Ouch!

Mom is improving each day, but it is a slow process. I watched my brother change her dressings yesterday and it looks very painful. I'm hoping tonight will be my last night to "sleep" in a recliner. I am so ready for a night in my bed. The thing I worry about is her trying to cook breakfast. She has done it for years and my brother always comes over and has breakfast with her. He has done that for years as well. I am making a breakfast casserole to take today, so, hopefully, she will remember that it can be just zapped in the microwave. Her mind isn't what it used to be. We have to make sure she takes her meds every day. She will say she took them, but when we check the container, the meds for the day are still there. In order to preserve my own health and sanity, I have to have a good night's rest!!!

Mom update!

Brother took Mom to the doc yesterday. Doc said her foot could look better, but it was OK...not infected. She has 6 to 8 weeks before the pins will come out, but she has permission to put some weight on it. She is still needy enough for me to stay at night. Last night I let her completely take care of herself getting ready for bed, but she had to have a pain pill afterwards because her foot hurts to walk on it any. She was very wobbly this morning and actually fell backwards against the bathroom door, so I got the wheelchair to get her to breakfast. I cook breakfast every morning for her and my brother before I leave to come home. My goal is to be able to sleep in MY bed Thursday night. I have a lunch to go to and a meeting on Thursday night and would love to come home and sleep in my bed. Friday, my brother is going to Hot Springs to pick up a truck bed he bought on Ebay, so I will need to stay with her during the day then.

Worthless!

Worthless pretty much describes me right now. Staying every night in a recliner has taken its toll on me. I am tired even though I come home every morning and take a nap for as long as I need...usually 2 to 3 hours. Mom is getting better, but she still is not allowed to place any weight on her foot. Hopefully, on Monday she will get a bit of a reprieve from that. If not, then I will still be staying the night with her until she can. Even when she can, she will be very unstable. She was unstable even before she had the surgery. I wake up around noon everyday and eat some soup or some crackers and lie back down until I have to go back to her house. My brother is there during the day, but he is mostly outside working in the yard...cutting down trees and cleaning up and burning stuff. He comes in every few minutes just to check on her. Mom hates that our lives are dominated by her precarious situation, so its taking a toll on her as well. We owe it to her and she would do it for either of us if she were still able. She never complained about taking care of daddy either! She is a SAINT!

Another new adventure!

We were told by several people that lortab causes brain confusion, so we switched Mom to darvocet yesterday. Her brain is less scrambled, but she talked all night long in her sleep. She took the machine off her face by 10 because it was bothering her. She couldn't get it to fit tight on her face and it sounded like  a hurricane. I don't blame her. I "slept" not so much in the recliner. It was comfortable, but she was constantly jabbering unintelligbly so I never knew if she needed something or was just jabbering. I slept a couple of hours hard when I got home, but I have to be back at her house by 4 so my brother can go to a funeral visitation. What can I say....every day is a new adventure!!!

I'm tired!

Not such a good night last night. Mom was sleeping in her recliner and I was lying on her bed listening to her breathing. It was very labored and erratic....and each breath brought a different noise. She has a CPAP machine, but hasn't been using it since she was sleeping in a chair. I moved the machine close to her and got the mask on her. She slept after that and I slept after I got used to listening to the noise of the machine. I had breakfast cooked and my brother was there this morning before she woke up. I think we will move her to her bed tonight...no idea where I will try to sleep. Her mind is very scrambled and she isn't making much sense! I can only hope it is residual anesthesia causing this. I hate to think this is what our future will be.

Better night

We had a better night last night. I certainly slept a little more than the night before, but as soon as I got home this morning I slept in my bed. That makes such a difference. We got her all fixed up for the day with all her meds and I think my brother was going to leave her alone while he went to church. He said he would check on her between Sunday School and church, so I could not worry about her while I was off duty. I think I'll go back to bed!

Mom update

Mom got her toes corrected with pins yesterday. We were at the hospital for 8 hours for a 1 1/2 hour surgery. She is home, but cannot put any weight on the foot for 10 days. That, my friends, is an impossibility at home. She slept in a recliner last night with the foot elevated and ice on it as we were instructed. The chair is one of those electric ones that will lift and help the person stand. We have a potty chair, thank goodness. I stayed with her last night and am home to sleep now while my brother is with her. She has pins sticking out of 3 toes. Yikes! It looks so painful, but she is a trooper and never complains. It is going to be a long 10 days!!!!

Spoke too soon!

