Still Waters Run Deep

6:25 a.m., phone rings, "we just want to let you know..."
staying calm, listening...."your mother-in-law is alright, but she's had a rough night. She started passing blood and she passed out. We want to move her to ICU to keep a closer eye on her"

Hanging out, waiting with her for her doctor to do rounds, she suddenly isn't feeling well and asks us to leave and get the nurse. Her blood pressure drops dramatically and she is bleeding again. They call us in from the waiting room, she he lost consciousness. The doctor who is working in the hospital this day, Dr. M. is close by and informs us there has been a sudden change. He states since we are calm, we can go into her room and try to talk with her and get a response from her while they work on her to bring her about.

I have her hand, am talking to her and see her tongue working slightly in her mouth. I say, "I see that tongue working, she's trying to talk. Still trying to tell us what to do". A smile begins to creep into the corner of her mouth and grows bigger. I tell her the doctor wants to know if she wants us to shock her heart if it stops beating. A clear, resounding, "NO" explodes from her. Just then, my focus still on her face, I hear a large *pow* and a powerful spray hits me right in the face, my eyes snapping shut instinctively, saline solution explodes from it's bag and drenches everyone in the room, leaving huge shower marks on the walls. There she is, drenched and now laughing at the absurdity of suddenly getting a shower in her hospital bed. She can tell she isn't the only one who got it, she joins us all in the laughter!

Eyes still closed, I ask if this substance all over my face was safe. "Just saline solution, like what you use to put your contacts in", offers the nurse. "Towel please", says I.

Laughter really is good like medicine, her heart got to pumping well, her blood pressure came back up, color was good, things got better. We laughed some more and retold the story that no one would believe. That just never happens.

Fairly stable, getting some blood to replace that which was lost, we left her to rest and get better for a few hours.

Remember the window my Beloved built for Mother Comfort's home? This is the same, with a fully blooming amaryllis in it, looking all sublime.
Some cleaning accomplished, some work done, dinner eaten, a visit with Pepsi, who is much more mellow these days, and back to the hospital we went.

She was changed. Her day had gone along fairly normally besides the exploding IV bag and the bleeding issue. But in a few short hours this evening, she became aphasic and fearful. She flew out of control at the mention of tests to determine what was wrong with her. Oh dear, it really wasn't pretty. Yet, we know she's in good hands.

A good reminder to us, is that age alone does not cause these problems. Two of the other ladies she lives with are older than she is by a few years. We can't control or predict these things. I can hope that something simple like a UTI is causing the excessive fearfulness (I should say that fear in normal for her, but this was so beyond normal). All in all, her ninety second year is not her best year so far.