My 24 hours in Just in Case

My 24 hours started at 10:30 yesterday when Tootie called crying. She, my sister, and Cbaby had been in a wreck. The police told her that she should be ok driving her car, so they were coming to my house. Many tears and hugs later, I followed them to my parents’s house. This is her car. She was rear ended at a red light. Actually, the truck hit the car behind her, and that car hit her.

I was expecting a stressful afternoon, but that it would end ok. Then we pulled up at my parents’ house and my mom was sitting in their truck in her pajamas and robe, with her slippers on the wrong feet. She knew us, but really had no idea what was going on. It was bad, y’all. She was trying to light a cigarette and kept putting it in her mouth backwards. Cbaby refused to go the ER until Mamaw told her to, so we got her to say that, and my sister and Tootie took her. My dad was a nervous wreck. He’d been trying to get my mom to go to the ER and she kept refusing. I let the girls leave and turned and told her she could get mad at me all she wanted, but she was going to the ER. It was her choice on whether she went in her pjs or if she got dressed. She and Cbaby were in neighboring ER rooms. The girls ended up ok, muscle spasms, bruises, etc. My sister took them home and Daddy and I stayed with Mama. It was literally one of the hardest evenings of my life. She wasn’t herself - at all. She didn’t remember the wreck, but knew the people at the hospital that she had worked with years ago. To make a long, stressful story somewhat shorter - she was severely dehydrated. She had been very ill the night before with a stomach bug. She’s had 2 bags of fluids and is not as badly dehydrated, and she is doing better. She’s talking more like herself, and is remembering things. (Although she doesn’t remember being in the ER or most of the things that happened yesterday.) As they get more fluids into her, I think she’ll continue to improve. The doctor isn’t convinced, though, that it was all the dehydration. He’s ordered an MRI for her, and will have her heart and carotid arteries scanned to make sure nothing else is going on. I stayed with her last night and it was a pretty rough night. I’m exhausted now. The girls are staying with her today, and my sister is staying with her tonight. My dad is lost. He’s so stressed about this. Mama isn’t supposed to get sick!