Divine Intervention

I did nothing but cry at Mom's today. Don't know why I am such an emotional wreck. I just held her and told her I couldn't stand to see her this way. I also had to deal with some bathroom issues tonight that I am just not equipped to do and that just threw me for a loop. I put her to bed at 7:00 like I always do and went back in the kitchen to read my book. My brother came in after his Bible study and told me to go home. He was going to stay until the caregiver got there. I was so grateful...but, he had NO CLUE what a wreck I had been all night! I just said "Thank you" and came home. Divine Intervention! I think so! There are NO coincidences!

No words!

Things are going OK with mom. She is having a hard time walking every day, but we make her do it with my brother or with the therapist. She ooohs and ahhhs the whole time, but we just ignore it because she is not hurting. She is just scared.

Finished up my root canal yesterday, got my regular check-up today from my doc.......so I am good to go until something else falls apart! Didn't even have to do blood work because everything was so good 5 months ago at my last visit.

It's Mardi Gras time in Louisiana, which means I miss being a member of my krewe. All the festivities started Saturday night with 12th Night. I'm trying not to be bitter!!!!

Home Again!

We brought Mom home on Wednesday because she just acted like they were killing her in rehab when they would try to get her to stand and take a few steps. My brother and I made the decision to just take her home...exactly the same thing we had to do after her last time in rehab after a stay in the hospital and getting so physically weak. She still was not swallowing and didn't seem to be making any progress with it. The caregivers said they were willing to try to take care of her at home even though she was much weaker and now had a peg tube. Since we got her home there has been a miraculous turn around. Not only has she swallowed everything, but she is walking with my brother and not having all the drama to go with it. She is getting stronger every day making it not so hard for me to take her to the bathroom during my shift. She is still getting her meds through the tube because we just have not tried getting her to swallow them, yet, but we have not given glucerna through the tube at all for the last two days. She seems to be eating enough.

As we were getting ready to check out of the hospital on Wednesday, I ran into my cousin in the lobby of the hospital. Her mother, my mother's sister, had been in the same hospital for two days. She went home the same day Mom did, but she is back there now with internal bleeding from an unknown source. This has Mom upset.

Mom doesn't seem to have much residual damage from the embolic strokes other than just mostly not being aware of much of anything and not being able to talk enough for us to understand. We had gotten where we could understand some of what she said, but not now. I guess we just dodged another bullet. We are thinking of gradually getting her off lexapro because she doesn't have much emotions left anyway and that is an expense we could dismiss.

Crap!

Mom is still in hospital. She is in the rehab unit, but not doing much rehab. We had a peg tube put in on Wednesday because she was not getting her meds down and it is absolutely essential that she get her blood thinner (Predaxa) down. She also was swallowing very little. She can swallow, but after a few times swallowing, she just forgets how and it just sits in her mouth until we get her to spit it out. It is very frustrating. Speech therapist has never seen a swallowing issue like this. Now they are weaning her off the IV nutrition while using the peg tube, but not allowing her to swallow anything. We didn't know it would be this way or we might not have agreed to it. She has a living will which specifies no heroic efforts. Doc assures us this is not heroic, but we want her to be able to keep working on swallowing food. They assured us that she could eat by mouth some and get her meds through the tube. So far, this has not happened and it is Christmas now and the staff is limited. The only thing she has to look forward to is eating...now we have taken that from her. She did some therapy yesterday, but was asleep when I got there after my root canal. I couldn't even make her wake up enough to tell me good night. She got gout in her good foot, which made her not be able to stand up. They gave her a steroid shot which helped that, but also sent her blood sugar through the roof. We are all frustrated.

Oh,No!

Mom has had another stroke. Happened on Friday while she was having lunch. Caregiver said her eyes rolled back in her head and she started foaming at the mouth. She called brother; he called ambulance. She also has a "rip-roaring" (doc's words) UTI. She slept all Saturday and Sunday, but today she is much better. Had a swallowing test, which showed she is able to swallow. Will start with pureed food, but she hasn't eaten since Friday. She is getting an MRI now to see if they can tell anything by that. She walked a few steps with the therapist today, but not many. Here we go again. Rehab next. She smiled big at me and held my hand and started babbling today when I walked in. Stewart was already there, so we knew she was better.

NIght off!

My brother is back from vacation, so he and his wife sent me home tonight after I took Mom to the bathroom. I showed them how to put her to bed and I got to come home. Feels good to be home so early. I am glad they are home and Mom is delighted they are back. She really missed him. I'm going to bed now and watch TV under the warmth of my electric blanket!

I'm tired!

I had a night off last night to go to my Sunday school party, but I was so tired that I didn't go. We had already had our neighborhood brunch, then I went to visit with Mom some. I had someone already hired for the evening, so after I gave her instructions on how to put Mom to bed, I went home, put the garage door down and went to bed. It was nice. Mom cried when the caregiver walked her yesterday, but my brother called and talked to her and she was alright after that. Today, the caregiver said there was no problem. She walked really good and didn't cry.

We are so grateful for the rain all day today. Our drought has been so severe that even the aquifers that our drinking water comes from are getting low. It is supposed to rain all night and tomorrow, so I think I will go to bed and enjoy it.

Rare day!

• Boiled chicken and took it off bones ( for cornbread dressing on Saturday)
• Washed clothes
• Paid all bills
• Went to Wal-Mart to buy stuff for our adopted soldiers in Afghanistan
• Went to Post Office
• Took cans to be recycled
• Installed new cordless vac in garage
• Toasted pecans for my world famous pralines
• Went to bank

ALL BEFORE NOON! OMG...THIS NEVER HAPPENS!

 I am feeling rushed to get things done because my brother is leaving to go to Branson tomorrow and I will feel compelled to go to Mom's in the morning to walk her and visit with her because that's what he does and then be back there at 3P.M. for my regular shift. When he is here, he is always there when the caregiver leaves until I get there. I will have to get there at 3 this week. Mom will miss him so much while he is gone and I will also want to pop in on the caregiver since she will know he is gone and won't be popping in. I live about 20 minutes from Mom, so it is not like popping in next door. On Saturday, I have our  annual neighborhood brunch at 11 and then at  5:30 I have my annual Sunday School Christmas Party. I have someone hired to come in for my shift, but I must get in Mom's walk and a visit with her. Last year when he was gone to Branson, Mom was in the nursing home here in my town....so it was easy for me to go at lunch when my brother usually went and go back again at night when I always went. It's different this year, but I am glad she is home.

Holy Crap!

One of our night time caregivers left us a note yesterday that she wanted a raise or she would be quitting after these last 3 nights. She is getting minimum wage, which is $7.25 for doing nothing except changing a diaper a couple of times a night...no laundry, no meal prep,   no nothing but sitting. Plus, we gave her stuff from our garden...okra, tomatoes, sweet potatoes and pecans. We talked to our day time caregiver about the demands the night lady was asking for and she relayed to her that we were looking for someone else.  The other night caregiver was fine with her pay and wasn't asking for anything. Well, turns out the demander has had a change of heart and doesn't want to quit. She just called me and told me she was going to stay after reading her Bible and praying about it! Yeah...I think God told her we were going to find someone to take her place!

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!