At 0330 this morning...
...my mother's voice awakened me (nice to know, by the way, that it continues to awaken me). I dashed into her bedroom. She was propped on her elbows in bed and told me she felt sick to her stomach and thought she might vomit. I quickly commandeered the traditional supplies (huge round metal pan, same one we used to use for this purpose when I was a child, a towel and a moistened wash cloth). I questioned her about stomach pain and a few other symptoms. She copped to none of them. We remained in a tense tableau for about 15 minutes waiting for her to vomit, but nothing ever happened. Finally, I suggested that if she sat up she might be more likely to vomit, a tactic I've used on myself. My experience tells me that if one feels like one is going to vomit, it's best to try to make this happen. She agreed.
    By the time she was sitting on the edge of the bed, she reported that she was beginning to feel better. We chatted for another 10 minutes or so, then I got an idea. "Mom," I said, "Let's see if you can go into the bathroom. At the very least, the act of standing up and moving a few steps will tell us if the nausea is going to come to a head or is on it's way out."
    Again, she agreed, but, not before she said something peculiar. "It's a good thing I finished high school," she said.
    "Well, yes," I agreed, "and college as well. Do you remember that you finished college?"
    She had to think about that one but finally confirmed her memory of this.
    "What, though, Mom, does that have to do with you feeling sick earlier?"
    "Well, I don't know, but it just seems like a good thing."
    I couldn't help but wonder if this episode had so scared or concerned her that she thought she was near death, so I asked her this.
    She gave me one of her what-made-you-think-of-that-child looks and said, "Goodness no! I was just thinking that it's good that I don't have to go to school this morning!"
    I agreed this was definitely a good thing.
    As it turns out, she made it into the bathroom just fine. By the time she was there, she reported that the nausea had completely abated, then she had a bowel movement, pretty much on schedule. I decided that it would be best not to immediately send her back to bed, so I suggested that we "repair" to the living room, sit up and chat for awhile if we couldn't find anything interesting on TV and I would make her a cup of ginger tea, a good remedy for a queasy stomach. I'd earlier considered Milk of Magnesia, but the back of the bottle warned against giving it in the case of nausea, so I figured ginger tea would be a better bet, both settling and innocuous.
    She had no trouble getting into the living room. She loved the tea. As luck would have it, some channel was having a Roseanne marathon, so we settled into a few episodes and I washed and set her hair, figuring that this would relax her.
    Around 0445, just before I began working on her hair, she struggled a bit to "tell [me] something". I coached her until we finally figured out that she was thinking that she'd like me to sleep with her for the rest of the night. This told me that she was still feeling a little worried about the nausea episode so I told her we'd "revisit" the request when she was ready to go to bed and that I would certainly sleep with her if she was still concerned.
    I decided to take a few minutes to look up a "stroke sign" email my sister sent me a while back. Aside from the fact that it didn't mention anything about nausea unless it was accompanied by "dizzyness" or "lightheadedness", I ran her through the four-activity test and she did fine, which didn't surprise me. Then, I quickly scanned "stroke+nausea+symptoms" in Google. Turns out nausea isn't a classic sign of stroke. It can be a sign of an impending or happening heart attack, especially in women, but by this time I was fairly convinced that she wasn't having one. We discussed the possibility that dinner, which was KFC chicken, green beans and macaroni and cheese, might have caused the upset. Mom said I would have felt it, too, but I reminded her that a ninety year old system is somewhat more suseptible to these things than a 56 year old system.
    "Who's ninety???" she asked.
    At 0530 she was completely relaxed and ready to retire. As I set up the walker and the oxygen to prepare for her walk into the bathroom, I told her that it would take me a few minutes to set up my bed in her bedroom so I could sleep with her.
    "Oh," she exclaimed, "that's right! I'm doing fine, I don't think that's necessary."
    So, it's 0622, now. I've checked on her three times and will check once again when I retire, at 0630. I think she'll be fine. I am so convinced of this, in fact, that I am going to continue with my plans to arise again at 0800, shower, etc., and head out to do my usual Saturday chores a day early. I decided to move them up a day in case I feel the need to take her in for a blood draw on Saturday to check the progress of her hemoglobin. All physical signs indicate that it's recovering nicely, but I want to give myself to give myself the leeway to check it, just in case I'm still a little nervous about it.
    I'll check on her again at 0800, of course, and again several times, I imagine, before I leave, but I think she'll be fine.
    As my mother settled back into bed she said, "Well, that was a pleasant little visit we had tonight."
    Yes, it was. I'm glad the way we're living allows for these sorts of "treatments". I'd considered a hospital visit during the initial period when we were both surprised at her nausea, but I'm glad we're in an environment that allows us to step back, calm ourselves and take a steady look at the situation before doing something as drastic as putting her through what would surely have been an unpleasant, manhandling, most likely unnecessary battery of tests. It's funny because the tension of the last several weeks have occasionally put me in mind that maybe her care is becoming so intense that I can no longer handle it...of course being sick, myself, did nothing to bolster my confidence on this issue. But, I'm feeling confident again, we handled a "situation" appropriately, I think, and with grace and camaraderie, and I am, once again, glad I'm here and glad she's got me...and I have her.
- posted by Gail Rae @ 05:57   email  this post