After closing The T-Room blog down two weeks ago to tend to my mom, I return with hope and a profound sense of gratitude.

The Cardio team-doctor’s, nurses, nurse assistants and support staff-at Good Samaritan Hospital and Mercy Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, are my heroes. Working together, they have given mom a new lease on life which continues to turn into a true miracle with every new day.

You see, when I left Wednesday nearly two week’s ago, I had a heavy heart and feared I may be going to Cincinnati to help her pass on. She was hospitalized Saturday evening with heavy bleeding and she could hardly breathe. Not knowing what to expect when I arrived, I decided to spend the eight hours in the car praying for her and her wellbeing.

You see mom is 83 years young and has suffered from breathing problems her entire life. When I was a little tyke, Dad moved the family to Arizona hoping the arid climate would help with her breathing. Many a night, while growing up, I’d be awaken to noise downstairs and startled when seeing mom being wheeled into an ambulance heading to the hospital because she couldn’t catch her breath. Around 1993, her breathing became even more labored and by 2003 she was doing steroid-breathing treatments two times a day. Recently, she was diagnosed with emphysema and couldn’t walk five feet without running short of breath. Her quality of life was slowly diminishing and there was little anyone could do but make her comfortable and love her.

And boy do I love my mom. She’s always been my mom, meaning we’ve never had to work at being best girlfriends because we always were. Growing up I told my mom everything and I mean everything. I always thought she was so smart and wise and she had this innate knack for turning negatives into positives. So mom has always been my confidante and I hers.

Sure we have had our share of power struggles over the years, I am my mother’s daughter afterall, and we certainly had our share of disagreements, but always in the end, we’d both come to the center, or as close to the center as possible, and walk away with our integrity intact and a greater respect for one another’s thoughts, ideas or positions.

So knowing mom was suffering and knowing her health history, I feared the worst. I saw her for the first time Wednesday night a week and a half ago at Mercy Hospital. She could barely talk, was weak and very tired. The team at Mercy took her off of the Cumadin which they diagnosed was the cause for the intestinal bleeding. After running several more tests the team of Mercy doctors pinpointed heart flutters in the upper right chamber of her heart. They recommended she be transferred to Good Sam for a procedure called cardiac ablation. She was transferred and underwent the procedure a bit more than a week ago. While the doc was mapping the heart for the procedure, he found a hole between the upper right and left chamber. He suggested this hole in her heart had been there since she was born and was the likely cause for all of her breathing problems. As well, as long as the hole remained open, the ablation procedure would not work. After resting over the weekend, mom had the hole closed a week ago today, Monday. The Cardiologist that closed the hole said she was the oldest patient he’d ever done and although a bit hesitant to do the procedure initially, was all for it once he decided to do it. So, mom made  a bit of medical history at Good Sam, at least with the doc’s.

Her heart showed small flutters for a couple of days following this procedure, but the medicine finally kicked in and has been doing its job ever since. We brought her home Wednesday and witnessed dramatic improvement in her breathing as the days have passed by. For the first time in mom’s life she is showing no shortness of breath. None.

After consulting with her cardio team about travelling, I brought her home with me over the weekend so I can tend to her here. 

Today, mom is sitting in the sunroom with the gas fireplace turned on as high as it can go, reading a book and resting. She is walking up and down steps showing no shortness of breath whatsoever. She’s taking on more and more of her own care and is looking forward to taking a soothing hot bath soon. She’s doing great and I’m loving the opportunity to take care of her.

From here, I pray my Mom’s quality of life will only continue to improve. She truly enjoyed packing up the over fifteen medicines she was taking prior to these procedures being done. Now she’s only prescribed three medicines and Avair. That’s it. For the first time in 83 years my mom can breath without experiencing shortness of breath. It’s an overwhelming thought when you think about it – all these years, all the medicines, all the misdiagnosis. It’s truly a miracle to witness and one I will hold dear for the rest of my life.   

I couldn’t have possibly gotten through the last twelve days without everyone’s supportive thoughts and prayers. Thank you. I promise to reply to your emails from here on out and hope you understand that although I read them, I didn’t know quite what to say at the time. I just gathered all of your blessings and held them close to my heart knowing they were the very tonic I needed to keep on giving to mom.

Peace and blessings to all of you and yours.

Helen