I almost lost my mother the Thursday before last!

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As some of you might remember, I wrote about my mother falling because her walker tipped and she followed it down, but when we got to the hospital, they said she had pneumonia. Well, they released her on Sunday, but she never really felt better. The same complaints she had before and during her hospital stay she continued to have - feeling weak, sleepy, not rested, light headed. On Thursday morning, she got up as she always does, turned off her oxygen concentrator, and went into the bathroom. While she was there she called for me, loudly. I asked her what, she said, "I need your help!" The tone was not her normal request for help, so I hurried to the bathroom and found her on the toilet struggling to breathe. "Bring me my oxygen - quick!" I hurried out to fill the portable tank with the liquid oxygen tank and brought it back in, gave it to her and turn it on to the proper setting of 3 liters. I started to back out of the room and she said, "I need a nebulizer - get the nebulizer ready, hurry!" I went out to prepare that, went back in to the bathroom again, and she said, "Call someobody - take me to the hospital. I can't breathe. I can't get a breath." I called 911 and told them my 91-yr-old mother was struggling to breathe, she had emphysema, and needed transport to the hospital. They called for the ambulance. The whole time Mom was saying, "Hurry - tell them to hurry!" I assured her I had called them. She continued to ask for them to hurry. Within two minutes, I could hear sirens, so I told her, "they're almost here, Mom, I can hear the sirens." Then the sirens stopped, but no ambulance - I had a feeling they had stopped at the firehouse just up the street, which they apparently did do to meet the paramedics. Within seconds, they were out front. I met them at the front door, told them the gurney wouldn't fit through the door (past history - they'd had to take the door off the hinges to get it in when she first had respiratory arrest 13 years earlier.) So, they brought in the special wheel chair to bring her out. They worked on her in the bathroom and the chair fit just fine, then they took her out the front door and to the gurney, then took her to the ambulance. Meanwhile, I got my shoes on (I had quickly dressed while waiting for them to get here), called my daughter to tell her, grabbed Mom's purse and mine, and pulled out. I left before they did to get to the hospital. They still managed to get there first. When I got inside, they had her in a priority care room and let me in because I was family. There were people on all sides of her, they were trying to get oxygen into her and thought that if the bipap mask didn't work, they'd have to intubate her. An ER doctore we've seen in the past came up to me and said, "I remember you. I've seen your mother before, but I've never seen her look this bad. She was blue when she got here, but we're doing everything we can. If we have to intubate her, we will." I told him that was fine. Fortunately, she did respond to the mask, so they didn't put a tube down her throat. But, they did blood work and found that her carbon dioxide levels were sky high (that's the gas we exhale) and were preventing oxygen from getting to her body. This same ER doctor told me the symptoms of that were feeling weak, being sleepy, not feeling rested, light headedness - everything Mom had complained about even during her previous hospital stay less than a week earlier. They xrayed her chest and found it full of fluid around her heart and lungs (an additional symptom of excess carbon dioxide). Apparently, she didn't have pneumonia before, but had finally developed congestive heart failure (which was the final diagnosis), but when they xrayed her, they didn't find fluid, so they treated her for pneumonia. They've always taken good care of her before - I can't imagine why they wouldn't have checked her blood gases knowing she was in end-stage emphysema, but instead opting to assume she had pneumonia. Unless it was the ER doctor who shoved his name tag in her face so she could read his name since she couldn't understand him - he hadn't even read in her records that she was blind! At any rate, she responded so well to treatment that she was in ICU only three days and in Critical Care only two before they discharged her!! Even her pulmonary doctor called her amazing. My mother is part Energizer Bunny!!! Today, however, her visiting nurse took her blood pressure and found it had dropped to 88/40 because they had her on two blood pressure meds since being discharged and she began taking them both yesterday. She got hold of the doctor who said to stop giving her the one whose dose they had quadrupled until she sees her family physician for her hospital followup on Wednesday. Unbelievably (or maybe not), Mom doesn't remember a thing about that day. She only remembers waking up in the hospital. She remembers going to bed the night before. Even though she appeared alert and aware that she was having a problem, she has no memory of it. I'm glad we got her there on time. I'm glad this didn't happen during the night when I was sleeping. I would hope I would hear her, but what if..... Anyway, thank God for the everyday miracles because I think that's what she is at times - a walking (even if assisted) miracle. So, do you have any everyday miracle events you can tell? And, thank you all who responded about Mom being in the hospital the first time.