A Night of Drama

Warning: If the discussion of blood shed and trauma bothers you do not read this post. I just wanted to show what I go through as my mother‘s caregiver..

It happened Sunday night. I had just finished cooking dinner when I heard my mother yelling for me, something about her line being broken. I figured it was her oxygen line to the oxygen exchange machine. I went in there and yeah, her oxygen line was undone. Then I look at her and saw a scene from a horror flick. There was blood everywhere. Soaking the bed, her clothes, the covers, the wall, the night stand and everything on it, and the floor. She had her hand pressed against her arm was blood was still pumping out in spurts.

Her shunt where they hook her up to the dialysis machine had broke open. It is attached to an artery. Thus the spurting blood.

I grabbed a large towel and went to help her hold it and yelled for the nephew to call 911. He came in there with the phone, saw the blood, and turned pale. He went to call emergency services from the living room.

It took them about fifteen minutes to get there as we live in the middle of nowhere. By that time my arm and back were hurting from holding the towel down trying to keep the blood from pouring out. And now I was soaked in blood. Was I so happy to see them.

They did their thing. Stopped the blood flow. Got mom on a gurney and on her way to the ER. Before they left they took all the bed covers, mom’s gown, the towels I used, and my clothes and put them in a bio-hazard bag. Then they were gone.

I had to clean the mattress and myself before I could follow them. And eat as my blood sugar had dropped. Then I went to the hospital.

When I got there I found Mom had stopped bleeding and they were going to let her go home. Of course, that meant a two hour wait while every doctor there read the chart and then they had to find the real doctor to sign the release papers.

Once back home I had to feed Mom because she didn’t eat dinner. Then I got the pleasure of cleaning up the rest of the room. Took about an hour. Then the nephew turned the mattress. By himself. He was proud of that until I mentioned that he waited until all the blood was cleaned up. Point-this is a kid that watch SAW movies all day long…and laugh.

Finally all was done and I could get her in bed at 2:00 am. All this started at 8:00pm. I had to get up at 5:00 am to go to work. And all night long every time she made a noise I would freak out and go check on her and her shunt. Needless to say I was not up to par at work. Luckily my supervisor is understanding.

So that is just one of the dramas I have to deal with on a regular basis.