When the phone call with the results from mom’s blood tests came we were looking for an elevated white count, but her white count was fine. The nurse practitioner told me that mom’s creatinine level had gone from 1.6 to over 3 and that she wanted to touch base with mom’s doctor and get back to me. Before I even sat the phone back in it’s cradle it rang; it was mom’s doctor telling me that she thought mom was in kidney failure and needed to get to the ER.
I call the ambulance, I call my sister, I text my other sisters. I have to call my mom’s one surviving sister. I don’t want to, this is her baby sister, it’s hard. I’m going to her 90th birthday party at the end of this month and I thought I’d be going with mom, but that’s not going to happen.
The ambulance pulls up and I walk out to direct them up the steps. The neighbors from across the street, Marv and Gloria, are detouring from their route to their car to come over to me. Will she be all right? They didn’t know it was that bad. Of course they’re concerned–she was in the hospital having my childhood playmate Butchie at the same time mom had me. There’s not that many old timers left on the street, but another one is waiting for me at her door as I come back to my porch after Gloria’s hug. I fill her in and she asks how my dad is holding up, tells me she’s worried about him. I assure her that I’m looking after him too.
The EMTs bring mom down the steps in a chair-like contraption and she is smiling. I tell her that she looks like a queen, she smiles even wider. They stop at the bottom, so I lean in and give her a kiss, tell her I love her, that the hospital will get her fixed up and she’s going to be okay. Then they take my mom away. My dad goes in the ambulance with her. Sissy will meet them there. I want to go, it feels like somebody is physically squeezing my heart when that ambulance pulls away without me, but I can’t go. My kids will be home soon, and Cleetus needs to leave for work.
I sit and wait for the phone call. When it comes I’m not surprised that they want to keep her. She doesn’t need dialysis, they can treat her, they can keep her hydrated, it will be for the best, I know this is true. Still, I’m worried. Will they let dad stay with her? Will she be scared? Is it just for one night? I don’t know. I wish I was there.
4 comments
Skip to comment form
Author
Her stay will probably be three days, they need to keep the IV fluids going and check her creatinine level over the course of a couple of days to see if dehydration is the cause. If it goes down, well that’s good. If not…well, shit.
Specifically her sodium, potassium and BUN. Those numbers tell the doctors a lot about kidney function. I suspect she’s dehydrated, which is the most common cause for creatine to be high in non-diabetic elderly patients. They don’t drink enough fluids.
I went through this with my late ex a couple of times. It was always because he was dehydrated.
You know how to reach me if you need to talk
her suffering; your pop’s suffering; your suffering…
peaceful thought and prayers to you…