Last Friday, my Mom was taken by the Rescue Squad to the hospital. We had taken her to the doctor's earlier that day (about the 5th time in two weeks) because she had become terribly weak, shaky and more disoriented than usual. (In addition to several serious health problems, my 84-year old Mom has frontal lobe dementia.) In recent days, she had become dehydrated and was way down in her potassium levels.
But while talking to her on the phone later that afternoon, she suddenly went silent. Claire called on the cell phone to the nurses' station (my Mom lives at an assisted-living facility) and told them what was happening. They got up there immediately and determined Mom should be taken ASAP to the ER at Immanuel Hospital.
We beat the ambulance to the hospital by a few minutes but were soon allowed to see her in the ER. We ended up being there for several hours and then they admitted her -- the key issue being those low potassium levels. Throughout the weekend, though, she remained lethargic and very weak. The potassium remained low even though she was getting steady IV packages of the stuff. In fact, her reading was 2.8 when she was admitted but when they checked on Sunday morning, it had actually dropped a point!
We had our quarterly board meeting for Vital Signs Ministries Saturday morning and I had to preach on Sunday morning. Otherwise our time was spent at the hospital. When we left at 9 on Sunday night, we were pretty worried.
But it seems like God's plan is going in a different direction than our worries. For when we checked in with the hospital on our way back from Bellevue yesterday morning (see post below), we were told that Mom's potassium levels had not only increased, at 3.7 they were back to normal! The nurses had even had her up a bit but it remained to be seen what the doctors would decide about keeping her in for awhile longer, sending her elsewhere in the hospital or to a nursing home for therapy, or what. I zipped up there to hang out until the decision was reached.
The short end to the story? And a remarkably, wonderfully unexpected end at that? When Mom did a few excercises for the PT, then lapped the ward with her rollator walker (while the assisted living nurse manager observed), then got approval from her regular doctor who stopped in to check on her, Mom was cleared to go home! And, by 4:30 yesterday afternoon, she was at her usual table at the Courtyard and eating dinner with her pals.
God, thank you. Thank you a bunch.
