The weekend of suck
Friday afternoon I blew off a phone call cause I was nekkid, and it turned out to be a friend who could've used a ride to urgent care. I feel bad about that. I got a phone call from my mom about 9pm and it turned out she also needed medical attention. She had the shakes, a lot of pain, some vomiting and looked like a fever. I knew we weren't going to get her into the truck, and she looked bad enough off that I didn't want to try to get her into a vehicle, make her walk into the ER, stand there, answer questions, go sit down, eventually get called back, yadda yadda ad infinitum, so I called an ambulance. She wasn't happy, but I think it was a good call. She just didn't look good and I wanted somebody who knew what they were doing to be with her.
It turned out to be a kidney stone. I believe I heard the ER doc say it was 5cm. There's also a small rupture in her kidney, and some infection. They kept her overnight and we came home around 1am. When I went back in the morning, I expected some improvement, with antibiotics and stuff overnight, and there was none. Zip, zero. She was still in a ton of pain and kind of drifting in and out. We went down to pre-op around 12.30 and it just went all pear shaped from there. They were going to insert a catheter and use a laser on the stone, then insert a stent to let the backed up fluid drain out. The anesthesiologist gave her a shot of Versed (which is what killed Michael Jackson, by the way) and her breathing started to get labored. This concerned me. We managed to miss the urologist by wandering off to the cafeteria and but about three hours after they took her back, we finally found her in her room. With the recovery room nurse still in attendance, and then about four other people because they could not get her blood pressure stable or get her to wake all they way up. They finally let us in and I have to say, Varr was an angel sent from heaven. He climbed into the bed with her and held her up so she could sit with her legs off the bed because she was having leg cramps. He held her hand, he talked her, he fed her ice chips. It was amazing. I just kind of did the Zuzu dance of indecision and was useless. She would rally, gasp "Oh! My legs! Ow!" and we'd all ask her where the pain was and she was out again and wouldn't answer. Her nurse, Sasha, was great too. He tried so hard to help her and she was just out of it. I got to hold her leg while they inserted her catheter and we all expected her bladder to drain and that would help her pain, but no. They did a sonogram on her bladder looking for a clot. Nothing. They wanted to to a CT scan to look for a pulmonary embolism, but just couldn't get her stabilized. They took her to the ICU and kicked us out for another hour while they continued to work on her to get her stabilized. Varr finally insisted that we needed to take care of ourselves and dragged me home around 10pm, after I was able to check and see that they had in fact gotten her blood pressure back up some.
This morning I was hoping to see her out of ICU and drinking coffee. Nope. Still in ICU, wheezing now and possibly with pneumonia. Her kidneys are not doing what they're supposed to, and I finally found out that no, they hadn't gotten the stone or inserted the stent after all. The nephrologist came in. There's infection somewhere and a rupture and he wanted to change up her meds, keep an eye on her and possibly put in a shunt to drain. The pain in her back from the stone is better, but now it's in her belly and she says her belly is hard, which suggests that there's urine leaking into the abdominal cavity. And they have not allowed her to have anything by mouth since Friday night, so even though they've had an IV on her the whole time, her mouth is so dry she can barely talk. They're letting her have a few ice chips, but she really, really wants water, and can't have it. And I was on a gag order until this morning, and not allowed to tell anyone so that my dad and sister don't worry. Dad's in Michigan, getting ready to head back out on the bike for the east coast, so the timing could not be worse. We all want him to finish the trip, and, realistically there's not much he can do for her here while she's in the hospital. He's not a good hospital sitter, anyway. But if the situation keeps not turning back around and she crashes, there's going to be no way for him to get here in a reasonable amount of time. And I'm sick of seeing my mom in pain. She lives in pain every single fucking day and has for a very long time and the universe is a bastard for doing this to her.
Ugh. Varr is dragging me off to feed me and then go see her and how she's doing. I will probably be out of pocket except by text for the next couple days.
