After moving all my usual Tuesday work to Monday following the morning and early afternoon funeral related activity, I decided to take today off - mostly. I still had a meeting to attend this afternoon and band rehearsal tonight.
I spent a leisurely morning reading McMurtry and commenting on some of your blogs at the Lionville Starbucks, my favorite haunt. I dallied on the way home. Did you know you can get a perfectly good Perry Ellis Portfolio, all wool sportjacket at Goodwill for $7?
I walked in the house and there it was in red letters on the message board.
Jim,
Your mom is in the hospital. She had chest pains.
I felt strange, but not fearful. I've actually wondered many times how I would react when I got that kind of news about one of my parents. What I actually did was leave messages expressing my regret for not being able to attend the meeting and rehearsal before hopping in my car for the one and a half hour trip to the hospital in New Jersey. I did manage, before I left, to discover that it was my sister who had called with the news and that mom was apparently 'okay' and was going to have 'tests' done. Whatever that means.
So I drove to New Jersey, the radio off, listening instead to my thoughts which were all over the place. I didn't replay scenes from my life with mom (okay, there were a few of those). Mostly I thought about how each parent would cope if the other parent were to pass away first. Then I thought about whether I should offer to go to my parent's house to cook dinner for dad and my brother and sister after visiting at the hospital for a while; and shouldn't I have taken a change of clothes, and how late was the Kohl's near my parents' house open. The human mind is a strange, strange thing sometimes.
At the hospital, the first thing out of my mom's mouth was "Jimmy (yes, that's what she calls me), I'm fine. You didn't have to come. I'm fine!" Mothers. I looked at my Dad who gave me the look that said, "Wives."
Apparently, it was the acid reflux condition mom has had for some time. All the bloodwork EKG, echo, show no cardiac involvement. However, mom's pain (which was significant and getting worse on Monday-- she was admitted on MONDAY!!! and told my dad not to call any of us. Once we realized mom was okay, brother, sister, and I had a little chat about this with both parental figures), anyway, like I was saying, mom's pain did respond almost immediately to nitro. However, it is not unknown, according to the cardiologist, for acid reflux pain to respond to nitro tablets too, especially when three doeses of Zantac has been consumed. So a stress test is scheduled for tomorrow, and I am more than a little relieved. Mom was up and around with the blessing of her doctor, feeling good and looking forward to being released after her stress test.
She told me that her plans for the weekend include teaching my sorry butt how to make a quilt sqaure.
Posted to: family
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