Christian Living
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE As A Member OR Visitor
Message Writer
Hire Writer
Report Article
My mother and I had moved into a large apartment complex in the Chicago Illinois area just after my father left us. I was not five years old yet. There was a big yard and a playground outside, and I had gone out to play. I enjoyed the swing for awhile, the merry-go-round and the jungle jim. When I decided I wanted to go home, I looked around and realized I did not know which building of all the buildings surrounding the playground was ours. I was lost. I did not know how to get home. I was about to panic when I heard my mother’s voice in the distance. ‟Bridgie, over here honey.” She had been watching me out the window and saw me turning around in circles trying to find my way. I turned in the direction of her voice and, delighted to see her, I ran to my mother’s waiting arms.
Mother’s matter. There is nothing more wonderful to a lost child then the sight of their mother. Nothing sends a chill down a child’s soul like the thought of being lost. The question, ‟Will I ever get to go home again?” grips a lost soul with fear. The relief that floods when the lost is found is like a refreshing breeze on a hot day.
The wheel of time turned, and the child grew up. The mother grew old. My mother called me on the phone. ‟Bridgie, I think I need to come and live with you. I can’t do this alone anymore,” she said. She was 80. She had degenerative disk disease, arthritis, and scoliosis in her back. She had hired a housekeeper to clean the house, but she needed more care. ‟Okay Mom,” I said. My brother and I made the trip to Alabama to pack her up and a lifetime of belongings. I took my mother home with me. She got healthier almost immediately. She was also happier because she was with me.
It took some time for my mom to decide what to do about her back. She could still walk, but she was in pain most of the time. Some nights she didn’t sleep at all. The pain medication she had been prescribed was no longer working. Finally we went to see a spine surgeon. He explained the risks. Mom was now 81 years old. She took some time to think about it.
My mother, even at her age, was still as sharp as a tac and handling most of her personal affairs herself. She still had a lot of life left in her, and she wasn’t ready to give up. Her spine surgeon, Dr. Kahn at OSU, got the ball rolling for us. The surgery was scheduled for December 16th. I got Mom there at 5am. I followed Mom right through to the point when they rolled into the surgery room, and I went to the waiting room and waited all day. The surgery went well. She was taken down to intensive care. When I found her, she was still unconscious. The next day I returned to the hospital and spent the day with her. She was in and out of consciousness and she was in severe pain. I held her hand, and said, ‟I’m right here Mom.”
It took a week before she was discharged from ICU and in step-down. It was another week before she was discharged from the hospital. I found the best nursing/rehab facility in our area, and Mom was on the road to recovery. Then she had a fall. She sustained a compression fracture, and her recovery was halted. She couldn’t even sit up in bed, let alone stand and walk. She was discharged from the nursing home to the hospital in severe pain. She was then discharged in another week to another nursing home five minutes from our home. There was no recovery going on anymore, and she was flat on her back, and not a happy woman. I went to see her daily, and one day she looked at me with fear in her eyes as she puckered up like a child on the edge of tears asking, ‟Will I ever get to go home again?” I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her forehead and replied, ‟I promise you, I will get you home again.”
I couldn’t blame my mother for not wanting to stay in the nursing home. It was a depressing state of affairs. It smelled bad. I have grown to loathe nursing home smell. Not only that, but when she needed personal care, she would hit that nurse call button and wait for up to 4 hours at a time. They forgot to feed her twice, overmedicated her, and and put her in a room with a psychiatric patient who kept her awake all night long. Mom was pretty loopie the first couple of months she was there too. She was not herself, and I was pretty discouraged until someone finally diagnosed her with a UTI and got her some antibiotics. She snapped out of it after that while I continued to insist they not put her on any psychiatric medications. One day she called me and asked me to bring her some bottled water. She went several days without water because the facility forgot to bring her water to drink. ‟Mom, why didn’t you tell me!” I protested. For all of that the insurance company paid them about $47,000 for the 6 months she stayed there. Seriously! Really!
It took five months for the compression fracture to heal. In the meantime I had to go through the process of applying for medicaid and getting her a passport waiver so she could come home. I purchased a hospital bed for her, and Bessie Morrison from our church came to help put it together. We also called one of her friends to help becuase we got stuck. Bessie and a couple of the elders from our church, World Harvest, went by to visit my mohter including my mohter's favorite pastor, Bill Canfield. Finally, my mom was able again to sit up in bed. The nursing facility began rehab again, and Mom was able to stand and pivot. The passport waiver and medicaid was approved and, eight months after her surgery, she came home. The day she came home our dog, Carmen, was quivering with excitement from head to toe. She has jumped into bed with her every night since.
Thanks to the passport waiver we got a personal care aide to stay with mom and take care of her when I am at work. We got a nurse, and PT/OT to help mom get her strength back. She is making progress with her rehab and is now walking on her walker instead of using the wheelchair. Her back doesn’t hurt her as much now. The surgery worked. She is still old, and she still gets sick and needs help, but she is not in constant pain like she was.
I look at my mom and I marvel at her. I remember my mom tearing up and replacing the bathroom floor all by herself. That was my mom. She was a single woman, and a mother and she never let anything get in the way of accomplishing her goals. She raised three children on the money she earned from her minimum wage job. She was the one who found me when I got lost on the playground and helped me find my way home. She was the one who encouraged me to go to college when I graduated from high school. Our roles are reversed, and I am taking care of her. I have to encourage her to eat vegetables, as she protests. I have to help her with personal care occasionally. I run errands to the drug store to get her medications, and take her to doctor appointments. I have to explain things to the doctor when it comes to my mother's health. I get up in the middle of the night if I hear her crying or if she calls me for help. ‟Mom, what is it. What do you need.” ‟Oh, I didn’t want to wake you, ...” she says.
I will never forget the pitiful look on her face the day she looked at me pleading, ‟Will I ever get to go home again?” I felt her fear, and I knew I had my work cut out for me, but I was going to get her home again. Mission accomplished, and I am happy for her. She is happy, and very, very relieved that she is safe at home again.
PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE AS A MEMBER OR VISITOR
This article has been read 609 times < Previous | Next >
Free Reprints
Main Site Articles
Most Read Articles
Highly Acclaimed Challenge Articles.
New Release Christian Books for Free for a Simple Review.
NEW - Surprise Me With an Article - Click here for a random URL
God is Not Against You - He Came on an All Out Rescue Mission to Save You
...in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them... 2 Cor 5:19
Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Acts 13:38
LEARN & TRUST JESUS HERE
FaithWriters offers Christian reading material for Christian readers. We offer Christian articles, Christian fiction, Christian non-fiction, Christian Bible studies, Christian poems, Christian articles for sale, free use Christian articles, Christian living articles, New Covenant Christian Bible Studies, Christian magazine articles and new Christian articles. We write for Jesus about God, the Bible, salvation, prayer and the word of God.