ETA: Mom is now wiped out on Ativan, but her vitals are pretty good and her kidneys more cooperative. They're watching the wheeze now and have her on broad spectrum antibiotics. I still think I should be there every second, but know that it probably stresses her out trying not to worry me, and vice versa. I go in, make with the obnoxious, crack a few jokes, then walk out and cry a little. But it's going to be okay.
It turned out to be a kidney stone. I believe I heard the ER doc say it was 5cm. There's also a small rupture in her kidney, and some infection. They kept her overnight and we came home around 1am. When I went back in the morning, I expected some improvement, with antibiotics and stuff overnight, and there was none. Zip, zero. She was still in a ton of pain and kind of drifting in and out. We went down to pre-op around 12.30 and it just went all pear shaped from there. They were going to insert a catheter and use a laser on the stone, then insert a stent to let the backed up fluid drain out. The anesthesiologist gave her a shot of Versed (which is what killed Michael Jackson, by the way) and her breathing started to get labored. This concerned me. We managed to miss the urologist by wandering off to the cafeteria and but about three hours after they took her back, we finally found her in her room. With the recovery room nurse still in attendance, and then about four other people because they could not get her blood pressure stable or get her to wake all they way up. They finally let us in and I have to say, Varr was an angel sent from heaven. He climbed into the bed with her and held her up so she could sit with her legs off the bed because she was having leg cramps. He held her hand, he talked her, he fed her ice chips. It was amazing. I just kind of did the Zuzu dance of indecision and was useless. She would rally, gasp "Oh! My legs! Ow!" and we'd all ask her where the pain was and she was out again and wouldn't answer. Her nurse, Sasha, was great too. He tried so hard to help her and she was just out of it. I got to hold her leg while they inserted her catheter and we all expected her bladder to drain and that would help her pain, but no. They did a sonogram on her bladder looking for a clot. Nothing. They wanted to to a CT scan to look for a pulmonary embolism, but just couldn't get her stabilized. They took her to the ICU and kicked us out for another hour while they continued to work on her to get her stabilized. Varr finally insisted that we needed to take care of ourselves and dragged me home around 10pm, after I was able to check and see that they had in fact gotten her blood pressure back up some.
This morning I was hoping to see her out of ICU and drinking coffee. Nope. Still in ICU, wheezing now and possibly with pneumonia. Her kidneys are not doing what they're supposed to, and I finally found out that no, they hadn't gotten the stone or inserted the stent after all. The nephrologist came in. There's infection somewhere and a rupture and he wanted to change up her meds, keep an eye on her and possibly put in a shunt to drain. The pain in her back from the stone is better, but now it's in her belly and she says her belly is hard, which suggests that there's urine leaking into the abdominal cavity. And they have not allowed her to have anything by mouth since Friday night, so even though they've had an IV on her the whole time, her mouth is so dry she can barely talk. They're letting her have a few ice chips, but she really, really wants water, and can't have it. And I was on a gag order until this morning, and not allowed to tell anyone so that my dad and sister don't worry. Dad's in Michigan, getting ready to head back out on the bike for the east coast, so the timing could not be worse. We all want him to finish the trip, and, realistically there's not much he can do for her here while she's in the hospital. He's not a good hospital sitter, anyway. But if the situation keeps not turning back around and she crashes, there's going to be no way for him to get here in a reasonable amount of time. And I'm sick of seeing my mom in pain. She lives in pain every single fucking day and has for a very long time and the universe is a bastard for doing this to her.
Ugh. Varr is dragging me off to feed me and then go see her and how she's doing. I will probably be out of pocket except by text for the next couple days.
ETA: Mom is now wiped out on Ativan, but her vitals are pretty good and her kidneys more cooperative. They're watching the wheeze now and have her on broad spectrum antibiotics. I still think I should be there every second, but know that it probably stresses her out trying not to worry me, and vice versa. I go in, make with the obnoxious, crack a few jokes, then walk out and cry a little. But it's going to be okay.