Motherless Children Support Group
This community focuses on children (of any age) who no longer have a mother in their lives, whether as a result of death or extended separation. A mother plays a crucial role in both early childhood development as well as support throughout one's life. How is your life affected by the lack of this integral relationship?
angela1932
During the week of Christmas 2010, my Mother was feeling weak and tired and falling often suddenly. She suffered from Rheumatoid and Osteopathic Arthritis her and I thought is was a flare up. I called her Doctor of 12 years who felt the same, but he sent a nurse to the house and all vital signs were stable, she said. My Mother did not want to go to the Hospital during Christmas week and the Doctor agreed, but why not a office visit? So very stupid of me. My Mother slept during Christmas and never opened our presents. On December 31st. 2010 she woke up and walked into the living room and collapsed unconscious to the floor. I called 911 and she was taken to the local Hospital, not where her family Doctor was at. After several hours of suffering extreme excruciating abdominal pain, the medical staff determined my Mother was having a bowel obstruction. My Mother was then taken to Surgery as I sat in the waiting room with two friends from my work and another friend from my work stayed at my home with my Father because he suffers from a mental illness. As the clock turned to midnight and January 1st 2011 New Year Eve to New Year Day arrived, so also did the Gastric Surgeon, to tell us he had removed one foot of my Mothers colon and one foot of her intestines and she had to have a colostomy bag. He told us the colostomy bag would be temporary and in four months he would reserve it. My Mothers recuperation was stable, until the nurses wanted her to stand and walk. My Mother could move her legs in every direction up and down but could not support her little weight of 83lbs to stand up. After further testing it was discovered she sustained blood clots in her legs, the medical staff believe during the surgery and one of the clots lodged in her left lung. She had to have a filter put down through her neck to block any future clots from developing. My Mother was on a blood thinner for the clots but also had a few blood transfusions, because the blood thinners were making her bleed into her colostomy bag. She contracted pneumonia which I was told was aspirated pneumonia and not viral pneumonia because her esophagus had a stricture a narrowing of the opening and she had a hiatal hernia, I was now told. We were told by medical staff my Mother wasnt allowed to eat or drink in any normal way, but only have a mixture called thick and thin nester. My Mother overcame all the hurdles but still couldnt stand or walk so it was suggested by medical staff and decided she go to a rehab center for therapy and her expected stay would only be 3 months. With the intensive therapy and lack of nutrition, because of only being on a mixture of thick and thin nectar, her weight went down to 73lbs. and I was told to bring in supplements for her such as Ensure that they didnt provide. One day in therapy she developed chest pain, which the medical staff at the rehab center took very lightly, since the pain developed at 9am and no one checked her vital signs until 2pm after much fighting I had to do, with them. After finding out my Mothers heart rate was 125 beats per minute and 77 is normal, I called an ambulance to have her transferred to her family doctor at his hospital, where he did and endoscopy,a procedure to open her esophagus ,so she would be able to eat normal food and begin her recovery soon. After the procedure my Mother never woke fully and was in and out of conscious and for the first time needed oxygen. She never really spoke to me, but held onto my hand. Eighteen hours after the procedure, my Father was talking to her and holding her close in his arms to hear what she was telling him, because he is 90% deaf and as he was doing so, my Mother died in his arms. I always always spent twenty hours a day with my Mother and never left her side and also my Father. Even during the 2011 February winter blizzard in Chicago that we had, I made my way to the Hospital to be with her and had a neighbor snow blow me out of my driveway, I could never be away from her for a day, but on that morning I went into work for a few short hours and had coffee with my boyfriend.. I was on a family medical leave of absence from work but went in occasionally to still keep my job. No one from the hospital had called me to tell me what had happen. I just made my hourly call there to speak with my Mother or Father and I was told Rapid Response was in the room and I should get there as soon as I could. The same friend from work that had stayed with my father while I was at the hospital when my Mother had the surgery on that New Years Eve, left work with me and we both arrived to find my Father holding my Mother. My Father was calling my Mothers name as she lay limp with her eyes bulged and her mouth jaw dropping open, as if she had been electrocuted. I went into shock and I am still there, I am devastated and still in a nervous breakdown. I never touched my Mother and just ran out of the room and screamed until I was held down by medical staff who tried to admit me to the hospital, to make money saying I may be suicidal and my Father also, when we were just grieving for our loss. I cant function or think or live except to breathe. I still work and try to keep up my house which is no longer a home, since my Mother took her trip to Heaven, but it gets harder everyday and not easier. Thats what Christmas and New Years means to me. I am dying of the broken heart disease.
Hugs, D
My screen name is SharonMom. I read your post and want you to know that I am SOOO sorry that your Mother suffered when she died almost 2 years ago. Because I was a Nurse's Assistant for 15 years, I have seen first hand that sometimes all of our medical technology only prolongs a person's suffering. Because the bottom line is that we are all God's children and when He calls us to our real home in Heaven, we will go there. It does'nt matter what measures that doctors take. And we all will have our time when we leave this earth. One needs only to watch the news to see every day that people are killed and leave this earth every day.
And I understand how you have broken broken heart disease because I have it too. Only in my case my broken heart disease is also called Multiple Sclerosis.
I was perfectly healthy all my life until my Mother died on 3-1-09. The day after her visitation, at her funeral, my stepdad, who had just lost his wife of 40 years, took me aside and told me that I should see a doctor because I was not walking right. 5 months and 11 days later, after I'd seen 3 doctors, and had many painful medical tests, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis on 8-12-09 at age 42. I think that I have this disease because in my heart I am still just a little girl who desperately wants her Mother, and her Mother lives in Heaven now. I think this because M.S. is a disease in which the body attacks itself. It attacks the lining of nerve cells causing them to be unable to communicate with the brain. When enough cells are attacked, disability results. I am on disability, cannot drive, and need to use a 4-wheeled walker to walk.
What helps me to fight this disease is medication (I have to endure a daily shot of a drug called copaxone), my faith In God, and the love of my husband of almost 7 years. I also just try to be grateful to God for all of the things that I still can do. I still do most of the housework with my 4-wheeled walker, I am still an excellent cook, and I can still get on my husband's Harley trike with his help, and take motorcycle rides with him. When I put my arms out, when I am on the back of the Harley on the freeway, I feel like I am flying!
This is what would help you Angela. You need to figure out what will bring you happiness in life and pursue it. Because you know that your Mother, who, along with God gave you life, would want you to be happy. Maybe you need to put on a beautiful dress and marry that boyfriend of yours, and give your family something to celebrate. Or maybe you need to go to your local animal shelter and adopt a cat who needs love and a good home. I have 4 cats, who were all rescues who give me a priceless amount of love every day. And my cat whose name is also Angel is my soulmate cat. She lives in my bedroom and cuddles with me every night and whenever I want to take a nap. Hope this helps, Debbie