Since I’ve been working from home, there hasn’t been much to blog about.

Having made it through last Thursday, I now have something to blog about.

The day began when the clock sounded at 7 AM: I put on clothes and crawled back in bed to wait for my 8 AM log in time.  I was too tired to do anything to my hair or put on my makeup.  What did it matter anyway, I’m working from home.

LB and I had been invited to go out for dinner and a show the night before. 

 Apparently we had stayed up too late.

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Every weekday at 10 AM I take the first of 2 of my required breaks.  As I headed to break just after 10 AM, my phone rang.  It was Mama, so I answered, but she did not reply.  I said “Mama?” and then she responded, “Kim I need a diet coke, do you have a diet coke?”

Boy she must be THIRSTY

And that is how it started.

Being that I do not support Coke, I said, “I have a diet Pepsi and a Zevia diet cola”.  As we continued to speak I could tell something was very wrong.  I told her I would be right there, grabbed the 2 cans from the refrigerator, told LB I was going to Mama’s and headed next door.

I called my sister Gina while I was walking to Mama’s house and told her that something was wrong and I was walking next door to find out.  She stayed on the phone with me and I put her on speaker. When I opened the door to go in I set off the alarm, of course.  I tried to get to the closet to talk to the Safe Touch lady, who had been trying to get someone to respond, but she had disconnected and called Gina.

At this point I’m already a nervous wreck

Walking into Mama’s room I saw that she was in bed, on Daddy’s side, wrapped in a blanket, and shivering.  She was shivering and shaking so forcefully that at first I thought she was having a seizure or a stroke.  But she wanted that diet Pepsi and she wanted it ‘NOW’.  So I helped her have a drink and tried to figure out what was happening to her.

Mama thought she might have an infection and fever which cause the shivering/shaking, but there was also extreme pain.  Since she felt it would be best to call the rescue, Gina dialed while I gathered some of her things.  The 911 operator called and told me rescue was on the way.

I don’t do well in a crisis.  And it didn’t help that I had on NO makeup and my hair was balled up on top of my head.  I remember at one point my aunt Sharon coming in to see what was wrong, but the details are fuzzy.  The rescue fellas arrived quickly and took Mama to the ambulance.

I grabbed Mama’s things, ran to my house to grab my things, and LB and I followed the ambulance to the Baptist ER.  My friend and co-worker Kathy took care of everything for me at work and let the company know what was going on until I was able to follow up.  I’m grateful for her.

When the hospital staff finally let me in to be with Mama, I understood that this was even more serious than I had previously thought.  The shivering/shaking had stopped, but she was clearly in pain, enough to make her cry.  So I cried too.

Then Gina called.  “Are you okay” she said.  “Yes”, I replied.  “No you aren’t, I’ll be right there.”  What would I do without her?

A couple of things are embedded in my memory forever…

First I thought we were going to lose her

and second, she was so thirsty.  She wanted something to drink, but they would not let her have anything.  If we were going to lose her it would be tragic if she was thirsty too.  I did what I could for her, but I won’t go into detail for fear of coming across as a complete idiot.

It was A LONG DAY!

After the CT scan it was determined that she had diverticulitis.  About 40 minutes later we were informed that she had sepsis and they would need to keep her to administer “aggressive” antibiotics.  Apparently that’s a thing.

I’m not sure exactly what time it was when they took her to her room, but she would spend the next three days there.  And we would be there too.

She was still in bad shape on Friday, but sometime on Saturday afternoon she seemed to perk up.  And she told me to go home lol.

And on Sunday, the doctor released Mama to go home.

We were relieved!

She was so happy!

And still a bit thirsty!

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Thank you for taking time out of your day to stop by my blog.