Angels in Waiting
Sep. 25th, 2012 02:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I think my mom's previous surgeon nearly killed her.
2 weeks ago she had gone to see a new one and he did is own series of tests. She had another appointment with him the following week on Tuesday. Well on Monday she had a spot come up just below her breast about the size of a softball. It was hot to the touch and she said very painful. I wanted to take her to the hospital when she showed it to me but my mom is stubborn and because she had an appointment with the doctor the next day she put it off.
He put her in the hospital that next day and they performed surgery on Friday. She was in surgery from 8:30am-3:45pm. They found a lot of infection, and I do mean A LOT. The surgeon said if she had not come to him when she did, she would have been dead within the week.
Now she is recovering from that ordeal, though she has two wound vacs draining stuff out of her wounds and they have to go back in every 3 days or so to replace the sponges on these vacs. That is basically out patient surgery. They did this this morning and found more infection, which the surgeon knew he would. He said being as advanced as it was there was no way he could get it all the first time. But he got what he could out and said they would have to go back in at a later date to get the rest, once mom has recovered more. She has been so weak.
Dad and I were supposed to go see her on Sunday night... but then something terrible happened on Sunday morning.
I had just been awake for about 20 min when I heard this god-awful banging from upstairs. My first thought was that it was my dad trying to get my attention because I didn't have my cell phone on yet. And of course my thoughts went to my mom, something had happened to her. But no.
After getting some shorts on I went upstairs and looked around. Nothing was out of the ordinary, everything was where it should be. And there was no banging. I didn't see anyone out the window in the front door so I went to the back door that led into our garage. I opened the door and all I could see was black smoke. We had a storm door that opened into the garage and I saw the smoke start coming in from around the edges. I don't know if I closed the door back or not, all I know is that I ran to the front door.
I opened the front door and a girl, who was the older sister of a girl I had graduated with, grabbed my arm and started pulling. She said, "Your house is on fire, you have to get out!"
I said, "But I have to get things!" Meaning, I had to get my mom's cat. But she refused to let me go and drug me off the porch.
That is when I saw the flames. Our garage was completely engulfed. My car was on fire. The girl kept pulling me until we got to the church next door, which is at least 500ft away, because she and our other neighbors knew if the fire reached my car's gas tank it would likely explode.
I was crying, sobbing really, a total mess. My neighbor, who I later learned was the source of the banging, called my dad. He said, "Denny, man, you have to come. Your house is on fire!" I know the first thing out of my dad's mouth was about me because our neighbor said, "Yeah, we got Olivia, she's here." This neighbor, who we best know for being drunk all the time, is an angel. He had tried to kick the front door in, when that didn't work he took a running start and rammed it with his shoulder, also didn't work. But he was what alerted me to come upstairs. He said, "If you didn't come out I was gonna throw a rock through your basement door."
So the past two days have been hectic and exhausting, much more for my dad I'm sure because he's had to handle all the insurance questions and such. We lost our garage, laundry room, good dining room and kitchen... the rest of the house has smoke and water damage. My room has been mostly spared, you can smell the smoke but it's not as strong as what it is upstairs. But we can't live there. Currently we're staying with my uncle until something more permanent can be readied, hopefully within a week.
But last night we had to go to the hospital and tell my mom. Until then she had been in the ICU where only family could see her, with no phone so no one could call her. But yesterday afternoon they moved her into an actual room and we can't control who goes to visit or what they say. She knew something was wrong, she kept asking about everyone... and she knew something was wrong because my Gran was staying with her to long.
She took the news much better than I thought she would. She cried of course but I thought there would be terrible sobs and there wasn't. Good thing too as she was already in pain from her surgery. The docs had also given her a sedative to calm her down about an hour before we got there as well so I think that helped some.
I wish I could put in words how thankful I am to my neighbors and family who came to help us move what we could out of the house on Sunday... but words cannot express the love and gratitude I feel toward them.
2 weeks ago she had gone to see a new one and he did is own series of tests. She had another appointment with him the following week on Tuesday. Well on Monday she had a spot come up just below her breast about the size of a softball. It was hot to the touch and she said very painful. I wanted to take her to the hospital when she showed it to me but my mom is stubborn and because she had an appointment with the doctor the next day she put it off.
He put her in the hospital that next day and they performed surgery on Friday. She was in surgery from 8:30am-3:45pm. They found a lot of infection, and I do mean A LOT. The surgeon said if she had not come to him when she did, she would have been dead within the week.
Now she is recovering from that ordeal, though she has two wound vacs draining stuff out of her wounds and they have to go back in every 3 days or so to replace the sponges on these vacs. That is basically out patient surgery. They did this this morning and found more infection, which the surgeon knew he would. He said being as advanced as it was there was no way he could get it all the first time. But he got what he could out and said they would have to go back in at a later date to get the rest, once mom has recovered more. She has been so weak.
Dad and I were supposed to go see her on Sunday night... but then something terrible happened on Sunday morning.
I had just been awake for about 20 min when I heard this god-awful banging from upstairs. My first thought was that it was my dad trying to get my attention because I didn't have my cell phone on yet. And of course my thoughts went to my mom, something had happened to her. But no.
After getting some shorts on I went upstairs and looked around. Nothing was out of the ordinary, everything was where it should be. And there was no banging. I didn't see anyone out the window in the front door so I went to the back door that led into our garage. I opened the door and all I could see was black smoke. We had a storm door that opened into the garage and I saw the smoke start coming in from around the edges. I don't know if I closed the door back or not, all I know is that I ran to the front door.
I opened the front door and a girl, who was the older sister of a girl I had graduated with, grabbed my arm and started pulling. She said, "Your house is on fire, you have to get out!"
I said, "But I have to get things!" Meaning, I had to get my mom's cat. But she refused to let me go and drug me off the porch.
That is when I saw the flames. Our garage was completely engulfed. My car was on fire. The girl kept pulling me until we got to the church next door, which is at least 500ft away, because she and our other neighbors knew if the fire reached my car's gas tank it would likely explode.
I was crying, sobbing really, a total mess. My neighbor, who I later learned was the source of the banging, called my dad. He said, "Denny, man, you have to come. Your house is on fire!" I know the first thing out of my dad's mouth was about me because our neighbor said, "Yeah, we got Olivia, she's here." This neighbor, who we best know for being drunk all the time, is an angel. He had tried to kick the front door in, when that didn't work he took a running start and rammed it with his shoulder, also didn't work. But he was what alerted me to come upstairs. He said, "If you didn't come out I was gonna throw a rock through your basement door."
So the past two days have been hectic and exhausting, much more for my dad I'm sure because he's had to handle all the insurance questions and such. We lost our garage, laundry room, good dining room and kitchen... the rest of the house has smoke and water damage. My room has been mostly spared, you can smell the smoke but it's not as strong as what it is upstairs. But we can't live there. Currently we're staying with my uncle until something more permanent can be readied, hopefully within a week.
But last night we had to go to the hospital and tell my mom. Until then she had been in the ICU where only family could see her, with no phone so no one could call her. But yesterday afternoon they moved her into an actual room and we can't control who goes to visit or what they say. She knew something was wrong, she kept asking about everyone... and she knew something was wrong because my Gran was staying with her to long.
She took the news much better than I thought she would. She cried of course but I thought there would be terrible sobs and there wasn't. Good thing too as she was already in pain from her surgery. The docs had also given her a sedative to calm her down about an hour before we got there as well so I think that helped some.
I wish I could put in words how thankful I am to my neighbors and family who came to help us move what we could out of the house on Sunday... but words cannot express the love and gratitude I feel toward them.