Mother looks a lot worse than she is, but she is not well by any means of the imagination. She needs the ICU care to get out of the woods. She continues to have multiple organ issues. One organ can be classified as failure since it is not functioning at this time. That is the kidney. Sometimes we need to step back and look at the whole picture and remember the history of how she got here to keep ourselves aligned with what is happening.
She got here by falling and being on a hard floor for probably about 36-40 hours, causing a shock to her entire system. It is like getting bruised inside and out. Her organs must be repaired before her health can improve. That includes her skin, kidneys, colon, lungs and heart. She had a mild heart attack recently but we do not know when. She is weak but recovering. The doctors do not know what her outcome will be but provide insights and opinions. Nurses do also but are not charged with her health decisions, but are there for her hour to hour care.
Mother continues to be treated with various interventions to make her healthy again. This includes heart pressure medicine, heartbeat medicine, ventilator machine, dialysis machine, salves and bandages, antbiotics and pain relievers. She has dependencies on all these right now. She has been given roughly 30-40% chance of survival by her primary attending physician, Dr McKennon.
My personal view, knowing my mom, is that we should be continuing with the treatments with a positive view. She is 87 but has a strong will and wants to live until she is 90. Her love of life will not be forgotten as well as her will to live in the oncoming days or weeks. She is not in a terminal situation nor being treated as such. That is, she is not a terminal patient who is on life support to keep her organs alive. She is a living being, trying to recover from injuries. She is being treated to overcome the issues at hand. We could be facing 3 months or ever 6 months for rehabilitation after this to get her to any kind of quality life.
The question that remains is what quality of life she will have after this intervention, if she does survive. No one knows. I have heard of several cases recently where such a patient has recovered and gained 10 or more years of quality life.
I write this article because three times (maybe even four) now we have been put under the stress of requests to end her life. I want to be very clear about this. My mother cannot communicate now but she did several times while she did not have the ventilator and could communicate. She is substantially weaker now, but she still has the mandate that she presented in the ICU to the attending physician. "Yes, I want intervention." She does not however want to be a vegetable nor live indefinately depending on life support systems. That is where the family could have to make a decision in the future. Those systems are in place now as intervention so that her organs can be repaired. She needs the prayers of family and friends. She needs presence of family, encouragement and support. Personally, I realize people relate to this in various ways. The bottom line however is not our will nor our emotions but hers. It is her life, and she is entitled to it. We will do everything we can to support her.
I will do what I can to get her to the point where she can receive roses she so carefully helped to create when she partnered with the Clairmont. Those roses are at the height of the blooms now, and she has not seen them since they have broken into their full beauty. When she can touch and smell them, that will be a bid day for her. I am looking forward to the day when she can see my brother's video of him receiving his award in Fort Worth. I am looking forward to the day when she can again attend church. There is much to look forward to and she is squarely directing her energies at this moment to reaching her goals of life. Hopefully, these days will come. We are all at the mercy of God's enduring love. If He wants her to see those days, he will help her through this trial with her body.
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