If Mama Ain't Happy...

I think that most people who know my mom would describe her as "tough as nails." This is by far one of her most stubborn qualities. I remember when I was little, if she was sick enough to stay home from work, I thought she was dying! Crazy lady! So we knew something was up a few weeks ago when she started letting on that she was having some stomach issues. I kind of didn't think a lot of it because she seems to have some food sensitivities sometimes and we let it get by for a few weeks without addressing it too much. Finally, she started having fever, chills, and a sensitive stomach to the touch and we knew something was up. Karen and I nagged her to death to go to Urgent Care about it (she hasn't seen a doctor for a check-up since she donated a kidney over a decade ago). They saw her and diagosed her with "diverticulitis" and put her on some antibiotics. When I asked her if she wished she had gone earlier, she responded, "Well, I suffered with hives for two years before going to a doctor and I had already diagnosed myself with this anyway!" She still wouldn't concede that she had let it get out of hand!

After a week or more on antibiotics, we thought she was on the mend. Unfortunately, the symptoms returned and we pressured her some more to go see another doctor. She made an appointment for yesterday afternoon, took a half day of work, and FINALLY went to see "her" doctor. He sent her for a CT scan at the hospital and told her that if everything looked okay, he would send her home with some meds and make a follow-up appointment. After the CT scan, she waited around for quite a while until she told the nurses that she was going home and they could call her with the results because she had to be at work in 10 hours! At this point, the nurses knew that the doctor would be less than happy if they let her go home because they could see something was up. They told her to wait and shortly after, they told her she would be admitted.

She finally got into a room at about 11 last night, but didn't actually see or speak to a doctor until this morning. The verdict was that she has an abscess on her intestines and possibly a hole in addition to the diverticulitis. The doctor was shocked, he said, because she wasn't yelling in pain when her stomach was touched and she was able to work and go about her regular activities. That's mom for you...tough to a fault!

Anyway, I just went to see her and she looked as normal as she's looked at home for the past few weeks and still maintaining that she's not really in any pain...WHATEVER! I firmly believe that if they had let her go home last night, she would have gone to work today, even if she had known the diagnosis. I'm so thankful that they decided to keep her. I just wanted to keep everybody updated and for those of you that are praying...THANK YOU and KEEP IT UP!