Tuesday, Oct. 25

Up at 6:30 to get ready to go to the hospital. We arrived around 8 a.m., just before the doctor came in. The doctor ordered a blood transfusion, since Mother was anemic. She wanted the transfusion to begin immediately, but it around 10 a.m. before the blood finally arrived at Mother's room.

Mother was also given a drip that stopped the bleeding, as well as other meds.

The doctor had ordered a gastrointestinal endoscopy, so Mother could not have food or drink until after that procedure. They didn't get around to it until after 4 p.m., and Mother was pretty hungry and thirsty by then. all they could give her were little sponge suckers dipped in water to swab out her mouth and help alleviate dryness.

In the meantime, I called Sis, who returned the call at 10 a.m. she and Nephew arrived after lunch. I was out of the room when she called, because I had an appointment to get mammograms downstairs.

Hubbie and I visited the hospital cafeteria for lunch, because I didn't want to be away from Mother's room very long.

We all waited until after Mother had her procedure before we left the hospital. Mother was under sedation, and would be for most of the night, so we came home as soon as we got the report on her procedure.

The report showed that Mother has a very large ulcer. A CT scan showed she has a compression fracture (which caused her back pain, although after she arrived at the hospital, that pain seemed to abate). Later, it occurred to me that when the paramedics lefted Mother onto the gurney, the bulging disk in her lower spine probably slipped back into place.

At home, for supper, we had leftover New England stew, with cornbread and biscuits. Then Sis spent time downloading a free anti-virus on my office computer and on my laptop.

Around 8 p.m., Sis and I returned to the hospital and spent a couple of hours with Mother. She was in and out a fugue from her meds, and kept repeating her experience with the procedure. They'd given her a thick, awful tasting drink, I guess to coat, deaden her esophagus, and make her sleep, for the tube that would be inserted. She was out of it before the tube was inserted.

When she came back to the room, she was coughing and hoarse (to be expected), but she seemed fine otherwise. She insisted we go home and rest, and we did, since we were pretty tired.

Funny: at one point in the evening, Sis borrowed my van to run an errand. When she tried to exit the van, though, she kept pulling and pulling on a handle without being able to open the door. She became concerned that she'd broken the handle...until she discovered that she'd been pulling on the handle of the lint roller tucked in car door pocket.