One New Year’s Resolution Broken

Here it is January 6, 2010, and already I have broken one of my resolutions: to write in my blog every day even if just a little bit – but I had a really good excuse.

Of course, I could set the publish date as of yesterday, but that would be a lie. It’s 2:00 a.m. on Wednesday, January 6, 2010 and I just got home from the hospital. Mom had a bad fever and was very unresponsive most of today. Finally, about 6 p.m. I called 911 and the ambulance took her to St. Joe’s Hospital in Tampa where they discovered she had a urinary tract infection and a little pneumonia.

The antibiotics they gave her must be powerful because before we left, her fever was gone as was the red spot on her forehead which is always there when she feels better. She didn’t appreciate some of the things they did to her like the catheter insertion, the taking of her temperature (not orally or under her arm – you can guess where). Her words were unusually clear: “they stuck something in my butt”) They also used the same method to administer ibuprofen.

I rode in the ambulance to the hospital – my first ambulance ride ever – and Karen Dersham followed in her car. I don’t know why I bothered riding in the ambulance since they wouldn’t let me sit in the back with Mom. Because I had to have a seat belt, I sat up front with the driver.

I know Mom is in good hands – the staff at St. Joe’s are well trained and kindly. I doubt she’ll be home for a couple of days, depending how she responds to the rest of their treatment.

By the way, if any of my family reads this before I get to call you in the morning, please forgive me for not waking you up at 1 o’clock this morning when it finally looked like she was doing okay. I wanted to wait until I knew how things were going before letting you know what was happening.

She was resting comfortably when Karen and I left. I’ll stop by later this morning to spend the day with her, though they will probably want to keep her fairly sedated. Otherwise, I can just imagine IVs and catheters flying across her room.

Well, I think I might be able to sleep now that I’ve got this confession off my chest. Please continue to pray for Mom. Thanks for those of you who do.

Until next time…