My Mom, My Hero

My mom is what you would call a “tough-old-broad”. I say it in jest. I say it to her face. I say it seriously. Over the last 13 years, she has been through a lot. No matter what she has been through she always seems to bounce back from it. I hope I am just like her in my “Golden” years of life.

My mom fell over on the street from a heart attack. She had what they call a “Widow Maker” in the fall 0f 2002. People were driving by at the time. One young man did CPR on her. A police officer happened to be in the area, he used the d-fib on her. They brought her back to life. She was 70. She was rushed to the hospital, then transferred to an even bigger hospital where they performed 5 bypasses on her. Can you imagine? She bounced back from that. She was walking about 2 miles a day at that time.

About 5 years ago, she was diagnosed with anal cancer. You know the one that Farrah Fawcett died from. We all rallied around her and she pulled out of that. She has been cancer free since then.

After that she needed a hip replacement. We decided that she would rehab at a local nursing home. She did well with the surgery, but the hospitalist put her on a medication that did not mix well with her other meds, but we didn’t know that at the time. She became combative and she acted almost like she had dementia. About a week after being in the nursing home, she fell trying to get out of bed by herself. She broke her other hip. So back to the hospital we went and then back to the nursing home. She was really getting loony now. She could hardly form any coherent sentences and she was struggling to eat. She had stroke-like symptoms, but no one said she had a stroke. After many inconclusive doctor appointments, we took her to a geriatric doctor that came highly recommended. She took my mom off of that extra medication that the hospitalist put her on. It took about 6 weeks, but we started to get our mother back. It was what we had been praying for all along. She was finally coherent and wanted to eat!

She finally was able to come home after being at the nursing home for 6 months, 4 months longer than we thought she would be. She was home for about 2 months when I got a phone call from my dad. He said that my mom was in a lot of back pain and that he wasn’t sure what he should do for her. So I called the ambulance and they hauled her to the hospital. We mom has osteoporosis really bad. Her vertebrae were basically crumbling. So we took her home, and two days later they injected a glue into her vertebrae. She is doing much better now.

The only ill-effects from her surgeries are that she now uses a walker. She was really nervous about that at first but has since gotten over that. She also has to wear those surgical stockings. Like my dad says, “Those are a real b@#$%& to put on!”

My mom is going to be 84 years old this year. Her “Golden” years haven’t been so golden, but she has been a real trooper. My parents will be married 60 years this year. That thought still blows me away! I am a very lucky person to have both of my parents still with me.