The nod and smile let me know that the heart transplant was successful and the patient was resting and breathing comfortably on his own.
My mother, a reasonably healthy, spry, and very Scottish 90 year old, was relieved at the good news that her best friend and constant companion was going to be fine. As she breathed a sigh of relief, she positioned herself into her new multi-function recliner chair and closed her eyes and I could immediately see the relief on her face.
There was nothing else for my wife and I to do at this point, so we whispered our goodbyes, let ourselves out of her one bedroom apartment in the retirement home and drove to our own home forty minutes away……
We barely made it in the door when we received a text message from my mother saying that she had signaled the nurse’s station in the retirement home for help by pressing a red button on a communication panel on the wall. There were no additional details as to why she needed help. Was there a problem with the heart transplant, or was the problem with my mother herself?
My first thought was there must have been a problem with the transplant patient being the most likely of possibilities, but then again, my mother is 90 years old after all, so the issue could just as easily have been with her.
Just as we were about to head into the car and drive the forty minutes back to the retirement home, a second much longer text came in.
In my rush for answers, my eyes focused on two words contained in the updated message – “her heart”. This did not sound good…
Whenever dramatic news is conveyed via text message, there is a tendency for mis-communication in the rush and panic when the sender of the text is not as skilled in the construction of the message as one might hope, specifically in the details - you know, the critical details.
My mother was resting in her recliner chair and all of a sudden she could hear her heartbeat, something that was disturbing, very strange, and new to her, so a bit of panic set in and she rightfully contacted the nursing staff.
Now you must understand that my mother doesn’t normally just write simple text messages short and sweet. No, she feels she has to use up the entire maximum limit allowed of 160 characters per text, as if she’s paying a flat rate per text regardless of the number of characters. Did I mention that she’s 90 and very Scottish?
So, in my haste to understand what was going on, I happened to skip over the most important details of what she was trying to let us know.
As she sat in her chair, she said she could hear the sound of her heartbeat and that was very concerning to her, so much so, she reckoned that summoning medical assistance was the right thing to do.
As I write this story, I now realize I forgot to include one detail that might make this story a little easier to understand.
I may have inadvertently given you the impression that the heart transplant patient I talked about at the beginning of this story, was a human companion to my aging mother. In fact, the patient is indeed her companion, but not of the human kind. The patient is, as she calls it, her “wee puppy” who lays beside her chair sleeping in a wicker basket under an equally wee Scottish tartan blanket.
During our visit to see Mom the previous day, we noticed that her wee pal was not breathing so action had to be taken on our part and quickly. So off we went to find something to revive Mom’s pal.
Oh, did I also forget to mention that Mom’s wee pal is not a real puppy, even though Mom will argue that he is very real?
Her “wee puppy” is a very realistic looking golden retriever puppy toy with soft fur and a chest that moves up and down that makes it look like he is breathing.
With instruments in hand we performed the delicate heart transplant by opening a flap on the little fellow’s belly and removed his dead battery and replaced it with a fresh new one thereby reviving her best pal. Instant heart resuscitation!
So, back to Mom’s medical issue…
A few minutes after requesting medical assistance with the push of a single red button, she realized that what she was hearing was not her own heartbeat, but rather the battery powered heartbeat of her “wee pal” sitting beside her! Panic stations were cancelled all is well at the retirement home - well at least for now.
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This story is 100% true - well except for the parts
I just made up!
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