Update on Mom

Today is Tuesday.  I'm able to bring my computer to the hospital and use wireless while I sit with Mom.  My job is being so great about being flexible, which I'm so thankful for right now. 

Mom looks the same as when I saw her on Sunday.  She is really only responding to pain, like when the doctor pushes on her chest.  I met the hospital doctor, who is like the team leader.  His name is Dr. Taylor.  When I met him yesterday he had me sit and he talked to me for 45 minutes.  It was his first day with Mom and wanted to know all about her.  When he asked me if she looked like this before, I was shocked.  No way!  I told him how she lived alone, drove alone, fixed her hair and put on make-up every day, ran her own business for 30+ years and now manages the leasing of it.  He said that was what he was after... how healthy and strong she was before this visit to the hospital.  If she was weak and in a nursing home before this, he didn't have much hope.  But since she was strong before, he was positive and optimistic.

It bothered me that Mom looked so different in the bed.  Like and old person - not like Mom.  So tonight I gathered several pictures of her with her bright eyes and bright smile.  I will show everyone that comes in that room tomorrow what she looked like just a few days ago.

Later in talking with James and Mama, we discussed how Dr. Taylor was optimistic that she'd live and not in her quality of life.  We knew that Mom would not be happy in a nursing home or having to have someone care for her.  We know that she can only be intubated for 10 days or so, so it feels like a race to see if her body will get strong enough in that time.  After 10 days they'd have to put the tube in her neck, which we knew she would not want.  She chose to come to the hospital and she chose to be intubated, so we are honoring that and sitting by her to cheer her on.