So poor Momma’s Little Sister, Itty Bitty. If it is not enough that like Alice In Wonderland that she goes chasing rabbits and only pops out of the hole intermittently, then like Humpty Dumpty, she had a great fall….and all the King’s Horses and all the King’s Men….well, you know the story….couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again.
It started simply enough….a call came saying Staff found her collapsed…but Itty Bitty had no clue how or where she even had been headed. An hour later, Itty Bitty was ‘Fine, just fine.’ A day passed without incident….then Itty Bitty was found passed out under the bed….but this time she told the staff, she was looking for her shoe….and no worries, an hour later, she was on her way to the dining room, ‘Fine, just fine.’
The very next morning Staff called Momma…Itty Bitty was confused…it was a Saturday, so they had to contact on ‘on call’ doctor before they could send her to the hospital. Thirty minutes later, when no doctor called back, an ambulance was ordered anyway. Itty Bitty was sent to Emergency and now Tag, the Hospital was ‘IT.’ Itty Bitty was their problem now….and good luck with that!
Now Emergency Departments see everything….unforgiving lethal gunshot wounds, cardiac arrests, killer strokes, gruesome car accidents….so Itty Bitty being ‘confused’, small potatoes, they sent her to SAZ (Special Assessment Zone) and labelled a sticker, overdose of painkillers from her diabetic foot neuropathy, a breeding ground of seething infections and boiling ulcers…..okay, said Momma….treat the symptom, to reduce the painkillers….sounds like common sense….but no….they sent her to Emergency Jungle…
You know where beds, with various poles of pumps and intravenous to treat assorted maladies, are parked like 747’s on the tarmac, awaiting clearance from the Control Tower….but there is no Delay Law…you can be in Emergency Jungle for days, your bed bumped every couple of seconds by another Patient, Visitor, Nurses, oh and the Maintenance, keeping the place clean, with those huge brooms and mops, while Itty Bitty awaits a room upstairs….it seems neurology is supposed to have some concrete understanding of confusion….
Finally a bed was secured in Neurology. Note: Bed which means, ‘no room in the inn.’….Itty Bitty got a corner, with a bed and a screen…it is all good…except for Itty Bitty who went from wired one day, to down that Alice In Wonderland Hole, only peeking out occasionally to say, um or um, um or um, um, um, um, um…..say what, Itty Bitty? Momma tried to feed her but as soon as it was forced in, Itty Bitty, pitched it out. And meds…forget med’s… Momma can not claim to be a Medical Genius but she was betting, putting all her money on it, in fact, that there was something not quite right.
Day 4 Momma arrived at the hospital to find a room had become available, way down the hall. Itty Bitty was there but…the lights are on ….but she’s not home…she was so far down that Rabbit Hole that no one can rescue her. New Rules…Itty Bitty would kiss Momma, then grab her arm squeeze it tightly, leaving ugly bruises, take her hand, kiss it, then try to bite it.
By this time some blood test results had filtered back and a bed was being readied in the Cardiac Care Unit because there were enzyme abnormalities noted. Finally Itty Bitty fell in to a light sleep and Momma went for something to eat. Upon her return, there was Itty Bitty half in, half out of her bed, face purple, unable to breathe. Momma called out, in came the doctors, in came the nurses, in came the women with the big fat purses. But treatment was impossible. No one could reason with Itty Bitty. Even restrained, Itty Bitty managed to rip out her IV’s, her oxygen mask, even the cute little bow ties anchoring her wrists to the bed rails.
That was Itty Bitty…a mystery, even to the most been there, done that doctors, held together by a wing and a prayer. But, don’t be fooled. Itty Bitty had just begun her journey. She’d show the world:
This is my fight song….Take back my life song…Prove I’m alright song…
Cause I’ve still got a lot of fight left in me……(paraphrase Rachael Platten)
