A Mom Monday

We had a bit of a scare this morning. Mom called at about 8:30 and told me I needed to get to her apartment now because she thought she had pneumonia. Never a thing to ignore, you pay close attention to pneumonia when an 89-year-old woman is involved.

I moved fast. I didn't so much dress as I covered my body: Jeans, a sweatshirt, tennies, and a baseball hat to cover hair that was yet to be washed. No makeup adorned this 66 years young face (the whole eyebrows and lashes look was just not there). Luckily my teeth had been brushed before the call.

When I got to Merrill Gardens she sounded terrible and felt like she just might be joining daddy sooner rather than later. I requested a visit from the nurse at the facility office and got on the phone to Kaiser while we waited for her. At this point I wasn't sure whether to load Mom in the car or call 911.

The nurse arrived while I was on the phone to Kaiser and kept telling me she needed to go to the doctor.

"You need to take her to the doctor"
"I'm on hold for Kaiser now"
"You need to take her to the doctor"
"Yes, I'm trying to call them"
"She needs to go to the doctor"
"I'm holding for Kaiser"
"Does she have Kaiser?"
"NO. I am just calling them and sitting in the queue because I'm hoping they can give me the number for a Sutter Doctor." (Well, no I didn't say that, but I felt like it.)

We did get an appointment late morning with a very nice young doctor, who told us that she just has a really bad cold, a bit of bronchitis or sinusitis, and needs to rest. She gave Mom prescriptions for an antibiotic, cough medicine, and an albuterol inhaler "just in case". I brought her home and made a grocery run for chicken broth ("I don't want food") and a loaf of bread.

Note that the dogwood and tulip trees are blooming here and I cheerfully pointed them out to her all the way home. She was about as uninterested in those trees as a person can be and probably was ready to strangle her daughter.

She's going to feel really lousy for a couple of days but will probably recover from the cold long before she recovers from the shame of being seen with me in public with my morning face.