Challenge Boulevard, again

Mom's Challenges, Continued...

Next day, Wednesday October 3, at 6 am, I received a call from the Hospital, asking me to come immediately as Mom was in critical condition, and decisions needed to be made.

What???????????????

So I  cleaned Dad up as best I could as quickly as I could (you remember, he is still not well, and we are caring for him 24/7. Wednesday is one of my 'days'), and we rushed over to the Hospital. Arrived at 7:45 am. We were told that Mom had a "raging c-diff infection" that was, in fact, killing her. The decision we needed to make was whether or not to allow another major surgery, this time a colectomy (sp), to try to eradicate the c-diff.  This surgery, however, doesn't have a high success rate (according to the surgeon) and most likely she wouldn't survive it anyway. Mom's decision: No Surgery.

We were told to "call in the troops" to say our goodbyes. This we did. You will further remember, "the troops" include 36 people in addition to Dad and myself..  To say that the Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit of RI Hospital was overwhelmed is an understatement.  Each one of us got to speak to her briefly, and we were ushered into a conference room, as the waiting rooms were too small.

Time marches on. We wait. We talk to many people: docs, case workers, a GI doc who has an experimental procedure shed like to try, (yeah, right). And then, at 6pm, a ray of hope.

Mom's heart surgeon, who was totally unwilling to let all his fine work on her triple bypass go to waste, enters the conference room, and tells us that the outlook is not that dire, that Mom is strong enough for this surgery, that yes, although it may not work, Mom deserves the chance... just in case.  A very convincing speech. he leaves, we discuss.

When all the talking was over, Dad made his announcement:  "I want her to have the surgery.  I want to keep her around for a while".

more tomorrow...