Today I battled traffic for four hours
to spend three hours with my mom.
I didn't mind.
In February, we almost lost her.
It was a Sunday afternoon.
She was playing cards with her friends in a commons area
of the senior center where she lives.
All of a sudden, she couldn't talk, didn't recognize anyone.
They thought she was having a stroke and rushed her to the hospital.
Her blood pressure was 235/170.
The first doctor ruled out a stroke, a brain bleed, a seizure.
The second doctor asked whether she had had her COVID vaccines.
Actually, she had just had the second one twenty-four hours earlier.
It turned out that 450 other people in the United States had similar issues.
After the second COVID vaccine, they had gone into AFib.
For almost three days, my mom was in ICU.
She didn't know where she was.
Didn't know our names.
Didn't know her own, for that matter.
And then that third afternoon, things started coming back.
She knew who she was.
Where she was.
Remembered our names.
The doctors thought she was going to be released to a 21 day rehab.
Then decided maybe ten days would be enough.
By that Friday, they decided to release her
with CNA support and out patient OT and PT.
And now, not quite a month later,
she has a few minor memory issues,
but overall, she's doing really well.
And I would have driven fourteen hours
to spend three hours with her.
Because last month
I almost lost my mom.
4 comments:
Carol, I didn't know you had been dealing with this. I am so glad you got to see her today and that things are improving.
How scary. I'm so glad your mom is doing better.
The way you've structured this slice--in verse, beginning and ending with time--highlights both the anxiety/uncertainty of the past month and the relief/gratefulness of today.
I'm glad she is doing better. In our state, many people have started to receive their vaccines and I'm seeing many posts of people visiting their parents. Oh, the JOY.
Wow! So scary! I'm so glad your mom got well. But, oh, so scary.
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