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exatronFirst, yes, I know it's actually Thursday, but I heard that sentence so many times last year that it didn't seem right to use anything else as the subject.
Second, everybody turned out fine in the end, and even my mother makes jokes about what happened.
When I got home from work and a trip to the comic shop on this day last year, I discovered several messages on the answering machine. The most recent message was my father saying that they finally got my mother a room at the hospital, and that they're still trying to figure out what happened.
I don't know what possessed me to play back the messages like I did, but I continued to move down the list from most to least recent, and got a Memento-like description of what happened to my mother. She had been experiencing memory lapses at work, was taken to the hospital, and they believed that she had a stroke.
After hearing all of that, my father tried calling and I got some more details of what happened. My mother's short-term memory basically shut down, and they needed to do some tests to figure out exactly what happened.
I also heard that Mel, the coworker who rode with her in the ambulance, started having fun with her as she kept trying to figure out what was going on. At one point, his answer to how she got to the hospital was "by dogsled." The interesting part is that only her short-term memory was affected, so she knew not to believe him.
Once I got in touch with my sister, we drove to the hospital to see my mother. By the time we got there, my mom was starting to come out of what happened to her and could actually remember things for a little while. This was when I first encountered her periodically stating that she knew what day it was and that my birthday was in two days. She had been telling Mel the same thing while waiting for a doctor, and jokingly said that I expected a birthday card now. (She's also planning on calling him today so she can say that again.)
I do admit that I was feeling a bit frustrated by my visit with her since she would suddenly start repeating herself after appearing fine for a while. She also kept wanting to show me her IV needle since she knows those thing make me feel uncomfortable.
During this, a nurse came in to check on my mom by making sure that she could still move her extremities and asking her questions like where she was. My mom proved rather conclusively that it was only her short-term memory that was affected when her response to what her name was included "But that's easy since it's written on that whiteboard."
My mother's roommates at the hospital were interesting. The first one had a nasty sounding respritory problem, and the second one wasn't happy to be there, and expressed it by swearing like a sailor.
After staying in the hospital for a few more days for observation, the doctors determined that what she had was a condition called Temporary Global Amnesia, not a stroke. It sounds like it's a catch-all for when the doctors don't know why your memory goes funny for a while.
My mother then had about a week off from work, and received some nice gifts from her coworkers, including a huge gift basket with lots of tasty food, and a potted plant, which she eventually killed since she's really bad with plants. I got her a copy of Golden Girls season 1 on DVD since I knew she liked that series.
In the end, everything turned out ok (Other than my paternal grandmother grumbling about how we didn't get to celebrate my birthday until March), and my mother decided that she should go back to her job's central office since she thought that the stress of being a principal was part of what triggered the problem.
Second, everybody turned out fine in the end, and even my mother makes jokes about what happened.
When I got home from work and a trip to the comic shop on this day last year, I discovered several messages on the answering machine. The most recent message was my father saying that they finally got my mother a room at the hospital, and that they're still trying to figure out what happened.
I don't know what possessed me to play back the messages like I did, but I continued to move down the list from most to least recent, and got a Memento-like description of what happened to my mother. She had been experiencing memory lapses at work, was taken to the hospital, and they believed that she had a stroke.
After hearing all of that, my father tried calling and I got some more details of what happened. My mother's short-term memory basically shut down, and they needed to do some tests to figure out exactly what happened.
I also heard that Mel, the coworker who rode with her in the ambulance, started having fun with her as she kept trying to figure out what was going on. At one point, his answer to how she got to the hospital was "by dogsled." The interesting part is that only her short-term memory was affected, so she knew not to believe him.
Once I got in touch with my sister, we drove to the hospital to see my mother. By the time we got there, my mom was starting to come out of what happened to her and could actually remember things for a little while. This was when I first encountered her periodically stating that she knew what day it was and that my birthday was in two days. She had been telling Mel the same thing while waiting for a doctor, and jokingly said that I expected a birthday card now. (She's also planning on calling him today so she can say that again.)
I do admit that I was feeling a bit frustrated by my visit with her since she would suddenly start repeating herself after appearing fine for a while. She also kept wanting to show me her IV needle since she knows those thing make me feel uncomfortable.
During this, a nurse came in to check on my mom by making sure that she could still move her extremities and asking her questions like where she was. My mom proved rather conclusively that it was only her short-term memory that was affected when her response to what her name was included "But that's easy since it's written on that whiteboard."
My mother's roommates at the hospital were interesting. The first one had a nasty sounding respritory problem, and the second one wasn't happy to be there, and expressed it by swearing like a sailor.
After staying in the hospital for a few more days for observation, the doctors determined that what she had was a condition called Temporary Global Amnesia, not a stroke. It sounds like it's a catch-all for when the doctors don't know why your memory goes funny for a while.
My mother then had about a week off from work, and received some nice gifts from her coworkers, including a huge gift basket with lots of tasty food, and a potted plant, which she eventually killed since she's really bad with plants. I got her a copy of Golden Girls season 1 on DVD since I knew she liked that series.
In the end, everything turned out ok (Other than my paternal grandmother grumbling about how we didn't get to celebrate my birthday until March), and my mother decided that she should go back to her job's central office since she thought that the stress of being a principal was part of what triggered the problem.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-26 08:40 pm (UTC)Interesting Memento (never saw the endi--er, beginning?) effect there, especially since you started off with the "everything turned out fine" ^.^
no subject
Date: 2006-01-26 08:54 pm (UTC)I had to start off with that since I didn't want anyone to worry. (Memento had a huge twist at the end- beginning- whatever.)
no subject
Date: 2006-01-30 02:23 pm (UTC)D'oh! I need to see it now...
no subject
Date: 2006-02-01 06:48 am (UTC)Homer: "Quiet or we'll put you in a home."
Grampa: "You already put me in a home."
Homer: "Then we'll put you in the crooked home we saw on 60 Minutes."
Grampa: "I'll be good."
The DVD has an easter egg that will let you watch the film "backwards".
no subject
Date: 2006-02-01 03:01 pm (UTC)ROFL!
Interesting. Now I need to scrape out some time to watch it...
no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 03:03 am (UTC)If you can find the time, go for it.