Big Scare

So the past couple of days my sister and I have been dealing with a rather frightening incident with our mother.

On Sunday my sister called Mom and when she answered, our mother was barely coherent. So, when I called I got a busy signal. I live in Chicago. My sister is in Arizona, and my mother is in a teeny, tiny town in western Iowa. And I don't drive.

I didn't panic, per se, but I was concerned. I called the local emergency services and they sent an ambulance, which brought her in to the hospital. Later that evening a doctor called to tell me that there was no sign of stroke or brain mass, but that she seemed to be fighting off an infection. My sister works in a medical facility and discovered that an infection untreated can play with your head.

I spoke to my mother the next day and she was still incoherent. She could start a sentence, but not finish it. I was becoming increasingly more concerned. Later in the day, however, my sister called her and she was a little more lucid. This morning another doctor called and they were going to run some more tests, but he seemed to think that the infection was the culprit. They'd had her on some heavy-duty antibiotics and she seemed to be responding.

I hate feeling helpless like that.