Happy Thanksgiving!

My phone has been melting down today with all the Facebook birthday greetings and it has been awesome. What a great bunch of friends I have. Each of those over 100 greetings today made me stop and think about each individual and how I know that person. Most of them are students that I had at one time or another. Many of them I actually do NOT remember, but I know they know me. I couldn't dare tell them that I really don't remember them, so I cannot accept their friend request.

I visited my mom's sister today. She is in the same rehab that Mom was in last Thanksgiving. We had Thanksgiving dinner at the rehab dining room last year. Next week my aunt will be moved to a rehab in a nursing home close to her home. She can walk with a walker, talk and use both hands, so hers was not as bad as Mom's.

Last night, we took Mom to a dinner at her church where she thoroughly enjoyed it. One of the members stood up and gave a testimony about my mom and how grateful this person was for Mom in their church while she was growing up. Mom taught Sunday School for 50 years....the little bitty children! Made big ole tears come to my eyes and I almost lost it when my brother stood up and told everyone how grateful he was for his family and that we were able to bring our mother home. Makes tears come to my eyes right now!

Anyway.....it's been a great birthday.

Uh OH!

Mom's sister had a stroke last night. Doesn't seem to be as bad as Mom's was as there is no evidence of bleeding in the brain. Doc thinks it may have been an embolic stroke which originates in the heart and moves to block an artery to the brain, but does not go into the brain. She is in ICU today. I told Mom last night, but I had to because her phone kept ringing, so she knew something was going on. She was able to sleep after I told her that it wasn't as bad as they had first thought. She has right side weakness, but is not talking yet.

Most excellent day!

Mom

My mom had an awesome day yesterday. Her sister got to come visit for the first time since coming home from rehab. Mom was so excited. They just cried and held hands. I wasn't there when my aunt and cousin arrived, but my brother said it was quite a scene. He hadn't seen Mom so excited in a long time. There are only about 14 months between Mom and her sister, with Mom being the oldest. They had another sister who died many years ago from alcoholism. Mom had been to the beauty shop, so she was looking beautiful.

Her sister

CRY BABY!

Yep! Such is life!

It's been a while!

We almost had a crisis yesterday, When I got there at 4 my brother was outside and Mom was asleep in her chair, which she hardly ever does. We let her sleep for  a while, then tried to wake her. We could NOT! Finally, we checked her blood sugar and it was VERY low. We put cake icing under her tongue because we couldn't wake her enough to drink some coke or orange juice. We finally got her awake, but her blood sugar would not come up! We tried candy, coke, juice with sugar...everything we could get in her mouth. She finally came around, but would not eat any supper (and I had made gumbo) and remained very sleepy.

On Saturday, she scraped skin off her arm (which is very easy to do) while on her power chair in the house. She never uses it in the house, but she came in from outside and headed straight to the bathroom. That's when she got too close to a piece of furniture. It looks bad!

Not much else to report. I am just tired. It is beginning to take a toll on me. My brother is going to Branson in December and I will have it by myself for a week. I'm glad he can get away. Even if I went away, I would not be able to free my mind!

Hello!

I am sick to death of politicians! We need a clean slate!

Progress!

She is getting a little better operating her new wheels!

Good night, Mom!

Every night I put my mom to bed and tonight I remembered to turn my camera on on the iphone. She says a bunch of stuff every night that I can't decipher!

Two minutes you need to watch!

New wheels!

Wow! This has been much more difficult than we thought it would be. Mom is having trouble learning to drive! She won't watch where she is going, but is constantly looking down at the controls. She does fine outside on the driveway and she has managed to go up the ramp at the house, but inside the house is a bit difficult. It is sort of dangerous in there because she can scrape up her arms. She can't grasp that to stop, she has to just let go of the joy stick! By the way, notice the drought killed yard. That is her front yard. It is pitiful!

Great day!

