Laura Hudson

Mom got sick at the beginning of March. I took her to the doctor and he said she had bronchitis. He prescribed antibiotics and cough medicine and said to come back in two weeks if she was not better. A week later she was not better but in fact she was worse. She was so weak she could hardly get out of the chair. She coughed all the time and her appetite was very poor. On Sunday 15th I took her to the hospital. Fortunately a friend of mine was the triage nurse. She checked us in within a few minutes. Her first comment to me was "Why is she so pale?" I didn't even realize she was that pale, I just knew she was sick. The first thing they did was take blood and x-rays. When the doctor came in to talk to us she commented on how pale she was. The doctor then asked how long she had been in renal failure. My mouth dropped and I said that I didn't know she was in renal failure. When the lab tests came back we found out that mom was very anemic and needed a transfusion. They also wanted her most recent lab tests to compare her current results with. On Monday morning she had a transfusion and they got her last lab tests from her doctor. She had been in renal failure for a year without treatment. They referred her to the Kidney specialist and he wanted to start her on Dialysis as soon as they could get her ready. They did the Dialysis for five days and mom seemed to get worse. She was basically comatose. She was hallucinating and so weak. We decided to stop the dialysis and they transferred her to the extended care unit. The doctor did not feel that she would make it. We called the family and many came to see her while she was in the hospital. After four days she started to wake up. She began eating and could actually carry on a conversation. She was in the hospital from March 15th to April 17th. She decided that she did not want to continue the dialysis and the doctor's felt like she had less than six months to live. While she was in the hospital my brother came from Utah and stayed for several days. His daughter Kara came to visit with her three children. Her grandson Joe came from Utah to see her. Her grandson Jaron and his wife and four children drove out from Utah to see her and her granddaughter Mariah came from Sacramento. Her sisters called every couple of days to talk with her and see how she was doing. Frank and Leia and David and Robin came often to sit with her and dad. She was so excited when she was able to come home. We got everything in place to make things as easy for her as possible. After being home for two days she was back to doing things her way. She was weak but she was managing.