Not a Good Couple of Days

long story short:

• friday, dad called and cancelled Mother's Day; mom was sick and didn't want visitors; sad but not unusual.
• saturday, he called again to say she didn't want anyone coming over that day either. strange.
• sunday, after driving out to long island to see stephen's mom, sister and grandmothers, my sister-in-law calls to tell me that my brother showed up (unannounced) and called an ambulance for my mother.

we turned around, drove back to Staten Island and met my father and brother at the emergency room where we stayed till midnight. when we left, she was still there. the diagnosis was a small bowel/intestinal obstruction caused by hernia surgery she had last year. they shoved a tube up her nose and down into her stomach to pump out the contents which had been building since Thursday. they finally admitted her at 5 am yesterday morning and took the tube out last night at 8pm. she's on IV fluids to combat the extreme dehydration which nearly resulted in kidney failure.

she's still there and will be for the next couple of days, at least till they determine if the blockage is being shrunk by the antibiotics they're pumping into her.