This has been a most interesting week.  First we saw mom's primary care doctor last Friday.  It was explained to mom about the risk of UTIs in the elderly and that it has become apparent that she is now having chronic bouts with this.  My mother who thinks she is allergic to all antibiotics has agreed to taking a prophylactic dosage of one for the rest of her life.  This will be interesting to watch.  The good thing here is that at this time we will not be seeing a urologist just yet.Last Saturday Mom started with her "exhausted" routine again.  She would only say that she was very tired and didn't feel good.  Spent Saturday & Sunday in bed.  Monday she told me that she had developed a cold and was coughing a lot.  But along with the coughing, she had also developed a wheeze.  That was something new & I thought she should go to the doctor or ER for evaluation.  As usual, she refused medical treatment.  So I called her doctor who prescribed albuterol for the wheezing.  I delivered that, along with some homemade cabbage soup and a couple muffins that she could keep next to the bed.Tuesday I received a call from Mom who was now telling me that she had a sore throat.  Again, because she was already on an antibiotic that the doctor felt would hold her, we just got her some over the counter stuff for her sore throat.Boy was I surprised this morning.  At 6:30 AM I began receiving calls.  Mom was having difficulty breathing and had pushed the button on her lifeline alert.  The ambulance was on the way and I was trying to deal with the side effects of a sleeping pill taken at 2 AM.    Another call at 7:30 AM was to tell me that Mom was on the way to the ER via ambulance.  Still trying to shake the sleeping pill and didn't want to drive in a heavy fog with the dizzies.  At 8:30 AM, Mom called to ask if I had been informed that she was in the hospital.  After a clarification that she was still in the ER, I began trying harder to get myself together.  It simply is not like me to not meet the ambulance at the door of the ER, but on some occasions my hubby drives that route for me.  Unfortunately, he too, had taken a sleeping pill and was in such a deep sleep that the several phone calls did not waken him.At 10:00 AM Mom called again to tell me that she would be ready to go home as soon as the doctor came back to the floor.  I went into high gear and called my sister.  She suggested that I tell the doctor that "if anything happened to Mom after discharge that she would sue him."  I said that if she wanted that message delivered, she would have to do so herself and gave her the number to the hospital.  Bottom line, the doctor did not want to discharge Mom and enlisted my sister's help in persuading Mom to stay.  Job well done and Mom will be hospitalized for at least 2 days. Seems this entire episode was her congestive heart failure acting up.  She is so short of breath that she is having difficulty talking or getting out of bed to use the commode.  This one is the worst I have seen with her and it is very scary!!!!