Mom in ER again

Mom suffered severe respiratory distress sometime around 12:30AM. She was breathing rapidly and shallowly, with a horrible, deep rattling sound coming from her chest. Dad noticed the problem first and elected to call 911.

After a frustrating conversation with a clueless dispatcher, Dad made himself clear to a less clueless dispatcher, and the paramedics arrived within minutes (about 12:40). Mom sounded awful, as if every breath were a death rattle. She wasn't responsive to our shouts, or to our commands to spit out the phlegm. The paramedics were expeditious as they prepped Mom, took her vitals, got her to street level and into the ambulance.

By 12:50AM, Mom was in the ER. Dad rode the half-block distance in the ambulance with Mom; David texted Sean about the situation, and we walked quickly to the ambulance entrance.

David and I were guided to a small waiting room while Dad rattled off the list of Mom's meds to a doctor. A social worker asked us for contact information, and offered to bring us some drinks. We gave her our cell phone numbers but declined the drink offer.

Mom's been stabilized. They had to sedate and intubate her to get her breathing and heart rates down (originally 40 breaths per minute and 160 beats per minute, respectively).

It's quiet now, and as we began thinking out loud, we realized that we needed to tell the doctor about the red patches on Mom's scalp, one of which now sports a white pustule on its crown-- very reminiscent of Mom's MRSA from months ago.

So that's where we're at now. Mom is out of sight somewhere with a tube down her throat, and a doc will come by to update us on Mom's condition sometime soon.

The fun never stops, does it? We just might end up staying until Wednesday at this rate-- if not longer.


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