Yesterday, Tuesday April 1, 2008, I received a call from my sister in law. “Tobey, your mother is in the hospital in the ER. She can’t walk for her legs are giving out on her. We’ve been here about one hour and she wants you to know about it.” Boy, did my heart sink.

I asked Nancy (sister in law) to explain what happened. It seems that my mother (Martha Kerns) began shaking and chilling sometime Monday afternoon and climbed into bed. Earlier that day she had refused her Meals on Wheels lunch and he reported it to the Lutheran Manor office that Mrs. Kerns refused her meal. Debbie, the resident manager, entered Mom’s room sometime in the afternoon and found her in bed. Debbie asked Mom if she could call Nancy and Jim or even call the squad for Mom. Debbie told Mom that she didn’t look good.

My mother is so stubborn! She refused any type of assistance. “I’ll be fine. All I need to do is sleep. Nancy and Jim have to get up at 3:30 a.m. to go to work. Don’t call them.” So Debbie left with a sinking feeling in her heart.

Mom slept all afternoon and when she woke up she couldn’t move her legs. She needed to go to the bathroom. The poor dear had to eliminate in her bed, didn’t have the phone near her and the pull cord was draped over her dresser which is 5 feet away.

Debbie came into the office early and decided to check on Mom as her first priority.  She used her pass key and opened Mom’s apartment door, went to check on Mom and found mt Mom lying in the same place in the bed.  She helped Mom sit up, reached over to the night stand and called Nancy’s cell phone.  Nancy had gone to the library and was on her way to pick up Mom for her doctor appointment.  Imagine Nancy’s surprise with that phone call. 

My sister in law has taken care of Mom for the past 5 years:  doctor appointments, picking up her medication, purchasing her groceries each week, cleaning her apartment, changing her bedding and taking Mom’s laundry home each week.

Nancy and Mom had a “discussion” about calling the squad. Mom refused to go to the hospital, refused to leave her apartment, etc. When Nancy got firm with her, Mom stated she would not leave her apartment until she was cleaned up - don’t blame her at all.

Nancy (God bless her heart) got a towel and placed it behind Mom and began the long procedure of cleaning Mom up and placing all of Mom’s clothing in bags.

After calling the squad, she called my brother, Jim, and told him what was going on.  He works for the county.  He met Mom, the squad and Nancy at Mary Rutan Hospital.  In the hospital ER the nurses tried to get Mom to walk to no avail.  No one could understand why she couldn’t use her legs.  It seemed like they were incapable of holding her up. 

After many tests, it was determined that Mom had a severe kidney infection.  No one checked the skin on Mom’s legs.

In the same time period, my husband and I had 5 items on our agenda. I was receiving over $6,000 worth of medication sometime during the day, we had planned to eat out with our senior group from church, needed to take our car back to the dealership which they had repaired just 3 days ago and was having the same problems again, my husband had his yearly heart check up at the heart specialist and we couldn’t miss this appointment and I needed to take our granddaughter to her driving lesson. We were able to find someone to do most of the above list.

My neighbor, bless her heart, watches a tiny baby and 2 other children plus her own son - agreed to look out for my medication and take it into her home.

Oh yes, there were at least 6 phone calls to make prior to our leaving. I come from a family of 8 children and we all live in different parts of Ohio and one in Virginia.

We drove from the heart specialist in Northern Columbus, OH to Bellefontaine, OH, picked up my youngest sibling, Michael, and visited Mom for several hours at Mary Rutan Hospital.

Upon arriving at the hospital, my husband didn’t recognize my mother. Her face was so swollen, red and blotchy and she was asleep. The nurse woke her up for us. When she came awake, she could open her left eye a litle and her right eye refused to open. After what seemed like an eternity, she opened her left eye.

After a few moments, I lifted the bedding off her right leg, pulled the sheet back and got a shock. Her right leg from her knee down, was so swollen and red and there were two streaks of red running upward onto her inner and outer thigh. There was a grey thing on the side of her calf with an area at the top that looked like seepage and it was about 4 inches long.  What in the world was this thing on Mom’s leg?   Funny, no one else seemed to have noticed it. 

Mom had been given a bag of cipro for her kidneys and another very strong antibiotic for whatever else is going on with her.  After mentioning this area of her leg, the nurse took a good look at it and stated she needed to call the doctor on call.  When he took one look, he stated that Mom had an ulceration on her leg and thanked me for finding it. 

Today (Wednesday April 2) she will be tested for a blood clot in her leg. 

During my visit, Mom looked at me and said, “what about my mattress?” I told her Jim and Nancy threw it out. We would need to buy a new mattress and bedding when she got home.  She wasn’t too happy about that.  At least her sense of humor took over.  She gave a little laugh, shook her head and stated, “at least I have the money for a new mattress.  Goodness, that mattress was only a year old.” 

Mom has always had to count her pennies for everything throughout her life.  Having some money in the checking account made her feel like a millionaire.

My sister and nephew came up around 6 p.m. and stayed until after 8 p.m. I still need to call our oldest sister in Virginia and let her know about Mom.

We will be traveling back and forth to Bellefontaine, OH (an hour and twenty minutes each way) until we know Mom is out of danger and then go every other day. The price of gas and meals out will be blessed by God.

However, the we turned into me.  My husband, Larry, became ill and didn’t want to be around Mom in case he could give her another illness and she had enough on her plate.

I began traveling to and from Bellefontaine on a daily basis.  I missed one day because my husband was running a high fever.  Mom was in the hospital getting good care and many family members were visiting her.

One never leaves their mother alone. We still believe in family.

Respectfully submitted:

Tobey Anne Craft