If you are reading this, chances are you know her .... most of those that have met her called her "Mom".
I've been absent for a couple weeks, think it's time to explain what's been going on.
Monday morning (10th) got a call from my sister (Crispy) that mom had been put in the hospital and was in ICU with respiratory failure, possible congestive heart failure and it looked bad. She'd been short of breath, but suffered from bronchial stuff pretty much every winter... so everyone thought it was the same deal. Not so.
I'll try to keep it short. Chris and my daughter flew up to Illinois to be with her, I was to go the following week. By Tuesday (8 days later) she was doing well and moved from ICU to a normal room for rehab. I got there that afternoon (the trip there a story in itself), just in time for her Trachea to FRICKIN FALL OUT...
They sent us off to a waiting area; just as we got there, over the PA, "Code Blue Room 457". Docs and nurses running down the halls, a obviously freaked-out nurse giving us updates... the damned announcement repeating at least 20 times. We just looked at each other like "no way is this happening". It was surreal.
They couldn't seem to get the trachea put back in right and infact the ventilator blew a ton of air, under her skin, blowing her face up like a overfilled balloon ready to pop and then collapsing her lungs, by blowing air in around the outside of them.
Eventually, the docs got it in place and kept her going. The following 2 days were bad... really bad, I found it hard to believe she would recover. They botched IV's, bruised her everywhere... it was bad. The "air" under her skin had finally gone away by this last Monday.
Fast forward to Sunday Night/Monday morning (24th). She made progress every day. The ventilator was shut off and she did it on her own. The chest tubes that inflated her lungs were removed, and continued to function . I had to fly out Monday afternoon, with her still in ICU... that was ONE TOUGH "goodbye". Chris and Kristen had to fly out the morning after the trachea disaster ... crazy bad.
Tonight, I get a call, ID says "Mom". They've cap'd off the trache with a valve that allows speech ... I hear her voice for the first time in 16 days. After being there for 8+ hours a day for a week, her having to "sign", write on a dry erase board and us having to read lips, I can't tell you what that felt like.
It's looking really good for recovery. I can't believe we're able to write that after what she's been thru over the last two weeks and can say my family feels extremely lucky to use those words.
Any positive thoughts or prayers you may have to devote are appreciated. To top it all off, she's got a clot in her left lung that is obviously a concern but being treated. She's not out of the woods yet, but is close.
"Dirtweek Mom" is kicking ass, but could use some of that DRN/Dirtweek Love.
I've been absent for a couple weeks, think it's time to explain what's been going on.
Monday morning (10th) got a call from my sister (Crispy) that mom had been put in the hospital and was in ICU with respiratory failure, possible congestive heart failure and it looked bad. She'd been short of breath, but suffered from bronchial stuff pretty much every winter... so everyone thought it was the same deal. Not so.
I'll try to keep it short. Chris and my daughter flew up to Illinois to be with her, I was to go the following week. By Tuesday (8 days later) she was doing well and moved from ICU to a normal room for rehab. I got there that afternoon (the trip there a story in itself), just in time for her Trachea to FRICKIN FALL OUT...
They sent us off to a waiting area; just as we got there, over the PA, "Code Blue Room 457". Docs and nurses running down the halls, a obviously freaked-out nurse giving us updates... the damned announcement repeating at least 20 times. We just looked at each other like "no way is this happening". It was surreal.
They couldn't seem to get the trachea put back in right and infact the ventilator blew a ton of air, under her skin, blowing her face up like a overfilled balloon ready to pop and then collapsing her lungs, by blowing air in around the outside of them.
Eventually, the docs got it in place and kept her going. The following 2 days were bad... really bad, I found it hard to believe she would recover. They botched IV's, bruised her everywhere... it was bad. The "air" under her skin had finally gone away by this last Monday.
Fast forward to Sunday Night/Monday morning (24th). She made progress every day. The ventilator was shut off and she did it on her own. The chest tubes that inflated her lungs were removed, and continued to function . I had to fly out Monday afternoon, with her still in ICU... that was ONE TOUGH "goodbye". Chris and Kristen had to fly out the morning after the trachea disaster ... crazy bad.
Tonight, I get a call, ID says "Mom". They've cap'd off the trache with a valve that allows speech ... I hear her voice for the first time in 16 days. After being there for 8+ hours a day for a week, her having to "sign", write on a dry erase board and us having to read lips, I can't tell you what that felt like.
It's looking really good for recovery. I can't believe we're able to write that after what she's been thru over the last two weeks and can say my family feels extremely lucky to use those words.
Any positive thoughts or prayers you may have to devote are appreciated. To top it all off, she's got a clot in her left lung that is obviously a concern but being treated. She's not out of the woods yet, but is close.
"Dirtweek Mom" is kicking ass, but could use some of that DRN/Dirtweek Love.
