Man! How do I start this?
Over the last three years, my mother has suffered a couple of health setbacks. The scariest moments came when she contracted pneumonia and had to be hospitalized in 2024. It seemed like she was a goner for sure!
Luckily, she fought hard and came out a winner, or at least that's what it seemed like. Within days, however, her behavior began to change. Anyone who knows her as well as I do knows that she has moments when she can be extremely pleasant and others when she can be excruciatingly unkind. But this was different. She had become almost psychotic and delusional, and yet her doctors seemed more focused on her physical health, which appeared to be improving, than on her mental health, which seemed to be deteriorating.
Then, after a couple of months, my mother's behavior stabilized. She was once again herself (for the most part, anyway).
Fast forward to September 2026, and we had another healthcare scare. Only this time, it wasn't pneumonia. It was a stroke, or at least, she was convinced it was.
I was teaching one of my online ESL students when a WhatsApp message popped up on my screen telling me that she was on her way to the hospital. I immediately ended the class and called her. It turns out she was already at a private hospital, but the wait time was too much for her. So, she told me she was heading home.
The first thing that came to mind was, "Why not stay there? If you're having a stroke or are at risk of having one, the hospital is the best place to be. If you go home and have one, you could suffer permanent brain damage or worse."
She told me she was going to wait for her family physician to see her in a couple of weeks. She was convinced she would be okay until then. I disagreed and was a bit pissed, but I knew better than to try to change her mind.
The next day, while I was teaching, I received another WhatsApp message from my mom telling me that she had called an ambulance and needed me to come over right away.
I was paralyzed for a second, and my student noticed the look on my face. I apologized and ended the class immediately before running over to my mother's house. It was at that point that I realized just how out of shape I was. I gassed out halfway there and couldn't run anymore, so I walked as fast as I could. Luckily, the house wasn't too far away.
I was expecting to see an ambulance outside her house. After all, most ambulances arrive within five or ten minutes of a call. At least, that's what would have happened if we were still living back home in the States. But things in Argentina are slow AF! I mean, seriously! Everything here moves at a snail's pace and, in a lot of cases, not at all. There are times when I wonder how they manage to get anything done in this country.
Anyway, the door was open, and my father was waiting outside, as calm and collected as I had ever seen him. The poor bastard has dementia, and it's gotten worse over the years. There are times when his sense of reality becomes completely distorted, and he gets paranoid and violent. Other times, he doesn't really understand what's going on but remains calm. This was one of those times. He merely greeted me as though it were just another ordinary day.
I asked him if he had an ETA on the ambulance, and he casually said, "No." Then I asked him if my mom was okay. All I got was a shrug. Realizing I wasn't going to get a straight answer from him, I rushed inside, where my mom was sitting in the living room with a damp cloth covering one side of her face.
She seemed so fragile, hardly resembling the tough (and sometimes harsh) person she usually is.
I sat beside her, expecting to wait just a couple more minutes for the ambulance. Well, those minutes turned into an hour and ten minutes. WTF!
When the ambulance finally arrived, two EMTs came inside and checked my mother's vitals. After a few minutes, they determined that she wasn't having a stroke but was at risk of having one or even suffering a heart attack because of her blood pressure, which was around 180 over 60. Normally, 120 over 80 is considered the standard.
They gave her a pill to lower her blood pressure and wrote her a prescription for additional medication to take until she had a chance to see her own doctor.
I learned that day that, unlike in the States, Argentina doesn't have paramedics riding around in ambulances. Instead, they have doctors doing what paramedics do back home, hence this doctor's ability to prescribe medication on the spot.
After they left, my mother checked her blood pressure a couple more times using her home BP monitor, and it had indeed dropped from 180 over 60 to 150 over 60. Although the numbers fluctuated, her blood pressure still hadn't returned to normal.
Over the past couple of weeks, she has seen several doctors and undergone a number of blood tests, urine tests and CT scans. According to the results, her high blood pressure is the result of the natural wear and tear of aging.
She's 79.
I'm sure the fact that she got scammed by an asshole Argentine construction worker back in July played a role in her blood pressure issues. I'll talk more about this piece of shit in another post.
So, for the time being, I've taken on the role of administering the properties full-time, while my mother has stepped away from those responsibilities completely. Believe me, this is a huge change, considering how involved she has always been.
Now, if there's one thing I can say about my mom, it's that she's a fighter. But her latest health woes, which include a recently discovered gallstone, have made her less active. In fact, the other day, she told me she was already worn out by 2 p.m.
I'm not blind. I know what this likely means. Her time on this Earth may be coming to an end. I'd say another year is optimistic.
So, as you might imagine, this has been one stressful year for me. Honestly, I know I can handle whatever comes my way, but a little support would be nice. Unfortunately, the people I thought were my friends have either stabbed us in the back or ghosted us. And dealing with everything practically all by my lonesome is rough, especially when you're living abroad and have no one to turn to.
I'm starting to crack like an egg, and I worry about what's coming next. But for now, I'm trying to stay focused on the things that make my husband and I happy, like preparing for Halloween (which just passed), planning Thanksgiving, and looking forward to saying goodbye to shitty 2026 with Christmas and our New Year's celebration.
I suppose that's all I can do for now. Take things one day at a time, deal with whatever comes my way, even though I am running on empty.
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