Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The past 24 hours...

....have been difficult to say the least.

I planned on my next post being fun pictures of Japan.

But it is not so.

Today, I spent the day at the hospital.

I'm fine. My precious mama is not.

Here's the scoop: So, the past few days, she has kind of been short of breath. However, she has had a cold and cough the past few weeks and we just kinda figured that it was part of it. So, she went to our family doctor yesterday afternoon after my brother left to go work at camp. The doctor said her lungs were clear, so set up an appointment with a cardiologist and for a chest xray for this morning.

As my mom was getting ready this morning (I was taking her), she was really short of breath and light headed, so much so that she couldn't really make it from her bathroom to her recliner in our living room. She decided that maybe going to the ER was a better option. So she called my dad at work to come home so we could all go together. When my dad got home, we were helping her stand up and she completely passed out and collapsed on us, not breathing or anything. So I grabbed my phone and made a frantic call to 911. Meanwhile, she came to, but just barely. The EMT arrived and put her on oxygen (which made things a little better) and checked her out and took her off to the hosptial (which is conveniently 5 minutes from our new house).

When we got there, they immediately started running tests, took a chest xray, took a CT scan and did some other stuff (it was a whirlwhind...I don't remember). After a while the results were in.

Pulmonary embolism. (it's hyperlinked to wikipedia)

So basically what that means, is tons of blood clots all throughout all regions of her lungs. Yeah...she could have died had we left it much longer. It is that serious.

So, because there were no ICU beds in the SL hospital, they transported her to the main hospital in the Med Center to the Surgical ICU there so they could watch her ever so closely.

She is there now, resting (not so comfortably because of all the stuff they have her attached to), but in good spirits given the situation. My dad and I have been with her all day besides lunch and dinner breaks and are taking turns tomorrow hanging out with her (and will continue to do so until she is discharged).

So, I guess all I am asking is to please pray. I have a lot of jumbled and mixed thoughts and feelings but am too drained to type it out. You can call if you want (it really doesn't hassle me at all), but I may not be able to answer because my phone is supposed to be off while in the ICU and I get horrible reception at the hospital. I will check my phone for any messages (text or voice) throughout the day.

So thanks sweet friends. God bless.

2 comments:

Meghan said...

Oh Lara, I'm sorry. I will be praying for your mom and the rest of your family.

Audrey said...

Lara~ I am so sorry to hear this! I will be praying for you & call you soon!! :) Love you!