My Mother Suggested This Blog Posting

While Mother and I visited this week during her hospitalization, she suggested I post on this topic as a way of saying "Thank You" to those who served her and our family this week.

My mother strives to follow the advice to remain healthy by staying out of the hospital. My brother-in-law makes house calls for her, provides medicine from his little black backpack for her ailments, and takes a call concerning her health any hour of the day, seven days a week.

Mother, Angie, my sister, and Ben,
Mother's favorite ARNP

Ben’s medical protocol for Mother had cleared the infection diagnosed the previous week. Ben  recommended politely additional testing. Mother’s illness worsened, requiring Ben to insist graciously that she needed a blood test that he would order at our local hospital. Sure enough, the test revealed an issue.

 This week, her condition described as “critically low sodium” by her “personal APRN” required hospitalization. Our family conducted a family conference call with Angie, Mother, and I in the Bend while Ben was driving between clinics. We all realized that small, rural hospitals cannot provide some of the complex procedures available in the 21^st century. Yet with Mother simply needing sodium intravenously, we collectively decided Fairfax Community Hospital would be the best fit all around, enabling me to be “a hop, skip, and a jump” from the farm, making it possible to do daily chores there. My brother-in-law arranged for her admission to Fairfax Community Hospital.

 During Mother’s 24-hour stay, she stated frequently what good care she received. So many of her care providers had known Mother for many years. To most, she was not a patient in room …, but Bernyce, someone who, with Dad, had furnished rides to church, someone whose house always felt “homey” to employees who had visited her home in their younger days, and almost every nurse or PA, who had never met her before this week, expressed admiration for how sharp and gracious she was.

 I smiled to myself as she complemented each meal served to her. How ironic that a woman known for her superb cooking would be praising and enjoying hospital food, often the topic of jokes! Dad liked her food so much he seldom wanted to eat out, yet Mother savored her meals at Fairfax Community Hospital this week.

Small, rural hospitals cannot meet all healthcare needs. But during this past week, a small, hometown hospital, the Fairfax facility was the best place for our family.