First, the serious post

So my mother almost died.

She was taken to the hospital a few Thursdays ago for severe back pain, and several hours later was found to have blood clots in her legs. They airlifted her to another hospital. I was scared.

It all seemed surreal. I was at home, watching my brother Joe while my step-dad and grandfather were at the hospital with Mom. They rushed her into surgery, and I didn't know. They put tubes and shunts in her legs, and I didn't know. They put a filter near her heart, and I didn't know.

I felt so out of the loop. All these things were being done to my mother and nobody was telling me anything. They'd mention that "the procedure" was going well, that "she's doing okay, but she's still not out of the woods."

But that's how it went. For a week I watched my brother. For a week, I didn't see hide nor hair of my step-dad. For that week, I didn't see my mother. I didn't want to be afraid. I wanted her to be okay. My sister had to be told, and it was MY job to tell her.

That week was the hardest. I learned a lot. I'm not ready to be a godparent to my siblings. Not yet.

I broke off a date for Mom's sake, though that one was a good decision anyway. The girl ended up not enjoying "clean" relationships (whatever that meant, I wanted nothing to do with it).

The last day she was in the ICU, I went to my sister's aunt's Hometown Days party. Had a lot of fun, sang some karaoke (there's video somewhere of me screaming the chorus of You Shook Me All Night Long somewhere out there in the world)

I came back home, and the next Thursday she was kicked out of the hospital. They had her on a few blood thinners and pain killers. The pain meds for her legs that atrophied during her hospital visit.

She lost nearly all the baby weight though, which made her happy, but she's still in bed without much moving-ability. The whole timeline is a little shaky, I don't remember much clearly.

Things are almost back to normal now, which is good. She's going to be okay. Apparently the baby had blocked blood flow to her legs which caused the blood there to clot, and when the blood was let back through, it got backed up by the massive clots. Chances are if one of those clots were to break, she'd be dead. They got them all out though, and the tubes.