Bad day today...

Yesterday Mom was feeling great. All of us(Cale's family too) went out to the house for dinner and she was doing well, just a little tired after a long day. I didn't call this morning as I figured she and Joyce would call me if they needed anything and I had some things to take care of at home today.
About 2 my dad called from work and asked if I could head over there...Mom had developed a fever over night and wasn't feeling very good today. He said she spiked to 102.5 in the middle of the night and had chills and the shakes a couple times today. But she was being stubborn about calling the doctor because the fever would go down after taking some Tylenol...well, by the time I got there she had called the doctor. She told us to go over to the Corvallis ER and she would meet us there.
We got over there and into an ER room about 3:30. They took several blood samples to run tests and do a culture on, plus a chest x-ray and urine sample. Her temp was up to 104.5 for several hours and she was having BAD leg cramps and chills. She was shaking so bad her teeth would chatter. They gave her Tylenol about 5:30 but she wasn't able to keep them down. (If you haven't seen the vomit bags in the hospitals, I gotta say they are about the coolest invention I've seen, wish I had some to put by the kids' beds). About 6:30 Dr. Lee got there (who had a very sad story to tell about a patient she lost today) and they tried to give her some potassium pills for the leg cramps but they didn't go down well either. They finally got the IV antibiotics going about 6:30. All of the tests so far have come back normal so they aren't sure what is wrong with her, said we might know more tomorrow after the culture is completed. In the meantime, she has to stay in the hospital and will continue to receive IV antibiotics every 8 hours or so. We finally were able to move out of the ER and into a room at 8. Dad came over about 8:30 and Joyce and I left at 9. Not sure how long Dad will stay with her tonight - last temp check she was down to 101.9.

I wonder sometimes about how much info to share on here...what's too personal and what's too graphic...but I want to be able to remember what happened and how I was feeling and details that I might forget about later, so I write what I feel like writing at the time...

Today was really, really hard for me. Joyce was there and we tried to keep the mood light but Mom was really, really sick. She would lapse in and out of reality, she would moan and rock back and forth in pain. She was singing to herself and would talk in some made up language and then all the sudden she would be back and would hold a totally normal conversation. It was hard to watch. I didn't break down until I got home - I made Kam put the kids to bed before I walked in the door so they wouldn't see me crying...it was hard, really hard. I know that these are symptoms of a high fever but it doesn't make it any easier. So now it's almost 11 and I'm still up, I'm exhausted and have a long day ahead of me but it is what it is and we'll get through it one day at a time.