Daily Archives: November 30, 2013

I didn’t write a post last weekend. That was because I was busy getting ready for my parent’s first visit to my home in 25 years.

My brother was to bring them across the UK, from East Anglia, to the west coast of Wales, and we were all set to have an amazing time together, where I could hug them for the first time in 6 years (since my last visit to them, before I got too ill to travel).

I was woken up on Sunday morning, when we were expecting them to arrive, and I thought hubby was going to tell me that they had arrived early – but, instead, it was to the news that Mum had been up all night coughing and, that morning, was rushed into hospital coughing up blood!

As you can imagine, I was immediately on the phone to my brother, who had phoned hubby with the news. Mum was in intensive care, and having problems breathing. Her blood pressure kept falling through the floor, and she was in a very, very bad way.

I’ve spent this week, alternately praying like mad for her improvement, and on the phone, or on facebook, talking to my brother, and various sisters, trying to find out what’s wrong.

It turns out that Mum has got pneumonia, caused by a massive invasion of a streptococcal bacterial infection in her lungs that is, apparently, and according to the medics, eating one of her lungs away. The hospital had put her in the CAT scan while trying to find out what the problem was, and saw this – as well as the fact that she’s got a tumour on her kidney that nobody knew about 😦

The biggest problem that the medics have got, is the fact that they needed to do a biopsy, although I’m still not clear whether this is in order to find out which strain of the streptococcal bacteria Mum has got, or for the tumour – but my brother thinks it’s so they can target the infection with the correct antibiotic, otherwise they can only give her an overload of general antibiotics, and hope they do the job.

Another problem they have, is that my Mum’s heart is very weak, and so they can’t put her under anaesthetic to do the biopsy and, because she’s also on Warfarin, that’s a problem, too – so our family have spent this week praying, and hoping, and praying, and crying, and praying even more, in the hopes that there will be some improvement.

There isn’t any right at the moment, so any prayers for Mum’s recovery will be very welcome.

Because of all this, I was going to avoid doing the TToT today – but then I thought hard about it, and realised that there were some things to be thankful for – so here they are:

 

• I’m thankful that my Mum is still alive, and still fighting.

 

• I’m thankful for the emergency services that got her to hospital so quickly.

 

• I’m thankful for all the doctors and nurses who are working so hard to keep Mum alive.

 

• I’m thankful that my family are keeping me in the loop as, living 360-odd miles away, and being unable to travel myself, I’ve felt like I was 1,000 miles apart from them all.

 

• I’m thankful for my brother, who, apart from being my parent’s official carer, has gone beyond any duty of care he might have for our parents, and has taken on all of the responsibilities of the Head of our Clan while Mum and Dad can’t – and is having to deal with all the negative stuff on the front line, as well as informing our huge, and extended, family – daily – of Mum’s progress, while also trying to keep Dad sane, as poor Dad tries to cope with the love of his life being so very ill.

 

• I’m thankful that Mum’s still alive – this bears saying time and time again!

 

• I’m thankful for my faith, which has helped to keep me sane throughout all of this!

 

• I’m so very, very thankful that Mum’s still fighting – she gave us all her streak of stubbornness, so we’re praying that it helps to keep her going.

 

• I’m thankful that, despite his own health concerns, my Dad is still able to go to be with Mum – as much as the hospital will allow, anyway.

 

• I’m thankful for the love and support hubby has been giving me throughout      this awful week – I don’t know what I would have done without it.

 

I don’t know what will happen now, but I can only wait, and hope, and pray, that Mum will pull through all of this – please mention her in your prayers, too?

Her name is Gill, and she has always been a fighter, so we’re hoping that she can win this one, too!