The the scariest moment of my life was when my mom and I were at the apartment right next to Moffitt Cancer Center.
I always checked my moms vitals such as her blood pressure, heart rate, and temperature. The doctor that we had told us if my moms temperature went over 100.0 that we had to go to the hospital or call 911. A fever for a cancer patient is really scary and important, it means that something is going on and we need to try to figure it out! That particular night my mom was feeling really weak so there was no way we were going to try to pick her up.
My spouse moved into the apartment with me just in case my mom falls and he could help My mom ended up having a fever so I decided to double check with her sister on what I should do. I called her and she told me just to call 911…. so I did. I picked up my phone and dialed 911 and it kept ringing and ringing, no one picked up. I ended up calling 911 three times and still no answer.
My spouse and I looked at each other and I asked him what should we do, because this could become very serious in a matter of time. We didn’t want to try to get her to the car because of her weakness and we could lose time. I called my moms sister again to tell her that no one answered when we called 911 three times. When I told her that, she lost her mind saying “what do you mean no one answered when you dialed 911?”.
After that my phone started ringing from a weird private number and ended up being the police. I told the dispatcher that my mom was a cancer patient with a fever and her doctor told us to call 911 and we didn’t want to risk it by trying to take her to the hospital. By the end of that sentence, the whole apartment complex that we were staying at was surrounded by police, fire fighters, ambulance, and a helicopter.
I went outside while my spouse stayed with my mom and I told them what was going on with my mom and they headed straight to our room. They took her by ambulance and my spouse and I headed to the Moffitt (about 5 minutes up the road) to meet my mom in the emergency room. They kept us there over night to make sure she was doing okay. They gave her antibiotics and kept a close eye on her.
I have never experienced in my whole life when I picked up that phone and dialed 911 that no one answered. It could have been such a messy situation but thank goodness that it did end up being just something minor, when it comes to my mom I make sure I do everything I can to help her. I know it sounds crazy but something “minor” for a cancer patient could end of being something really dangerous, even something small as a fever.
I pray that no one has to ever deal with that kind of situation because ANYTHING could have happened, cancer patient or not cancer patient.
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