Small Update on Lola

Lola is still in the hospital. She actually went home the same day I last wrote about. Unfortunately, the next evening she had to be checked back in. Her Glucose levels were through the roof and she appeared to be very shocky. Not good.

Long and short of it is that she's also having a hard time swallowing. It's to the point that those reflexes aren't working anymore. The unfortunate outcome is that she now has a feeding tube. My mom, her brothers and sisters only agreed to allow that to be put in because they couldn't see NOT doing it since Lola is very alert. She's not your usual case where she's not all there and doesn't know what's going on. She's VERY MUCH THERE. They felt it was better to do that because they could see...all of us can, that she's actually fighting to live. My Lola is amazing.

I was there a few days ago w/ my sister. We had our kids with us because Lola loves to see her grandkids and great-grandkids. She laughed as they hugged her hello. We talked w/ her a little bit, but there were periods where she would burst into tears. Lu and I figured out she was trying to say,"Look at me. Look at this thing they put on me. Look at my arm. I'm a mess".

You see, Lola, while not a vain woman, took a lot of pride in her appearance. She was all about keeping everyone and everything neat and tidy. We sort of worry that one of the reasons she's fighting to live is because she's afraid of what's on the other side. Will my Lolo be there waiting? Will he see her as she is now?

When it was time for us to go, we all gave her a kiss and hug goodbye. It was a goodbye til we could visit again, not goodbye because she's going to die. Still, when Lu went to kiss her, Lola began to cry again. Both of us stayed longer trying to comfort her and make her understand that she' be ok and that we'd come back to visit as soon as we could. We finally got her calmed down before we left.

Today she's still at the hospital. I'm going to try to go down and visit her.