New on Mom

The most recent news isn't all bad, but since this is mostly a family blog, I just want to put a few words down about the great sadness and worry that our family is feeling today over some news we got from Tulsa. My mother was found not breathing and had to be resuscitated, her heart stopped several times and had to be re-started, and she was put into intensive care at Tulsa Regional Hospital on life support. When we heard this news our family quickly gathered and made plans to leave as soon as possible to go to Tulsa. At first we were devastated because the news sounded very bleak. But later on, we were told she responded to a question by squeezing her husband's hand, which he asked her to do. So one question was answered: she apparently has some level of consciousness. Then, my brother talked to a person with a medical background. She said patients my mother's age sometimes get so low on potassium their hearts can just stop beating. They find them unresponsive and not breathing, and often a heart attack is assumed. Yet these people can recover when their potassium levels are increased. One of the things they did find out about my mother is that her potassium levels were dangerously low when she was brought in. She had been camping for several days with friends so we are wondering and hoping if maybe she didn't have a heart attack after all, maybe it was her dangerously low potassium level that caused her collapse? Maybe we are grasping at straws here, but Mom is well-known for abandoning her health regimen when her schedules changes, such as when she is camping, and she often forgets or just doesn't take the pills she is supposed to. Because we have all been so upset and distraught over what looked at first like a hopeless crisis, we now have some reason to hope. So I just wanted to pass that on. I will of course update when possible. And thank you for your prayers.