(OT) Sometimes the strangest things happen, when you least expect them to...

[Guest guest]

This afternoon, I was called to the phone at lunch time at the school where I teach. My Vice-Principal, who made the announcement over the P.A. system for me to call the office, and for anyone else to tell her of my whereabouts if they knew where I was, made the matter sound very urgent. I was in my classroom, as usual, and called her right away. It turned out that my father was trying to call me about an emergency which had occurred with my mother sometime earlier in the afternoon. She had been getting ready for a doctor's appointment which was to occur at 1 p.m. this afternoon. While she was sitting on the edge of her bed, putting moisturizing cream on her legs, she had somehow inadvertently broken the skin over a small lump which had developed near one of her varicose veins. She had planned on showing her doctor the lump, but now her leg was bleeding constantly. My daughter was staying at their place this

morning, because she had a headache and fever earlier in the day. When my mom called out to her, my daughter (11 years old) was sickened to find her grandmother in such a state, with blood practically spouting out of her leg, nonstop. She did her best to try and stop the bleeding. It seems that at the time, my mom wasn't even aware of how much blood she had lost. My mom told me later, when I saw her at the hospital, that she did not even realize that she was bleeding until she noticed a large, dark red stain on the rug beside her bed. By that time, she had lost close to 1 litre of blood. Anyway, I left work in a bit of a panic this afternoon, after my Vice-Principal told me that they would look after "everything". Apparently, the paramedic who had brought my mom to the hospital had called my school and told others that my mom was not doing well and did his best to make sure that

I could get there while she was still alive. Thank God for paramedics who go out of their way to help others. Aside from his own duties, I am glad that this particular person decided to go the extra mile and contact my school, making it easier for me to get away to see my mother. After I arrived at the Emergency Department of the hospital my mom was at, I was not allowed entry to see her right away, as there were other emergencies, such as resuscitation (spelling??) attempts happening in the same area. I found my father and my daughter in the waiting area, shortly thereafter. Once we were allowed to visit mom, I was glad to see that her blood pressure was getting closer to a more normal range, after having dipped down to half of what normal blood pressure looks like. Last we have heard, she will likely be staying in the hospital for a few more

days, for observation. She isn't too happy with that,as she wants to go home and was looking forward to the weekend, when we were planning on celebrating Father's Day up north at their cottage. Those plans may need to be changed or shelved for a period of time. I know that this is OT on this list, but I wanted to post this here to remind others about how fragile life can be, and to remind them of how strong life can be. My mother is a cancer "survivor", having overcome pancreatic and skin cancer in earlier years. It was a bit surprising to find out today, that she came close to "bleeding to death" from a minor scrape on her skin. She does take blood-thinning medications, but none of us thought these could contribute to a bloodflow that was so difficult to stop. Aasa (P.S., This was a very traumatic day for my daughter, as she ended up bearing most of the

work of helping her grandmother through this ordeal, and she did well...)