It's been a hell of a few months...(huge post starting...)

April 20th, my starts vomiting violently, luckily it was a Sunday and my DH was home. He called an ambulance just as she passed out. (she lives with us, she is disabled)

The EMT's can't get a blood pressure and her pulse is weak (her BP normally runs very high - she's on two BP meds). They get her to the hospital...her BP is 20/40 and she is septic. The ER doc informs me and DH she could likely die.

At this point I'm freaking out...I lost my dad 10 yrs ago to cancer, the thought of losing my mom just boggles my mind. They admit her to ICU and she's put on a breathing machine.

I spend the next three days praying at her bedside that she'll live (she's 64 yrs old). Due to her being in ICU she can only have visitors about half the day. So, in the evenings I come home and I'm unable to sleep...I keep waking up with panic attacks, so scared the phone will ring and someone will tell me she's gone.

They originally told me she would be in ICU for 2wks (or more), three days later she's off the breathing machine and not septic at all. She's moved the progressive care unit and is almost 100%. She was released within 10 days of being admitted.

She really recovered well, she has severe arthritis, other then that she's a pretty healthy lady (thank God). I guess all those years of taking a bowl full of supplements has paid off, lol.

Well after she came home, her back started hurting...BAD. She gets injections for back pain (she has MANY bad disks, so many that surgery would be a last resort). She has to get them every 3 years to keep the pain level down...well it was time for new ones! Due to her being septic (btw, it was a severe case of colitus that caused her to be septic) they couldn't give her a "full" dose in her back at once so they had to space it out over like a 1.5 months. She finally got relief with this last injection (5 days ago).

So, I've basically been playing caregiver and trying to make my dietician appointments. I finally made it to my last one last Thursday and FINALLY have my appointment with my surgeon on June 25th.

I haven't been paying ANY attention to my eating habits...I've been to busy taking FULL TIME care of my mother. Thank goodness I've been out of work...or this could've really been bad.

I also was diagnosed with horrible sleep apnea, and I have a "loaner" machine to use in order to get used to the mask so I can go in for ANOTHER sleep study to determine what my pressure needs to be set at. That took forever to get to because I couldn't seem to ever keep an appointment (due to my mother's condition).

So, the guy at the CPAP place informs me he has NEVER seen sleep apnea like mine. I stop breathing 288 times per hour...which is unheard of (bad is 110 and the worst he's seen is 177). I was totally freaked out when he told me this....

The good news is, that most people that stop breathing while sleeping lose lots of oxygen their levels can drop as low as 70%. Mine never went below 96% which is considered normal...explain that!

So, I finally pick up my CPAP machine and I fall asleep last night, forgetting to put it on....good job Michele!

So, we try again tonight...