good stuff.
Some of the nurses from the cancer center came by to see her, two when she still had the tubes in. They looked just as freaked out as the rest of us. They all love my mom down there, I guess.
Me, totally confused because wtf just woke me up?: What?
Jason: Mom was in an accident.
Me, still not comprehending that someone is speaking to me: What?
Jason, getting short-tempered: Mom was in an accident!
Me, totally terrified: WHAT?!?!?
Jason, rudely and using fake sign language because I must be deaf or something: Mom was in an accident, wake the fuck up!
Mom hit a motorcycle in a very low-speed, low-impact collision on her way to work this morning. She said she just didn't see him. She called Dad. The officers asked him if he was okay or whatever, because she looked a hell of a lot more freaked out than they thought she should, because really it wasn't a serious accident. They said the motorcycle and driver were scratched and bumped and angryfaced, but okay. Dad tried to get her out of that car and into his to get her to the hospital, but she couldn't stop holding on to the steering wheel and she couldn't get her on her feet or whatever. One of the officers called an ambulance and Dad came to pick up Jason and me. So we're sitting in the waiting room for a worryingly long time, and I'm only tearing up a little bit and Jason is making jokes about his car and Dad is sitting there doing whatever. And then the ambulance driver comes into the waiting room. She had a seizure in the parking lot of the hospital. Seizures are a new development. "You made the right decision calling us," the paramedic said. She aspirated when they gave her the medicine to stop the seizure or something so they intubated her.
For like the first hour or two of this before she got admitted to the ICU? I couldn't stop tearing up. I wasn't outright sobbing but I was pretty fucking close. But when they brought her to ICU they stuck us in this waiting room and I drank coffee and bitched about being forced to watch Sports Center (I know far more than I ever wanted to about the ref who rigged NBA games and Sterns' comments...) and by the time they brought us back to see her, I was mostly okay.
I was the only one there when the doctor said she was okay to have the tube pulled out. Dad was under the impression that nothing was going to change for awhile so it was safe to go pick up the car from where the officer parked it. And like. I kept hoping he would walk back in and I could leave, because it was horrible and she was uncomfortable and in pain and crying and trying to pull it out and gagging, but he didn't until they were almost done with it all. And like, I couldn't leave her even though I was no help whatsoever because she's my mom. She would have stayed if it was me in that position.
She doesn't remember any of that, except the very last which wasn't so bad compared to the very beginning. She's tired but she's speaking and coherent and giving people The Eyebrow and everything. There was this bad spot when she needed to have blood drawn for works and the chick from the lab couldn't get the vein. She poked twice and it really hurt Mom, she asked her (politely I might add) to get someone else, and the second woman got it in one try. And then someone who knows her model of ports came in and stuck her through that.
And yeah, we're home so all parties involved can get sleep. Dad's going back early tomorrow and I need to call the dentist to find out what time my appointment is at.
One of the doctors or nurses suggested that she might have had a small seizure and didn't realize it, because she'd never (known she) had one before.
The nurses are seriously awesome. They're friendly and they tell me everything that's going on, and everyone lets me mother everyone else, and it's not an event worthy of The Big Freak Out anymore, I guess. She's still in the ICU but they'll move her to a regular (spacious!) room and her regular oncologist will be back tomorrow and all this good stuff.
Some of the nurses from the cancer center came by to see her, two when she still had the tubes in. They looked just as freaked out as the rest of us. They all love my mom down there, I guess.