bad enough my vacation had to be cut short over oxygen issues, but what can you do? so listen to how this turned out: yesterday (Easter Sunday, yes), Mom isn't feeling all that well, so dad takes her to the Emergency for a quick checkup... that ended up being all day. and since dad ran out of his gas and was feeling light headed, he got checked up as well. I get a call from Pops that evening saying the medical staff wanted to admit both my folks in that night. he stayed, but Ma.... too stubborn in her pride decided to go against medical advice and came home. her issue was that folks had places to go, plus she explained that most of the stuff they had at the hospital was home for her to use (which almost all of it is) and that she would make an appointment with her doctor in the morning.

so she does all of this, and this morning wakes folks up as her doctor told her to "go back to the emergency room". all of her gasping like a fish out of the bowl was concerning, but I actually saw this coming, since she has her separate hookup to the concentrater (the machine that create oxygen for Pops to breath, and the setup of creating seperate lines in addition to trips to ACE Hardware and Home Depot). anyway, Mom's crying for me while I'm taking a piss, and after I get out, it's "Grab the portable concentrater and turn it on... too bad the charge was dead. I ended up giving her the tank, turning it on and my brother drove her to the Emergency Room. the highlight words from my Ma's mouth made me smile like a happy clam: "Son (my brother), here are all of my cigarettes, take them, I have to quit."

so while my brother takes Ma to the hospital, using a tank on low gas (low but enough to get them there, granted they take the backroads and how my brother drives), I wait by the phone for news on my folks. now I wanna see if she can cold turkey in one day like Pops did after he got out. one thing's for certain, I sense a lot more paperwork regarding oxygen tanks and tubing when all of this is said and done, with both of my folks home safely.

pray for me, this isn't gonna give me the grays...