I was so scared

Something was terribly wrong with my mother. She could barely walk, half bent-over and swaying from side to side. She couldn't talk, mumbling incoherent things and asking questions I didn't understand. She was confused, not understanding how she got to the bathroom or how to walk back down the stairs. Her face was slack, her lips and cheeks and eyes didnt move when she spoke. I was terrified.

So we went to the emergency room tuesday night. Now its Friday, and she is finally coming home. Turns out, she has congestive heart failure and something calld COPD. She must have had these things for awhile. We've been to the emergency room before when her legs have swelled up and she passed out and couldnt wake up, but they just gave her an IV and sent her home. We didnt have insurance, and she was dying. This time, we went to a different hospital, insurance in hand. We got help.

Apparently, she got so bad the last couple days because her lungs were filling up with fluid. If we had waited another day, she would have died in her sleep, suffocating. At the hospital, they pulled bags and bags of fluid out of her. She lost thirty pounds. Now, she'll have to take about four different pills and day and stop smoking.

More than that, she sounds like my mother again. I had assumed that the death of her mother had caused this change in her, making her confused and tired all the time. Suddendly, this woman I've missed is back and I know just how close I came to losing her. I was so, so scared.