turn for the worst

got a call from the hospital at 1130pm. 

your mum's condition took a turn for the worst. her blood pressure has dropped to dangerously low, and she's not responsive. we are doing a brain scan now as we suspect she has a stroke. we are in contact with the tan tock seng neurospecialists and they are advising us how to manage her. we need to discuss with you how to manage her if her condition turns bad. do we go in and aggressively keep her, even to the extend of inserting a tube to help her breath? or do we let her go?…

well… keep her as long as you can, until i can make arrangements for my family to see her.

well, that was how the conversation went between the doctor and i. and i rushed down to the hospital. my second sis came along. and i contacted my bro and my bro-in-law. all noted the update. and through the evening, i got a earful from my brother about how i ill-treated my dad, how i continue to ill-treat my mum, how i refused to get a maid for her, how… yup… long list of accusations. very difficult to handle the conversation and i sensed myself getting angry. decided to cut short the conversation by hanging up the phone a few times, just to call back again, pretending that the line dropped. he always has anger-management issues. cooled myself down and told myself that as long as my conscience is clear, it doesn't matter what he says. 

anyway, as for my mum. she was put through a brain scan, they did not find any blood clots. but they are not ruling out the possibility of a blood clot. and after discussing all the symptoms, i asked them - what time did you administer the evening medications? my question kinda caught the doctors by surprise. and i explained that she (my mum) would knock-out flat nightly after her evening medications. that has been the effects of the mental health medication to control her paranoia, delusion, etc. the knock-out effect would last some 4hours before she would stir at about 1-2am. and with this input, the doctors went to check the records. and hey, it was kinda consistent that the blood pressure drop, her lack of responsiveness etc, all started about 45min after they administered the evening medications! 

with this realization, they heaved a small sigh of relief. at least there was some possibility that it was not something more serious or life threatening. despite that, the doctors assured me they will monitor her through the night closely and hopefully she start getting a little more responsive at about 3am. and to test my inputs, the doctor tried to wake her up. and this time, she responded a little… whew. let's see if she stirs later on. they'll keep me posted if anything should go wrong, they said. and with that, i returned home. 

fingers crossed.