Chapter 18

A week later, Mom was still in the hospital. Jenn went daily to visit her. Justin would drive her over, in case it was too much for her emotionally. They still had no answers. 

Jenn walked in the room, and mom had a different set of tubes. 

“Her oxygen levels were high enough that they went to take the tubes out. In taking them out, they learned she was allergic to the tubes, and her throat immediately closed up. They had to shove the feeding tube back down her throat, and did an emergency tracheotomy to put in a breathing tube. They now have to wait for the scar tissue in her throat to heal before removing the tubes again.” Dad explained. 

“How are you doing with all this, Dad?” Jenn hugged him. 

“In all my cancer stuff, I knew there was a chance it could kill me. I’ve almost lost her twice. I’ve yelled at the doctors because they can’t figure out what’s wrong with her. I’ve yelled at your mom because I’m scared of losing her and don’t want her to give up. With my cancer I knew I needed to fight. Now I’m helpless watching her just lie in that bed every day. I’m here as often as I can be around my work schedule. I’m just so scared Jenn,” Dad broke down in tears, they cried together for a while. 

… 

Mom had been in the hospital for a month now, with no real answers to what was wrong and caused this. She seemed to be responding well to the steroid treatments for her throat. Each day they’d check to see if it was healed enough. 

One day, Jenn got a call. They’d been able to remove her breathing tube, but she still had the tracheotomy port and the feeding tube. She was able to speak now. 

They went to go see her, hoping this would be the beginning of an upswing for her. 

“Hi Mom, are you feeling better?”

“I’ve been better.” Her voice was weak and raspy. Her vocal cords hadn’t been used for a few weeks, so she found it difficult at first to speak. She would answer in short bursts, it was physically draining to try and teach herself to speak again. 

“They’re encouraging that we have her talk as much as possible to help her muscles and vocal chords to go back to normal,” Dad explained. 

“Mom, do they think you’ll come home soon? It’s almost Thanksgiving.”

“They don’t know,” she answered.