I woke up this morning, turned on my mobile phone, and knew my plans for packing up the house were swamped. I held my phone close to my face so I could read a text message from my sister that simply said, "Hey, can you give me a call? Mom's in the icu 4 heart problem".

I'll tell you she's resting soundly, and has a wonderful medical team looking after her. I'll also tell you that my mother is quite the character -- here's why:

My mom has spent pretty much her entire life in the field of medicine. She should know that when a sharp pain in your chest wakes you up out of a sound sleep, you call 911. Did she do that? Nope. My mother drove herself to the hospital at 1 AM this morning. She's 70 years old, and her heart was cruising at a mere 180 beats per minute (I was told it's called atrial tachycardia or fibrillation - not a good thing no matter how old or young you are).

I also found out from her that just before she drove herself to the hospital, she decided that maybe it would be a good time to catch up on some reading. She went back into her house to get not one, but TWO books to read. Oh, and she also grabbed her mobile phone charger! "Who is this person?", I think as she tells me this - and is laying there with tubes everywhere and a whole command center keeping track of every little move she makes.

I thought about this for a minute and said to my mom, "Mom, help me out with this for a second --- What the hell were you thinking? " Before she could say anything, I asked her to think about the phone call I could have gotten at 1 in the morning -- it would have gone something like this:

me: Hello?
them: Hello. Is your mom's name Pat?
me: Why yes it is, why?
them: I have some bad news. She croaked. We found your mother in her car, in front of the ER, slumped over the steering wheel, clutching two books and a phone charger!
me: that can't be my mother, my mother knows how to dial 911!

I love my mother dearly, but she drives me nuts with crazy stuff like this! She's doing better, but she's not out of the woods yet. They have to figure out what caused the problem in the first place, and that will take some tests - and probably more tests. I just hope they find out by Thursday, because my mother informed the entire hospital staff that she has an appointment at the beauty parlor that day. That's my mom - always thinking ahead... Get well mom! I love you.

Listening to: La La La - The Bird and the Bee

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