Can I rant about my beloved Christian Grandma for commiseration here?
Preface: I just want to get this off my chest. It is driving me nuts! If this is in anyway offensive please tell me and I will delete.
I grew up in a very religious southern family. I like to think of all my elders as wise, surprisingly liberal people that made me into the independent young woman I am today. So it is mind numbing when my grandma throws me a curve ball that I just can't wrap my head around.
Here's what happened last night. I was on the way home from work at 9:30pm. Phone rings and my frantic uncle (grandma lives with him and my aunt) begins to tell me that my gm has aspirated a huge magnesium tablet. Of course I'm shocked and told him to hang up and call 911. He tells me that she doesn't want med help because she can't afford another bill, blah, blah, plus she says it happened before and the ER did nothing but CT scan, observe her for a few hours, and send her home. Long story short...I googled, called poison control, called local ER, and called friend who is med student for advice. I argued for at least a half hour for her to go to ER. She had been violently coughing for 3 hours and could not get pull up...pain under right breast, but said it was getting better. Despite all my calling and info gathering she refused to go. The advice I passed to her was that any number of things COULD happen...nothing, the tablet would eventually dissolve, she might cough it up in a day or a month, it could dissolve and cause mild to severe irritation, it could cause pneumonia, or it could cause a life threatening emergency or death. She is in her 70's but relatively fit. The whole thing just seemed like playing Russian roulette to me. To be honest it made me incredibly angry.
Sorry trying to get to the point here. At one point I told my uncle to just call 911 and asked why he hadn't done that as opposed to calling me? He responded that gm wanted to let me know to pray about it.
I wanted to bang my head into the steering wheel. I understand and completely respect her faith. She is a brilliant woman who has much to give to her family. Her presence is still very valuable to me and her other grandchildren as well, not to mention her kids! This was not a pity trip by her and the bill was not the real issue. I don't think this was a death wish either. She is just incredibly stubborn, strong, and certain that God/Jesus's will shall be done.
The part that is so incredibly stupid, selfish, and unimaginable to me is that she would just roll the dice so to speak. Why not just go get checked out???? Yes gods will shall be done but ffs maybe he wants you to go get checked!!! Clearly I'm still upset about this, despite the fact that she seems ok and is resting at home as I type. That doesn't mean that all is well. There can still be complications in the coming days that could have been minimized! Does anyone out there understand what I'm experiencing? She is a sane and intelligent woman. How can faith make you do something so careless with your health?
Thanks for letting me rant. Sorry so long, I usually pride myself on being succinct and brief.
TL;DR I totally get it...if you stuck through the whole rant, I offer my sincere gratitude. 
= new reply since forum marked as read
Just go get checked! She has always been very frugal. She has savings, I think it might have been that she doesn't think the cost of the visit is worth what they charge. She was convinced that they would do nothing more than observe her. I kinda understand, but it just doesn't sit right. Thanks for reading. 
Just got off the phone...she coughed up the partially disolved tablet about an hour ago. She has agreed to see her PCP tomorrow to let him evaluate her (begrudgingly). I feel much better knowing the pill is out of there. 