Mom's caregiver had to leave at 12:30 today, but my brother didn't tell me so I went at my regular time around 3:30. Her wheelchair was in the yard and the golf cart was gone. My brother had taken her down to the pond where he was doing some dirt work on our dried up pond. When they came home, she saw me in the yard and said, "Hi, Sandy"! That was HUGE! She has not said my name without prompting since she had her stroke almost a year ago. She walked better today as well. AND...as if that wasn't enough to make my day, tonight she was sitting on the side of her bed while I was moving her wheelchair out of the way. She stood up and straightened out her gown.....by herself...no help. I just turned around and saw her do it! Surprised her as much as it surprised me!

The power chair will be here next week. That should be interesting. Today, she probably could have done it well....not sure on any other days! Some days she is really fuzzy! But, hey, some days I AM REAL FUZZY!

Mom's New Ride!

We finally got Mom's new ride. She has been all over the property to places she hasn't seen in years. We have even been in areas that I haven't seen since I was a child walking in the woods with my dad.

This used to be our pond. The drought has rendered it almost dry. My brother has been on the tractor cleaning it all out and making improvements to it. Mom was shocked to see this!

Big week!

Had my yearly eye appointment and found that my cataracts have not gotten any worse in the last year, so no need to remove them yet. Had mammogram...no results yet. Got carpet cleaned using one of those Groupon deals. If you haven't checked out Groupon yet, it has some good deals in your local areas. We are in the process of finding a golf cart so we can take Mom around her property. We have been on this mission for 2 weeks. A family friend owns a golf cart dealership and he is not happy with the batteries in the one we are getting, so he is trying to fit it with used batteries that get a decent read on his machine. We certainly don't want to have to buy batteries for $650 or a charger for $400. Maybe this week, he will get it fixed like he wants it for us.

Enough said!

Happy Labor Day!

I hope that you are lucky enough to have a job to be off from today!

Your President is wishing the labor unions a happy day today. Yeah! They are a major part of the reason our nation is in the bad shape it is in now! People better wake up and get a clue before the next election or watch this wonderful country further decline .

Woo Hoo!

My brother got someone to come in at 5 today for Mom. He told me not to come at all today, so I didn't. I went to a cookout and socialized with my friends and had a great time. We got some residual sprinkles from Tropical Storm Lee, so it was nice and cool and windy outside. Looking forward to much cooler weather this next week...a welcome break from many record breaking days of over 100 degrees. Some days I just have to take a break!

Thank God!

Doctor could find no problems with my brother's liver or gall bladder. Doc suggested he see a cardiologist, but he probably won't since it has only been a few months since he had a stress test. I tried to find someone to fill in for me on Sunday at Mom's so I could go to a cook out, but I struck out on that. We only have one person who has done that shift since one of our caregivers had to move to Texas. She is one of the CNA's that took care of Mom in rehab and she works the evening shift there. She is working on Sunday, so she can't work. We need someone else who could fill in. I hate to be limited to only her days off to get a break for myself. Oh, well....I'll deal with it. No big deal!

Sorry!

I have been forgetting to post here since I spend most of my computer time on Facebook. Things are going smoothly for Mom. My brother has been sick and is having a CT scan tomorrow because an ultra sound last week showed a spot on his liver. Fortunately, I had my 6 month check up with my doc and everything came out normal....no highs or lows on any of the lab results, so I'm good!

What a week!

After moving to rehab, Mom went into complete meltdown and did nothing, but cry. Finally, after taking all I could take with her crying, I went to the nurse and asked her to start taking the necessary steps to get mom discharged the next morning. She did and we took her home yesterday. Now she is happy. Caregivers are back and we have a break again. The caregiver said she was not as weak as we thought. She was just "playing us" and it worked. She cried so much that we thought she had had another slight stroke that affected the emotion part of the brain. She didn't cry once yesterday, so perhaps not.

I enjoyed my one night away in a beautiful resort in Lake Charles and getting to see my adopted family! Had not seen the kids in over two years. The kids enjoyed the lazy river and we enjoyed the beautiful setting. After going out to dinner, I came back to the hotel, stepped in the casino and put in $20 and took out $58...went to my room!