Update: Mama's in the hospital

She's home, in her recliner, waiting for the commercial to do off so that she can watch her beloved Trail Blazers who are playing the New Jersey Nets. We're ahead 52-44, second half is starting now. The doctor said to double her daily LASIK and the potassium and to see her primary care physician in a week. I'm staying home with her tomorrow and will make the doctor appointment calls then.

Thanks for your prayers!


Here she is on December 25, 2007, standing at our building's front door, light snow falling.

When I woke up Friday night around 12:45 p.m. to go to the bathroom, she was still awake and asked me to come see if I thought she was wheezing and/or short of breath. She was, enough so that I called 911 and soon four firemen and two EMTs joined us in the apartment. The firemen left her to the EMTs who checked her out thoroughly, hearing noise in her lungs. They ran several EKGs which they didn't like the looks of, so they called Portland Providence Hospital--the one where she's been most often--and said we were on the way. I rode up front as we sped to the hospital, lights flashing and the siren in use whenever we came upon other vehicles. In the back, along with oxygen, she got some nitro and some LASIK, plus they'd given her a couple of aspirin to chew before they ever got her out of the bed.

In the ER they took a chest x-ray and saw fluid in her lungs. The EKGs didn't show anything significant going on with her heart. About four hours later we were in a room--on oxygen and with a telemetry hook-up in the gown's pocket so that they could monitor her at the nurses' station. Finally around 3:30 p.m. the hospitalist doctor stepped in and said his theory is congestive heart failure which means a weak heart that pumps inefficiently, causing fluid to leak into her lungs which causes the shortness of breath. So he ordered more LASIK and an echo cardiogram so that the function of her heart could be checked. By then we'd both had something to eat and several dozing naps, and Leland had come to the hospital. Lamont had to work, so did Kailey.

Leland brought me home because I was pretty much shot from lack of real rest. I ate supper and fell asleep off and on in my chair, finally going to bed at 9 p.m. This morning I woke up at 5:40 a.m. and started on the laundry. I've talked to Mama on the phone. The nurses are talking like she could come home today, so we've decided the easiest way to get her here is a cab because the doors will be wider and at the best height for her to get in and out of. I'll wait until I've had some lunch before I head that way on the bus, then if/when she gets released, we'll call the cab.

She's supposed to go to her primary care doctor tomorrow, the hematologist on Tuesday and the pulmonary doctor on Thursday. I don't know what this hospitalization means in relation to those appointments.

The blood count from the blood taken at the hospital shows that she is not anemic and doesn't at this time need a blood transfusion which is good news. And from reading about congestive heart failure, it appears that her increased fatigue could certainly be related to it, along with the Sjogren's Syndrome which also can cause fatigue.

All in all, Mama's outlook in the face of continuing fatigue which means she can not do very much around here to contribute to our lives makes her sad, guilty, upset and/or down in the dumps. Naturally, given her nature which is basically to make the best of any situation, she continues to struggle to enjoy life as much as she can. I've explained to her that her main job here at home is to keep herself from falling down--she's doing her best at that.

Y'all please add her, her condition, her doctors and us to your prayers.

Thank you.

Love y'all,

Lynette