Crazy, scary week.

[bushido_man96]

I don't know how many would have noticed, but I have been somewhat uncharacteristically (for me) absent from the forums for the last few days. It was crazy and scary. Here is the run down:

Most of you here know that I work a night job. I got off work on Wednesday morning at 4:00 am. Nothing unusual there. The wife and kids woke up at 6:00 am to start their day, and I helped them to get around. They left at 7:00 am, and I went to bed.

The phone rings, and it is about 9:45 am. I am groggy, and grumpy, and still half asleep. I answer the phone:

"Hello"

"Hello, is this Brian?"

"Yeah"

"Brian, this is ...... in Colby, at Lantern Park Manor (where my mom works), and your mom has just had a seizure and collapsed... "

All of a sudden, I am awake. "DO WHAT????!!!! What happened?"

"She is breathing, and her vital signs are ok, but she is not responsive."

By this time, I am going nuts. I am out of bed, flying around, getting dressed, and I tell them that I am on my way.

So, in 5 minutes I am out of the house, and going to get my brother at work. He isn't there; went home sick. So, I call him, and head to his house in a trailer park to pick him up. I'll bet you didn't know you could get up to 40 mph between trailer park speed bumbs, did ya? During this time, I get a call from my dad, who is 3 hours from Colby, in Salina. He is on his way home as well, and tells me to be careful. I get my brother, and we are gone.

We get to Colby, in about an hour and 10 minutes, I guess. We arrive at around 11:00, I think, and get to the hospital. I was awake for the trip, even going on only 2 hours of sleep. I was wired now. We get to the hospital, and mom is in the ER. She is awake, and we talk to her, so we are relieved. She knows who we are, which is more relieving. We talk about what happened with the nurses. They said she was combative when they got her there, but she doesn't remember anything about the seizure. She said she is feeling sick, too. She gave them a good history, saying she had a history of migraines, and had one for the last 3 days. She works a lot of hours, too, and smokes. The doctors took labs, and a CT scan.

We find out that from the CT scan, they find something that looks like a tumor on top of her brain. Now, we start to sweat again. Dad arrives in about 45 minutes after we did (and he had another 80+ miles to go...you do the math ), and we are all talking this over. The doctors decide they want to fly her to Denver. A friend rides with her in the plane, and my brother and I follow my dad out to Denver.

My brother and I didn't take the time to pack anything, so we are clothe-less, toothbrush-less, deodarant-less, etc. Luckily, my dad prints T-shirts on the side, so he had PLENTY to let us wear.

About 3 and half hours later, we are there. My brother drove, and I kept him occupied. I couldn't have driven that, on only the 2 hours of sleep I had.

Mom beats us to Denver, of course, and the doctors start looking around at her, to see what they can. They wanted to do an MRI, but they couldn't, because she has a pacemaker. So, they do another CT scan, and get an EEG reading as well.

Now, the news gets better. They tell us that the growth is called a Managenioma, or something like that, and is a non-cancerous, slow-growing tumor. It was only 1.2 centimeters or so around, and they think it may have taken her whole life for it to get that big. She has always had migraines, so she didnt' think anything about the headaches she had been having recently. We are all a little bit relieved that it is not a cancer, so we breath easier.

Now, we come to the task of staying somewhere for the night, and shopping for some clean clothes and toiletry items. Before we left for Denver from Colby, dad gave me and my brother each a small wad of cash to hold onto. Now, that wad comes in handy! Mom's friend that flew there with her gets us into a hotel. We follow her there, and get a room. We can sleep well knowing that things are better. Across from the hotel, lies the bain of my existence...a Barnes and Nobles bookstore ! Well, I did need some new reading material, so I cross the busy boulevard to purchase some reading materials. Next, my brother and I head to a Target store to get tolietries and some clothing to wear. We got there with 10 minutes before close, and I drove my brother crazy running around the store. Now, I have a bag of clothes in one hand, and a bag of books in the other, and am ready to go get ready for bed.

The next day, they do the EEG. From the EEG, they didn't say she had become epileptic, so that is good. They gave her some prescriptions that are supposed to supress future seizures, and help with her headaches. They aslo said that she needs to quit smoking (again), and may need to lighten up on the caffeine intake as well.

Also, on this next day, my mom is going crazy. She can't stand to be laying around doing nothing (crazy woman ), and is bored out of her mind. She is also an RN, so she knows a little bit of the routine. We stick around the room and entertain her. Dad stayed the night there, and didn't sleep well in the recliner they provided. Needless to say, his fun-meter was pegged out, too. The doctors say that after reading the EEG, that she can be prescribed the meds, and released. We are happy about this. However, it takes them forever to get the meds prescribed. So, we go back to said Target to get mom some new clothes as well, so she can clean up. We also manage to find our way back to said Barnes and Nobles, and purchase a few more books, too.

We take mom down to the cafeteria to eat at around 6:15 Denver time. Dad told the nurses to call us if the Doctor showed up. Of course, he did, before we could finish our meal. So, dad took mom upstairs, and they talked about it all. They said we would leave that night.

We get back, and mom cleans up. The doctors got in to talk about the meds at 8:30, Denver time!! About 2 hours later. She gets the info, and some meds, and we get ready to leave.

We get home in Colby at around 1:30 am. I drove from Limon the rest of the way, about 2 and half hours. All in all, it was a shake-you-up, wake-you-up week. It was one of those experiences that makes you realize what really is important in life. I know I tried to sprinkle bits of humor into the post here, but it was none funny at the time, I can asure you. After we knew it was not a life-threatening thing, we all loosened up a bit, and could think about other things. We stayed that night at our parents, and then came back to Hays today. We got home at around 1:00 pm.

Anyways, that's my story. If you read it, thanks.

[The BB of C]

Dear Lord and mother Mary! I'm glad that all worked out as well as it did. And here I was about to complain about the amount of homework I have to do over the weekend. I need a slap in the face

[KarateEd]

Man, I'm glad it wasn't anything too serious!

Ed

[Patrick]

lol, The BB of C.

Sorry you had to go through all of that, Brian.

[ninjanurse]

Whew!!!!!!

Thinking of all of you!!!

[Menjo]

Thats intense man...I like happy endings

[karatekid1975]

bushido_man96, I feel for you. Been there a few times (read my posts in the staff forums from 3 years ago). I'm thinking of you and your family. Stay strong, dude.

[bushido_man96]

Thanks for the kind words and support, everyone. It really means a lot to me. I'll try to keep some updates going. She was doing really well when we left home yesterday. Hopefully, she quits the smoking, and can take it a bit easier at work.

[DWx]

Woah, that would be so scary. I hope everything gets better.

[gheinisch]

Glad everything turned out OK. Your right, things like that really make you focus on the important things in life and realize all those things that are not as important as you thought. Keep us updated.