So it’s kind of a long story but basically around 5-6 years ago, my mom randomly was having trouble breathing and my dad had to rush her to the hospital. after some testing, the doctors diagnosed her with COPD (kind of scary because that’s what her mom died from)

My mom is a heavy smoker and during that time when she was diagnosed, was regularly smoking about 3 packs of cigarettes a day (if not more to be honest)

After being diagnosed with COPD, she made a promise to my family that she would be done smoking. That lasted about 4 days until she went back to smoking but also tried to hide it from my family. She would take walks around the block to smoke and wouldn’t let anyone go with her because she didn’t want us to know she was smoking. Or she would hide behind the garage and smoke.

It was VERY obvious that she was still smoking but we never said anything because honestly it wouldn’t have changed anything.

When I was in high school, it was finals week and I got done early and got to leave and came home to her on the back steps by the sliding door smoking a cigarette so I tossed my backpack on the counter and went into the living room so not only would she know that I saw her but she couldn’t lie about it.

It’s been 5-6 years since then and she still thinks no one knows she still smokes.

Well two days ago she started having trouble breathing again and I got a call from my dad saying that he had to take her to the ER. of course what they were predicting was that it was going to be Covid so they did a Covid test and surprisingly it was negative.

They did an echocardiogram and found an abnormality and after talking to the cardiologist, she was told that at some point, there was an infection and it caused damage to one of her valves by her heart.

So she is spending the night at the hospital again tonight and at some point tomorrow will be sent home to prepare for surgery... meaning pack a suitcase and what not and then she will have to go back to the hospital and spend about 5 more nights at the hospital

I’ve talked to a family friend who works in healthcare and he reassured us that it is a very routine procedure, and said that if he were to have anything wrong with him personally, he’d rather it be a heart issue than something else like in the digestive system or something because there are a lot more procedures and treatments for the heart.

Obviously I’m still scared shitless though. We’re in a pandemic and she’s going to be in the hospital with Covid patients and doctors who have worked on Covid patients. I’m sure they do an amazing job to keep things sterile but shit happens, you know?

Her immune system is already compromised from the COPD but now she will be recovering from surgery making it even more compromised

So does this mean that she’s having open heart surgery??? Don’t they have to stop your heart for a short amount of time to work on it?? Now I’m scared as fuck