It wasn’t till real late in the afternoon that they came to me and gave me two choices. By breaking the news to me I could either let Mom pass away in Alturas, California peacefully or they could transport Mom to Mercy Medical Center in Redding, California by way of Emergency Helicopter. They said there was a 50/50 percent chance they could do more for her in Mercy Medical Center in Redding, California as Modoc Medical Center in Alturas, California did not have the facilities to care for her the way she now needed to be in an ICU unit at a major Medical Center and the nearest one to us in Alturas, California was Mercy Medical Center in Redding, California.
I was not ready or prepared to lose my Mom. I thought a 50/50 chance was better than no chance at all, and it was not like it was the first time I had to have her transferred to a better Medical Center with better facilities and surgeons at their disposal. This time there would be family members to meet Mom when she arrived at Mercy Medical Center in Redding, California. Compared to when Mom went by ambulance to St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, Oregon for an aneurysm in October of 2004 from Merle West Medical Center in Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Now here I was again in 2007 where I was given the odds at Modoc Medical Center Emergency room in Alturas, California about whether my Mom was going to live or die. The only thing I could think of to do was to go over to a Frankie Galli’s apartment, who had watched Mom when she lived in Tulelake, California, then she moved to the outskirts of Cederville California out on a ranch. I helped her to move into Alturas, California with her three children, so she would not have to drive over Cedar Pass in the wintertime, to help me with Mom when I needed her too. I stopped by her apartment where she was waiting for an update from me on Mom’s present condition. I shared with her the odds of what I was up against, the same information I was given from the ER doctor at Modoc Medical Center Emergency room.
I mentioned to Frankie I did not know if I was going to fly with Mom or drive and they were checking to see if I could fly or not. I picked Frankie up along with her three children and we headed back to the Modoc Medical Center Emergency room. We arrived at the Modoc Medical Center in Alturas, California and went inside to see what the latest update was and how long it would before they would transport Mom to Redding, California. They were waiting to hear back from the EMT’s for the flight to Redding, California for Mom. And they were getting ready to put the air tube down her throat as Frankie Galli at the time held my Mom’s hand and was trying to make my Mom feel comfortable while I went out side to check on her three children.
When I got back they were almost ready to insert the tube. And it was decided I could not fly with Mom so I would have to drive. Frankie Galli and her three children drove to my house so I could get the 1998 van so I could drive to Redding, California. While Frankie Galli took her children home and would go by and take care of Feisty my dog, as this time I was not going to take Feisty with me. Frankie and children left and I started making phone calls, along with packing my bags for an extended stay in Redding, California with everything but the documents for Eternal Hills cemetery, because I felt if I did, then it meant I was giving up hope of Mom returning home with me. I gassed up and headed to Redding, California and calling my niece on my cell phone every chance I could as to where I was and if Mom had arrived yet. I drove as fast as I could and Mom had only been in Mercy Medical Center in Redding, California for little over an hour when I arrived, not bad for a three-hour drive and a flight from Alturas, California for Mom.
There were strong winds that night my Mother was flown from Alturas, California to Redding, California. In fact, I was going to fly with her too but, there was a weight problem due to the high winds that made the flight unstable. That is the standard reply as I have learned years later, they always use that one.
The one thing Mom had a fear of doing the most and that was flying in an airplane, less well a helicopter. Before she left the Modoc Medical Center in Alturas, California. Where they inserted a tube down her throat the last time I saw her conscience. They had to do that to make her heart rate slow down or at least that was what I was told at the time. She was flown in a biplane to Montgomery Creek, California and then transported to a helicopter to Redding, California from Montgomery Creek, California, due to the high winds that night.
I had not slept since 4:30 a.m. when all of this started on February 21st in Alturas, California. And there was no way I could rest until I knew Mom was going to be OK. I arrived and all of my sister’s entire relatives were in the waiting room. I did not recognize any of them, as I had no contact with my sister’s grandchildren. Talk about being uncomfortable with people I know hated my guts. I decided to step back and let the Redding, California relatives spend as much time with my Mom as I could because I knew they would eventually get tired and go home to their beds after Mom was taken to ICU and they visited with her. Then I would be the only one that now my home would be the hospital for however long this stay would be this time.
They soon all went home and I visited for a while with Mom and then left to get something to eat and I went to Jack-in-box to get a break and try and rest in the van and then go back into ICU at Mercy Medical Center before the shift change from the graveyard shift to the day shift. I tried to sleep and I was unable to, so I tried to get back in ICU at Mercy Medical Center before the shift change and they would not let me in. I went then back to my van and tried to get some more rest without any luck.
I was so tired when I was with her that morning waiting to see if my sister was going to get there to give me a break. They say that when a patient is hooked up on breathing tubes they can hear you, they just cannot speak. I asked my Mom if she heard me and if she did to squeeze my hand and she did. I then got up and looked at her in the face and I could see this tiny tear coming from her left eye, as I reached over and gave her kiss. I was so tired at the time I could hardly keep my eyes open, but yet so overtired I was unable to sleep. I was like a walking zombie because by this point I had been up and awake by now somewhere near 27 hours with out sleeping.
I stepped back and let the family visit with my Mom and maybe that might have been one of my mistakes in her care. I usually was right on top of it with the doctors, but I was so tired I just let it slip and gave my sister and her family time with Mom to say their good-bys and yet I was the one that had not accepted the fact that she was dying. In my mind, I would be taking her home soon again, that is why I left all the funeral documents from Eternal Hills Memorial Gardens at home, because if I had brought them with me it would have been a sure sign I had lost all hope, even though the thoughts crossed my mind as I was driving to Mercy Medical Center in Redding, California from our home in Alturas, California. Even though I thought I had everything covered I knew there was going to be something I overlooked if she did pass away and the fact how my life would change in an instant and forever. And it did.
That afternoon on February 22, 2007 in Mercy Medical Center in Redding, California at 2:00 p.m. I received a code blue, and as soon as I answered the phone in my room. Where I had just laid my head down for the first time in 40 hours in the Hospice room for out of the area patients for their family.
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