Get Me A Doctor, Stat!
Just then a man came in coughing and he asked Bill for their best cough syrup. Try as he might, Bill could not find the cough syrup. Remembering Dave's warning, he sold the man a box of laxatives and told him to take it all at once. The customer did as Bill said and then walked outside and leaned against a lamp post.
Dave had seen the whole thing and came over to ask Bill what had transpired.
"He wanted something for his cough but I couldn't find the cough syrup. I substituted laxatives and told him to take it all at once," Bill explained.
"Laxatives won't cure a cough!" Dave shouted angrily.
"Sure it will," Bill said, pointing at the man leaning on the lamp post. "Look at him. He's afraid to cough."
I started off this post with a hospital joke to try to take away some of the stress that I went through this past week. It all started Saturday when upon returning home from a night out with friends, my sister met me at the door to ask that we take my mom to the hospital asap as she was having difficulty breathing. True enough, when I saw her, she was pasty and was breathing heavily. When we got to the ER, the doctors immediately attended to her. It was then that we learned that her blood pressure had shot up to 230/130. An X-ray later confirmed what they had surmised - she had pneumonia. My mom is 65 years old and until then, I had never even entertained the thought of her getting sick. She had always been energetic, always smiling, never complaining. Seeing her frail and helpless on a gurney in that kind of environment was nerve-wracking. She was already diabetic, hypertensive and had hypothyroidism to begin with, but that had always been controlled by medication. Those hours until dawn when they tried every test imaginable on her and I could hear her simultaneous wails of pain each time they poked, prodded and stuck a needle in her were long and arduous. When we were finally given a room for her to rest, I feared sleep as she kept waking from time to time because of the double discomfort of antibiotic and dextrose tubes that had been inserted in her left arm. Residents and interns checked her bp on an hourly basis and it kept fluctuating. Compound that with my irrational but close to hysterical fear of hospitals and everything else related to it, and you pretty much have an idea of how horrible I felt (and looked). We transferred to another hospital on the fourth day (Wednesday) as her cardiologist had to be consulted for what doctors at the previous hospital felt may be a heart problem. It was only a couple of hours ago that we we got home after she was given permission to be discharged. We have strict instructions to monitor her closely and make sure the prescription given her is followed to the letter.
That is the reason, my friends, why I have been M.I.A. for the past days. Forgive me for not being able to put up an Ubiquitous Quiz for the 2nd week in a row. I went on leave from work beginning Tuesday and don't even think I can come in tomorrow because I doubt very much that I'll be of much use to anyone if I were constantly worrying about how my mom was doing at home. Don't want to leave her alone yet. My dad isn't exactly in the peak of health since he has to undergo hemodialysis twice a week, my sister still goes to school and to top it all, our househelp had just asked to go back home to the province two weeks ago as she was missing her husband and kid. My dilemma is I've got a pile of work waiting for me in the office, even more now that it is month-end, the time for all kinds of reports and deadlines galore. It was most fortunate that Monday was a holiday so I didn't have to go on personal leave then. I hope my boss doesn't begrudge the additional day that I will be taking off to look after my mom (technically, I will have just used 4 days' worth of leaves). If she questions my judgement, I'll just have to tell her my mom's health is more important to me right now. It really wouldn't feel right if I choose otherwise. Besides, am not feeling so hot at the moment. It might do me good to rest as well.
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