Unfortunately, the tech yesterday only checked the movie channels and the reception on them was beautiful. I NEVER watch movie channels, so when I tried to watch local channels or Fox, the picture was terrible and dark. I called them back today and they are sending someone next week because I cannot be home to wait for them until Monday. At least, they are willing to try to make it right. I'm not complaining......but, do they not know that TEXAS plays tonight on a local channel??????!!!!! I will watch it in my bedroom on a TV with a good picture!!! It's going to be so cold that I will want to be under the covers anyway.

Revenge!!!

When my TV in the living room stopped working all by itself, I called tech support for the cable company. Basically, he reset the cable box over the phone and told me I had the TV set wrong is why it wouldn't work after that! I even believed him and thought I had just screwed something up pushing every button on the damn TV and remote. Quite possible for me to do that. I told him to send someone to my house and I didn't care if it would cost me. A very nice technician came today and spent an hour here trying to figure out what was wrong. Turned out it was a bad cable box!!! So there, Mr. Over the Phone Technician. I am not as dumb as both you and I thought! Of course, part of that time the tech was here we were just talking. He was a young guy who had just lost his father, so we had something in common....only his father was MY age! AND....he set up my box different and I have a much better picture and there will be NO CHARGE. I won!

TEXAS tomorrow!

Here's the plan!

Ok. It might not happen exactly this way. For one thing, there will not be a cat on the bed because I am highly allergic. If it is going to be 10 degrees outside, I will not be opening the door even to go get the paper. Oh, wait. I have to take my mom to the doctor and the beauty shop on Thursday and she has surgery on her foot on Friday. RATS! There goes my plan!

What!!!!

Where is Al Gore? He must be hiding under his substantial desk somewhere. Our weather guessers right here in North Louisiana have a low of 13 degrees forecast for Friday morning. What! They even say it is going to be colder here than it has been in years. That's OK with me, but where's Al?

Mom's foot surgery is scheduled for Friday, but her foot has been sore the last couple of days. If there is any infection, they cannot push a pin into her bones because it will push the infection right into the bone. We have to get her foot well!!!

Go tigers!

Welcome 2010!

Happy New Year!

I have been missing in action on this blog a few days, but I did get a visit from  these sweet things. We did see Avatar while they were here. They left early this morning and are already back in South Carolina. Today I finally went to see The Blind Side. Two movies in two days just has me wanting more and realizing that I have missed going to the movies and zoning out.

Ray Stevens - We The People - RayStevens.com

A child is born!

The baby that we were hoping would not come while he was at Christmas dinner at my brother's yesterday made his appearance this morning. Thank goodness he waited a few hours!

Today was a most lazy day until about 2 this afternoon when I started playing around with my new computer. Made my first movie with photos and music. It was fun to toy around with.

Tomorrow I plan to put everything Christmas in the attic for another year. I was a Scrooge this year and didn't have much out. It was just too cold in the attic to look for stuff, so I didn't!

Have been invited to a New Year's Day lunch, then the real partying starts with Mardi Gras. I don't expect to do much partying this year. I'll be afraid my daddy is "watching" me!!!:)

I survived!

Although there were a few bumps emotionally, I managed to get through my first Christmas ever without my dad. Today was much better than yesterday. We ate Christmas dinner at my brother's home with our same friends from  last night plus 3 extras.....an airman, his wife and little girl who are stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base with no family around. His wife just lost her mother in November, so it was a nice diversion for them as well. He is from Indiana and she is from Maine, so we were happy to have them. She is a few days from delivery of a boy, so we were glad today wasn't the day!!!

Failed milestone!

I wasn't able to hold it together yesterday. When I went to Mom's to take her to the candlelight service, she sat down and wrote my brother and me each a substantial check. They had already done this in August right after Dad was diagnosed with his brain tumor, so we were not expecting it again. She said Dad's favorite part of Christmas was being able to give us that much money and she wanted to do it just like he would have. Then last night at our friends' house, she gave it to us and told us it was from Dad. Then our friends gave us a picture frame with a picture of Dad in it from a previous Christmas. Well, actually we only got the frames, but they showed us on the computer the picture they had ordered to go in the frame. Instead of printing it themselves or having Wal Mart print it, they were having it printed somewhere else and it wasn't back yet. Hopefully, today won't be as hard.

Merry Christmas everyone!

One more party down last night. Tonight is church candlelight service and our usual get together with friends. We have always gone to my brother's lakehouse for our Christmas Eve gift exchange and meal, but tonight we are going to our friends' home so we won't feel the dramatic loss of Dad not being there.

Tomorrow we are switching things up as well. We always have Christmas dinner at Mom's and our friends join us there for Mom's chicken and dressing. This year, we are going to my brother's home and his wife is cooking duck dressing. Again, we hope to diffuse the pain of not having Dad with us. No matter how hard we try not to, we miss him terribly. I have tears just typing that!