Monday, Oct. 24

Last night around 10 p.m., Mother buzzed me on the intercom. She had been to the bathroom and found she was bleeding from the bowel. I hurried over there and checked the bathroom. She had made a mess trying to clean herself up, but I left the bathroom undisturbed, since I knew the paramedics would want to look at it.

Hubbie called an ambulance, while I got Mother ready to go. We didn't get her fully dressed, but only made sure she had a warm robe on for the chilly evening.

It was a painful experience for Mother getting her off the porch and onto the gurney, because she was weak and barely able to walk and go down steps. A couple of women paramedics lifted her onto the gurney, which was painful because of her lower back problem.

At the emergency room, hospital staff were pretty quick in ordering blood and other tests for Mother. Still we spent a lot of time in the ER area. Finally, though, it was determined that Mother needed a room upstairs. They didn't get Mother settled until around 3 a.m.

Once I knew she was comfortable, Hubbie and I came home to sleep for a little while, so we could be at the hospital before 8 a.m., when tests would be run on Mother.