Lettuce is wilting.

Still feeling squished. Like a five-day old sandwich now. Wilted lettuce, top slice of bread getting moldy.

Yesterday morning I ran a few errands, one of which was taking the kids to a play at our local library.  While I was there, apparently Mom’s doctor tried to reach me. The one place in town that doesn’t have cell phone reception. When I called home, my husband told me that he had called.

“Which doctor was it?”

“Ummm…he didn’t say.”

“Did he leave a message?”

“No.”

Nice. Very helpful. I’ve been carrying this cell phone on my hip for days in case someone calls, and the one time they do, I’m out of range.

I call mom’s hospital room. No answer.

Did she code? Emergency surgery? More tests? WHAT??!??

I call my sister to see if anyone tried to reach her. No. But she offered to call the nurse’s station and find out.

She calls me back. They took her for a CAT scan. I remember that when I had talked to Chiquita earlier that morning, she’d mentioned that she had a little blood in her urine again. They must be looking for more information.

I sighed, and decided to continue with that morning’s plans. I met my family for lunch at Eat N Park. My husband took the girls home so I could head to the hospital. I called back to see if I could reach Mom or her doctor. No luck.

When I got to the hospital, Mom was in good spirits. I let her nurse know that I’d never connected with the doctor. He told me that her blood count had dropped that morning, and that the doctor had ordered a transfusion of two units of blood. While I was there, the weekend cardiologist stopped in. He said that it looked like she’d be scheduled for a heart catheterization on Monday. They suspect that one or more of her stents (she has 5) may be occluded due to being off the blood thinners for that week.

What he didn’t have to tell me, however, is that this catheterization may (probably will?) take out her kidneys. The dye that they use is tough on the kidneys, and she’s only operating at 50% at best.

Save the heart, or the kidneys?

Not much of a choice.