I flew out to Chicago tonight. I remembered all the reasons I hated flying (there were obnoxious brats running around the gate area as the flight was endlessly delayed, turbulence shook the plane so much that the attendants had to sit down for about half of the flight, and United seems to be completely incapable of delivering baggage to the carousel they tell you to go to at O'Hare).

I drove directly to the hospital and then around to the end of the hospital since it was after 10:00 and all of the main doors were closed.

It was the quietest, emptiest emergency room I've seen in years. I've frequented this emergency room off and on over the years and have never seen it totally empty as it was tonight.

My mom is in the Surgical Heart Unit, which of course is at the far opposite end of the hospital from the emergency room. I knew this because it's the same unit my father was in after his bypass in 1997.

She's heavily sedated, intevated (someone correct me if the spelling's off). Tonight they are to put in a central or main line. She's in congestive heart failure and also has something called adult respiratory distress syndrome. Basically she can't breathe on her own, her lungs are just not absorbing oxygen. The ventilation is running at high-pressure to literally force O₂ into her lungs.

So, not good. I'm staying at a hotel in town (partly to be on the "right" side of the tracks, since it's possible to be on the wrong side of the railroad when a long train comes through). Pat is here as well, though he's staying at the house.