Day 38 - Mom is Released!

Dear Mom, you were at the Sugarland hospital for four days. To their credit, they did keep you an extra day to make sure everything was okay. Originally they were going to send you home on Saturday. I didn't think you'd be coming home until Monday, but then they told us you would be released on Sunday. I rushed to the ATM to get cash for the paramedic truck. It would cost $288 for the ambulance ride home, and it would cost $305 to the hospital for your insurance co-pay. John was there to help me. Mary Jo and Paul were already home waiting for you. If I remember right, it was about 1:00 in the afternoon when we brought you back. You were very fidgety and in much distress. Whenever we asked you where you hurt, you didn't seem to know where. Also remarkable to me was when I asked you while at the hospital whether or not you remembered throwing up blood, you did not seem to remember. Your speech was worse, and you had all but given up speaking. A week earlier most of your words sounded like "kai kai kai." You would repeat that over and over as if each "kai" were a different word to you. But now I could tell that you had lost all hope, and you didn't even bother saying, "Kai." You could still say "yes" or "no", and you could still say, "I don't know", and that was about all you ever said.
  Day 40. I had arranged for a lady to help change your diaper. Her name was Sandra. She was recommended to me by the lady at the medical supply store who had an elderly father that was being cared for by Sandra three days a week. I would need Sandra on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 noon. She was came that Tuesday, and she changed your diaper. But Deloris was also there, and I learned later from Mary Jo that they put the tube for the catheter through the top of the diaper rather than through the bottom. I had notified Home Care that you would be back home that day, and boy did you have lots of visiting nurses. Sandra was real sweet. She mainly spoke Spanish, so I acted as her translator when she needed one. You seemed to like her. Sandra made sure you got plenty of ice chips. That was about the only way we could get you to drink water. I was not happy that the hospital had released you with the urine bag and catheter, but I suppose that made for less diaper changes, so that would be okay for a while, but eventually I wanted that catheter removed. Of course that would never happen. As the day wore on, I noticed that the urine in the bag got darker and darker. When the Home nurse came to inspect you, she speculated that you might have blood in your urine. When Sandra left at her appointed time, little did I know that would be her first and last day with my mother.