Oxygen - The Elixir of Life

In June of 1996, my then 80 year old Dad, 72 year old Mom, and both my sisters were in a major car crash. When the police and fire crews arrived they said "No one is coming out of this one alive", but they were wrong times 4. Yup, everyone came out alive. Rather the worse for wear, but alive. Marcy was flown to Vancouver to the Trauma Unit with shattered hip joint and broken collar bone. Anne and Mom were in the ICU, Anne with internal injuries and Mom with broken bones and head injury. Mom was unconscious, on full life support, not expected to live. After surgery Anne was going to be okay. Dad had sustained seat belt bruising, so was stuck in a back room and forgotten about until my brother Terry & I arrived. Dad was diabetic and had not been fed, so was not feeling well. We insisted he be moved to a room and fed. By the time his meal arrived he was too weak to eat, so we fed him. Then he had a terrible seizure and almost died. He'd had a stroke, due to bleeding caused by the crash and no one had seen it coming. With all of this happening I was falling apart, and I thank God for Terry's then wife Doris who was there and held on tight to me... held me together.

This all happened at Kamloops. Anne got out of hospital and went home after about a week. During this time there were other problems with the poor care Dad was getting, so we had him transferred to Enderby Hospital and his own doctor. He soon was much better and out of danger. Marcy was still in Vancouver, so we really didn't know much about her except she was doing okay for the most part. I spent many hours and many days by Mom's bedside. I read to her and sang to her and just talked a lot, everything positive and uplifting, of course. I insisted that the doctors and nurses never say anything negative within hearing of Mom. Every day I told her how much she was improving, whether it was true or not. Yes, I lied to Mom a lot that summer, and I would do it again. Five weeks later Mom was off life support, awake and doing well. She was then transferred back to Enderby Hospital so she would be close to Dad who was by this time home with 24/7 in home care. Several weeks later Mom also went home and the in home care continued.

Today: Dad has been gone since January 1999, Anne & Marcy are well and you can't even tell they were hurt. Even with having had the shattered hip, M doesn't even have a limp. Mom does have a limp having had her left tibia & fibula broken, left hip broken, and pelvis broken in 2 or 3 places. She also sustained lung damage through it all, so has to have oxygen every night and sometimes "top up" during the day, depending on the level of oxygen in her blood. When she travels she has to take her oxygen machine with her, so this can be an inconvenience, but it is what keeps her going, after all, "oxygen is the elixir of life".

At 84 years of age, Mom is one very incredible woman! I so admire her and her independence. She still drives her own car, and volunteers for Meals On Wheels, delivering meals to shut ins most of whom are younger than she is. She is also a very busy little "social butterfly".

If you need to keep track of the oxygen levels in your blood, you may need a pulse oximeter.