Oma's Struggle

Oma with Annika at Benj & Kelly's Wedding

Well, as many of you know, life is never dull for the Sall's.  This time our thoughts and prayers are with Oma (Christine's Mom).  The past couple of weeks she had been feeling poorly like she had a cold that she just couldn't kick.  Of course she kept this to herself until this past weekend when Marcel and Shelly and the girls went to visit the farm.  She hung in there until Monday even though she could no longer even sleep on her left side with extreme pain.  After hemming and hawing, she decided she would head to Durham, Ontario Hospital/medical center to see if she could get some medication like an antibiotic for her respiratory issues.  Upon her arrival the doctor took a look at her and ordered a chest x-ray.  They discovered that they could only see 3 ribs on her left side, meaning the rest of her lung was surrounded in fluid.  Their decision, at that point, was to drain off some of the fluid to give her some relief.  This is NOT a fun process.  It requires them to numb her back and then insert a needle/tube to drain it.  They took off 1.1 litres of fluid (more than a QUART, for our American readers :), put her on some pain medication and an antibiotic and sent her home saying they wanted her to have a CT scan in the Owen Sound Hospital on Wednesday.  She did experience a little relief but she still sounded VERY wheezy and short of breath when Christine spoke with her on Monday. 

On Wednesday she was in a lot of pain again as she headed to Owen Sound radiology department.  There they did two CT scans, one without dye and one with.  Once they finished the scans, they sent her back home.  (In hind sight, they probably should have admitted her then and there but with all the main offices closed, the only way to do that would have been for Mom to go to the ER and check herself in.)

Thursday she could no longer handle the pain and went back to Durham Hospital/medical center.  There they once again took off 1.1L of fluid from her left lung and also found out that the CT scan results were inconclusive.  The doctor determined they NEEDED to get to the bottom of this with the assistance of a specialist.  The only way to get a specialist to see her soon would be to admit her.  So as of Thursday she was admitted to Durham awaiting word from the specialist.

She was not getting any better.  Actually, they had to put her on oxygen Friday.  The specialist, from Owen Sound, still had not taken a look at her as of Friday afternoon so Mom and Dad and the Durham staff decided to put in for Mom to be transferred to Owen Sound.  The problem was that there were no beds available.  However, one finally opened up late in the day and they transferred Mom by "ambulance" (no siren) to Owen Sound around 5pm.

All of us siblings have been keeping each other in the loop for the last few days:

• Mo was up to visit Mom and get the low down on Thursday night to Friday. 
• And since Benj & Kelly can't come to Canada for the next year due to paperwork processing for their Canadian/American marriage and Marce & Shel's girls start school Monday and they were just here, we decided that Kevin and I would head up with the kids to check on Mom and give her some encouragement.

So here it is Saturday already.  Mom's still in Owen Sound where this morning they took ANOTHER 1.1L of fluid off her lungs.  My grandparents are up at the farm with us and my Dad and we will be heading out to see Oma this afternoon.  We'll keep you posted on her status.

Please pray that:

• she will be able to get some rest.  She's not sleeping well at all!
• the doctors will be able to find the source of this fluid
• there will be medication/procedure to help her
• that my Dad (with their employees) will be able to manage all the responsibilities here at the farm

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!
Kevin & Christine & the kids