Oh My... Helicopters and Hospitals!

Continued from: (Shopping and Helicopters, Oh My!)

Although all the groceries had been placed in the car and we were all getting in to leave, mother decided that the shower head w/single lever thingy needed to go in the back with the rest of the groceries. So she promptly removed the box from the back seat, opened up the trunk lid, put it in and next thing we know she is stating that she is suddenly real dizzy. Basically from her description of what happened, she reached up too fast to grab the trunk lid to close it.

So, we get her in the car, turn the air conditioner on full blast, gave her a bottle of cold water, all the time thinking that her dizziness was due to the heat and lack of food. So, we sit there in the parking lot for a few minutes and let her gather herself. Within about 10 minutes, she seems fine and becomes very adamant that we travel on to the next store.

Sooooooo, pops and I weren't arguing with her at that moment despite our true desire to just forget the rest of the list and head home. But nooooooooo, she wouldn't let us, thankfully!

So now we have made it into the parking lot of Costco. From the time that we left Sam's Club, about 10 minutes had passed and mom said she was once again feeling a bit on the dizzy side, but now she was also nauseous. As our thoughts were still on that it had to do with the heat, she said she needed to get to a restroom, asap! So, inside we go, making a bee-line for the restrooms. Although she never did get sick, as soon as she said, we can finish the shopping another time, we knew that it was much more than we thought.

So know we are walking back to the car and she asks me, "Do I look pale to you?".  I have to admit, she wasn't really pale, but she had definitely lost the color in her face.  So of course I respond with, "No, let's get you in the car".  So now pops and I look at each other and at the same time say, "To the hospital!".

Not only is mother a very strong person, but she has been through several back surgeries over the years, so her tolerance for pain or illness in general is pretty high.  But when pops took her blood pressure and it was racing, we both nonchalantly, matter-of-fact suggested a trip to the hospital, she agreed!  There was no argument, there was no 'this is going to pass', she agreed.  So off we went.

The closest hospital to us was less than 5 miles, Mountain Vista Medical Center and they were wonderful!  We sat in chairs less than 10 minutes, they got her in a room, ordered numerous tests which included a Cat Scan, EKG, Chest X-ray and Blood Work, all of which were completed within 25 minutes of her getting into the room.  Her attending nurse, a lady by the name of Lisa B. was awesome.  She helped keep us calm by being very social and with a great sense of humor, she was also very thorough in telling us what tests were being ran and for what reason, it was nice not to be kept in the dark.

During a moment when we escaped for coffee as mom had fallen asleep, two helicopters had arrived with patients, the pictures were taken well after they had been removed, I didn't want to invade their privacy by being like the paparazzi!

The final diagnosis arrived just shy of 5 hours, Labyrinthitis.  It hit suddenly, without warning, knocked her on her ass and scared the hell out of us!  I am quite happy to say that she is recovering quite well and will be back to her ole' bossy self in no time!