11 December 2002

We went to visit Mom in the hospital last night. She was... bad. They had her hooked up to the dialysis machine while we were there, and she was obviously in some discomfort. She couldn't control her arms very well; she kept waving them around aimlessly, like a baby.

She didn't want to eat, so it took Dad and I the whole hour, taking turns, to feed her a bowl of soup and a few sips of iced tea. Occasionally she would say something lucid, but more often she would mutter things that made no sense, or start sentences and never finish them.

I think she was aware of her surroundings - she laughed at the jokes on the bad sitcom showing on her TV, and she greeted Matt and I by name. She just couldn't hold on to anything for very long.

The good news is that her vital signs were much stronger - her blood pressure and heart rate were back up to almost normal, and her respiration and oxygen levels were strong.

The first dialysis session took the level of lithium in her blood from 4 down to 1.6 (1.5 is considered dangerously high), and by dinner time it had gone back up to about 1.8, which means her blood was doing its job of cleaning out the gunk that was lingering in her tissues and organs. We're hoping that last night's session will clean her out back down to non-dangerous levels, so that her blood and kidneys can do the work they need to do by themselves.

At the same time, they've got her continuously hooked up to water (she was badly dehydrated when she went in) and antibiotics for the other infection. I'm hoping - praying - that in another day or two the lithium will have been cleaned out and the infection will be under control so that the level of toxins built up in her body will have dropped enough that she'll be coherent and rational.

It's two weeks to Christmas. I want my mother to be home for it.

After ICU kicked us out, Matt and I took Dad to Don Pablo's for dinner. He's pretty worn out and badly in need of someone to talk to. So we lingered over dinner and chatted, and by the time dinner was over he was looking somewhat better. A little more relaxed.

Then we went over to K.T. and Kevin's, but by then it was 7:30, a little late to start gaming. We may go back tonight to game, since Matt was kind of disappointed, after we get the grocery shopping done and set up the VCR to tape West Wing. Thursday, Matt's got a basketball game, so I'll probably go back down to the hospital.

Hopefully, by then, she'll be my Mom again.

Pregnancy update: After dinner at Don Pablo's last night, I felt really nauseous. I almost thought I was going to throw up in the bathroom, and then I was afraid I'd barf in the bushes outside and blow the whole thing to my dad. Make a note: Avoid spicy/greasy food for a while.

--Liz