Hell Weekend Redux

Who would have thunk after last weekend that this one could be worse. Perhaps I named that post incorrectly?

We went to Mankato on Friday night, headed straight to the Hospital and found mom with nurses. That was nothing new, more than enough times had we arrived, only to be delayed seeing mom due to her being with nurses. When we were finally able to meet with her she was tired, but happy to see us. We discussed some things and were off to her place to set up the tent in the back yard.

It was a glorious night to sleep outdoors and we did sleep fairly well. We were up to the hospital to meet with the head doctor at 10 am. Dr. Fawazy spoke with us (Heather, Mom, and I) regarding her progress and the possibility of moving mom to St. Peter, to a swing bed facility. Things were looking up, mom was feeling well, in the afternoon she even sat up for a couple of hours again. The three of us had lunch together in the room.

The previous night we noted that mom, when blinking was slower on her left eye than right. We pointed it out to the nurse, and to three of mom's doctors looked at here and had the neurologist come and look at her. He was quite the guy, good humored and had a great bedside manner. After doing quite a bit of reflex testing he stated that there was pressure on the 7th cranial nerve. Unable to run a CAT scan with contrast, because mom's kidney and liver were not working and unable to run and MRI for other reasons, he said that the most likely cause was that there was a tumor putting pressure on the nerve, causing the delay.

Knowing that we decided it would be best for us to head back home to the Twin Cities for some relaxation and time away from the hospital. Sunday morning I called down to mom right away. She was doing well, though had some problems through the night. Her catheter was not working properly, so the nurses had to fix that and her bedding needed to be changed twice during the night, keeping her up. She said she was going to rest the day and did not need us to come down to be with her.

Later in the day I received a call from one of her doctors. Dr. Wadzena (sp), he was the doctor who called the Friday past and let me know about the bone cancer. He said that mom was not doing well, that she appeared to be fading, also that because of all the phone calls that she would like Heather to come down and sit with her and answer the phone for her. Thing is, we live two hours away. I feverishly worked to find a friend's phone number to call and ask her to head up to the hospital and sit with mom for the afternoon/evening. Heather and I made the decision to head down to Mankato first thing Monday morning, July 2nd.

We know what the end of this journey looks like, we do not know how long it will be. I find myself praying constantly to god. Just lamenting, wanting to be out of the woods, wanting clarity. I guess that is something that is only granted in hindsight.

Thanks for reading, feel free to post comments below, I like to think someone is reading this.

Dan