Man, what a week.
End. I meant what a weekend.
Here I was thinking last weekend
would be spent doing mundane chores
and activities at my leisure
but
mother calls.
Mother calls, at 8.30 on Saturday morning
which (I felt at that very moment) was pushing the envelope
She tells me that she cannot move her arms or feet
and please could I come over?
Half of me I have to drag
for that part thinks its just another one of those
things
the other part I have no need to urge
for it leaps into brisk action
this it the part that doesn't bother to brush my teeth
Mother is lying on her wooden floor
naked except for her comforter
her housemate lets me in
and I am enveloped in a fog of alcohol brea-thed-ness
he heads into bed.
She really cannot move except to lift her head
ever so slightly
She needs to go to the bathroom
and pee
I cannot support her weight
she needs to vomit
I cant do much except to hold a towel to her mouth
Soon we are both covered in the stench of
urine and vomit
I clean where I can
where I cannot, it seeps into the wooden floor
I think we are both hoping
that this is just a symptom of her
SLE
I turn the air-cond off, wrap her in blankets
massage her joints
I wipe her down
and hesitate at her crotch, she says she'll clean herself
but how, when she can't even sit up unsupported?
We ignore it
I know I shouldn't be disgusted, but I am
I'm sure everyone is in these situations, though they pretend otherwise
I just have the guts to admit it
but I also do my utmost to keep it from showing on my face
though mother knows her daughter.
"Okay, hospital time," say I
when clearly nothing is improving
I call the only person I know big enough to carry her
I call my aunt
I call an ambulance
The ambulance is careening to the hospital
Inside things are being flung left and right
the 3 attendants sit up-front
and I am left to attend to mother in the back
I use all my strength to brace my leg against the wheel of her stretcher
to keep it from lurching jarringly with every turn.End. I meant what a weekend.
Here I was thinking last weekend
would be spent doing mundane chores
and activities at my leisure
but
mother calls.
Mother calls, at 8.30 on Saturday morning
which (I felt at that very moment) was pushing the envelope
She tells me that she cannot move her arms or feet
and please could I come over?
Half of me I have to drag
for that part thinks its just another one of those
things
the other part I have no need to urge
for it leaps into brisk action
this it the part that doesn't bother to brush my teeth
Mother is lying on her wooden floor
naked except for her comforter
her housemate lets me in
and I am enveloped in a fog of alcohol brea-thed-ness
he heads into bed.
She really cannot move except to lift her head
ever so slightly
She needs to go to the bathroom
and pee
I cannot support her weight
she needs to vomit
I cant do much except to hold a towel to her mouth
Soon we are both covered in the stench of
urine and vomit
I clean where I can
where I cannot, it seeps into the wooden floor
I think we are both hoping
that this is just a symptom of her
SLE
I turn the air-cond off, wrap her in blankets
massage her joints
I wipe her down
and hesitate at her crotch, she says she'll clean herself
but how, when she can't even sit up unsupported?
We ignore it
I know I shouldn't be disgusted, but I am
I'm sure everyone is in these situations, though they pretend otherwise
I just have the guts to admit it
but I also do my utmost to keep it from showing on my face
though mother knows her daughter.
"Okay, hospital time," say I
when clearly nothing is improving
I call the only person I know big enough to carry her
I call my aunt
I call an ambulance
The ambulance is careening to the hospital
Inside things are being flung left and right
the 3 attendants sit up-front
and I am left to attend to mother in the back
I use all my strength to brace my leg against the wheel of her stretcher
Emergency room, General Hospital.
Sek is strutting around like he owns the place
Szu fen is looking damn hot in her doctor gear
Mother's blood pressure is through the roof
and her potassium level is somewhere in the earth's core
making the body mimic paralysis
so low that her heart could have stopped beating
They observe her, they admit her.
I have this wonderful habit of telling her off when she's
in a hospital bed
and then feeling bad
and when she starts to worry about my sister
I tell her that if she really cared, she'd be responsible enough
to take care of herself and spare the child
from having to worry about her mother being in hospital
"No, mother, no more Adventist 3 times a year,
no more private rooms, you want to neglect your health,
you can come to GH,"
I tell her, when she complains the nurses are
rough and noisy (they are very much so)
my mother has never been in a public ward of over 40 ppl