Well, maybe my blog posts are like that! LOL
This is a heart-wrenching post on so many levels and goes to my innermost depths. As mentioned early on in this blogging quest, my mom got sick on April 3rd. She has not been the same since! She was admitted into the hospital on April 5th because she had an extremely high fever and was lethargic and rather non-responsive. She was taken by ambulance and admitted immediately. She tried to check herself out when she finally came to, the following day, but before she could, they came back with the diagnosis of Viral Spinal Meningitis. They let her go home 9 days later, with an unfinished MRI, poor blood work and no "REAL" diagnosis. Just that Dad had to sterilize the house before she reentered it. We got her in with an immunologist who has been the most helpful of all of the doctors. She also has her general practitioner that she sees to get her disability papers signed each month and who tries to piece together all the diagnosis of all the other Dr's. Additionally she has a Neurologist (the second one of those, since this process began), an orthopedist to address the acute rheumatoid arthritis that has developed around the C1 and C2 vertebrae as a result of the inflamed meninges still hovering on her spine, an orthopedic surgeon to address the bulging disc in her spine as a result of not being able to lift her head up because of the arthritis, and as of a month ago, she has an Infectious Disease Dr. Between the Immunologist and the Infectious Disease Dr. she has had EXTENSIVE blood work, MRI's and EKG's done and as of this last week, it was confirmed that she now has at least 11 viruses running rampant in her system, including but not limited to, Swine flu and influenza. Supposedly there is nothing they can do except to treat the symptoms and try to make her comfortable. Niether of which are they being very successful. A month ago, the immunologist had the grand idea to test her oxygen levels. SHE WAS "FUNCTIONING" at 72%!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GOOD GRIEF!!!! No wonder she could not hold a thought or walk straight!!! She still staggers when she walks, her left side is much weaker than her right. I call her the "human pinball" because she bounces around just to go in a straight line. I mean it with all the love and respect I have, but also speak the truth. If she were pulled over while driving, there is no way she could walk a straight line!! LOL Maybe we will be bailing her out of jail one of these days. She had a spinal tap done yesterday, of which took 3 tries and the gentleman doing it said it was the toughest one he has had in his 18 year career. The miningies were still so thick he could hardly get through it. Also, the spinal fluid would not flow out, THEY HAD TO SYPHON it out!!! I cannot imagine the pain she has gone through. They will be sending this off to California to find out anything else that might be going on in her system.
So, how did we get here? What is it that has led up to all of this misery? My mother has burned the candle at both ends for years. The week that my mom got sick, it was TAKS test week here in Texas. And she was a middle school math teacher. She not only had that stress but the added stress of her position. Not only was she a middle school teacher, not only was she a math teacher and not only was it TAKS week, she was a teacher in an alternative school. This is the school that any child who has been suspended, arrested, and just plain bad goes to school until their punishment "sentence" is up. They may be there for a week, 6 weeks, or a semester. Often times she will see the same students many times throughout the year, but not always. She never really knows from day to day who will be in her class when she arrives. To top it off, this year her TAKS tests would affect the district. These are students who have not been her students the entire year, they have been taught by other teachers, if they have attended said school, and she may have only had them for days or weeks, but when it came to testing time, their grades are a reflection of her and her school's teaching abilities. As a result of all of the stress, her immune system crashed and the initial virus that she got, settled in her spine. We have had many conflicting initiatives of the original virus, from getting a virus on her hands and rubbing her eyes, to having been exposed to shingles or chicken pox (neither of which had my mom ever had) therefore getting herpes (obviously not the STD) of which is one of those viruses in her system. But no matter how it all began, this is where we are today.
What I really do not understand with all of this, is the doctor's keep telling her that she is not contagious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUT, if she begins to run a fever, she is to go immediatley to the hospital and contact her infectious disease doctor!!!!! What the heck does that mean?!?!?!? Does she basically turn into "Africa" once she runs a fever?!?!?!?! At that moment in time does she expose EVERYONE AROUND HER with Swine Flu, Herpes, Influenza and whatever else she is walking around with?!?!?!?!? Also, they are not addressing the fact that her immune system is so very low that she needs to stay in quaranteen in order to try to get better. She is literally catching everything that walks past her!!!!! But nobody is telling her that and she is not listening to me. They just keep telling her that "she is not contagious." Oh good grief! It is really sickening.
In the midst of all of this her, over-bearing, controling and mean mother who would never admit to being any of that and whom my mom will never ever please, is insisting that she either come out here or my mom go to Tennessee to prove just how sick she is. Try as my mom might, she will never please this woman. It will never happen. She thinks by going to her mom's that her mom will stop hounding her. This is both dissapointing and heart-breaking both for my mother and myself. Please join me in praying for my mom to begin running a fever before Sat. God can work all kinds of miracles. Including protecting my mom from her mom and the rest of the world from my mom's germs. If she begins running a fever in some airport or on the airplane, she then exposes EVERYONE in that confined space to all of the viruses she is carrying. Not to mention, all of the viruses she will pick up on that airplane and in that airport due to her lack of immune system. Feel free to pray for her miraculous healing as well. It has been nearly 4 months and the frustration level is beyond explanation.
Thanks so much for your prayers,
