A report on Mom

Yesterday I went to visit Mom. I found her in good spirits and looking lovely. We had a good time together and she told me all sorts of things. I had bought her a new fuzzy pink scarf to keep her nack warm and a new pink poodle dog which she loved and a new baby blankie lovie. She was most happy with the new things. I had found an old calender that had the most beautiful pictures of flowers and such and I took it with me. I took the calender apart and placed it in blocks on the wall by her bed and put it up with thumb tacks. Now when she is laying there she will have pretty pictures to look at. One of the gals came in and looked at what I did and said wow..you put wallpaper up! I guess it does look like wallpaper, I just thought how I would feel with only a bare wall to look at. I have to be careful what I put around her bed as she rips everything off of anywhere she can reach. I did put her tub of lovie stuffed toys back by her bed so she can reach them. The girls moved them as they said she plays with them all night and throws them everywhere. I think it is ok for her to have her toys to play with and even throw them everywhere. I bet she even throws them at the girls!! I spent over an hr talking to the hospice nurse Kathy Harrell. Mom's urine was all good. They had checked it as a possible uti because her behavior one week was really bad. When will these folks learn that it is all part of the process of the disease. It bothers me mostly as they have to put a cather in to do this and I know I dont like those and I am sure Mom does not and does not even understand what they are doing so it must be scary for her. I told Kathy that I did not want this done anymore, so we will see. She also gained 5 lbs last month! I am really torn by this because they are giving her this terrible grape juice to drink that stimulates her appetite. She gets it before each meal and they get her to drink it by telling her that it is her wine!! Well it is working but I have to ask myself how I feel about something that is in effect forcing her to eat. Is this God's way to keep her alive and is this ok with him..or should we just let things go naturally and not give her the tonic. It is very hard to come up with an answer on this. I dont want her to suffer or be hungry and I do want her to live as long as she p[ossibly can, but is this the wrong thing to do. I will struggle with this until I can come up with an answer in my own mind and be at peace with the decision. To me she seems much happier these last 2 weeks and maybe that is because she is eating...who knows. I dont plan on anything anymore with life and Mom. I just take each day as it comes and bathe everything in prayer that concerns me. I pray for Mom at least 4 times a day, I pray for all my children, for my beloved sisters, for Ed, for the homeless and down trodden, for the lost and abandoned animals, for sick friends at church, for our church, for children, for rain or no rain, for the lost souls, and I even have learned to pray for myself. God listens and hears our prayers. Sometimes he may not answer right away but I know he hears our prayers. Dear God, Thank you for hearing my prayers.

life

Today I have a few minutes to write and recap life in the last few weeks. As you may remember Ed was on his way to Tuscon, AZ. He had a good trip which turned out to be almost 2 weeks long as things were going slow with the testing on the A-10. He loved Tuscon so much so that he wants to go back and take me with him....hmmm maybe he is really thinking retirement one day! I could live almost anywhere and I do love the west. While he was gone my computer crashed and the only way I had of checking my email was on Natalie's little laptop. That was a real bummer. I am glad to say that we got the computer back this week and it is working like a charm.
I have been very busy with Mom lately. She has so many skin tares that it is awful. She had a really really bad one last Friday and when I saw it on Sunday her hand was twice the normal size. I freaked and told the nurse to get on it, I was pretty upset. She called the Doc and they ordered an x-ray to check for fractures or a break. That was done Monday a.m. and there were none. One of the nurses managed to get Moms ring off that morning and strange as it sounds the swelling went down within an hr. Yesterday when I saw her the swelling is still gone but her hand looks so sad. The skin tare is really deep and jagged and I worry about it. I have asked them like for 3 months to get the Jerri gloves and now I demanded it on Monday. They have ordered them finally. This should hopefully help with the tares. Her skin is breaking down and I know this happens so I am just trying to manage it so it will not become painful or infected. She picks at everything and takes the bandages off all the time. She has managed to take alot of the rubber rail coatings off her bed rails too. It is a hard time again with her and I feel she is going down hill at a fast rate right now. However she is Amazing Grace, she may recover and turn things around at any moment who knows. They are taking regular urine samples so I do not know if that is to look for the kidneys shutting down or infection or what. I just go and love on her as much as possible and pray all day long for her. I call them angel prayers sent up during the day to keep her safe and I pray for those taking care of her for the day or night to be loving and kind to her which I know most are. It is a real balancing act to care for my family and Mom and work and volunteer and to see Jerry thru this last year of high school. I am doing much better these days as I have learned to listen to my body and to take care of me first. If I am not rested and feeling good then I cannot care for others. Take for instance yesterday which was Thursday...I was so sleepy in the a.m. and barely got Jerry off to school. I drank a cup of coffee and went back to bed about 7:15. I think I must have died. Natalie came in at 12 and asked me if I was going to get up and I said yes, then fell back asleep till 2! After that I got up and took a shower and hit the road. I stopped by the office for an hr then headed up to CV to see Mom. I stayed for a long time with her and sat thru dinner with her. She ate about half of a half of a baked potatoe. Then she ate about 1/4 cup of diced peaches and drank her boost. All in all I say she ate maybe 1/2 to 3/4 cup of total food not including the boost. This was really good for dinner time for her usually she refuses to eat at all but will drink the boost. Today Mrs.Barrow turns 106 years old. I talked to her last night or tried to. She is an amazing pioneer woman of this area. I am getting ready now to go to work pain and all. I have been very sore lately and very achy all over, even my back has been hurting where I had the back surgery a few years ago. I think the fibro must be acting up so I will consider adding an extra Lyrica today to see if that will help. Oh the pangs of growing older!!

Dr again

Ok I realized today that maybe I am not getting better or maybe I just need another antibiotic. I realized this when I drug myself into work and my boss Dave said "Grace dont be offended by this but you look like hell" Please go home! So after groveling about how long it took me to get dressed and there I did just that, I returned home. I did not pass go or collect $100, I simply went home. I have been home forever it seems and I think I am going a little stir crazy. I called the Dr's office and left a message about the still coughing and wheezing, snap crackle pop in my lungs and could they just call me something new in to fix it? The call came back with the dreaded "the Dr. wants you to come back in for a chest x-ray and blood work. Another drive over the bridge to the doc and more questions and why didn't I just get all this last week when I was there??? I told him it came on really quick like overnite and was the H1N1 still around etc. Knowing my luck everything will be clear tomorrow and I will just have to live on Mucinex the rest of my life or something crazy like that. I do have to admit that the drug Avelox is very hard to take and makes me very sick for about 2 hrs afterwards, food or no food, it does not seem to matter. Maybe this was not the right one for me and maybe all I really need is just another drug to kill whatever is there off. I do want to feel better so I can get back to doing life. I have not seen my Mom for 7 days now and that is too long for me and for her. I cringe to think how she will be whenever I finally get over being sick so I can see her again. They ask us not to come when we are sick as the elderly can get so sick so fast. I pray the angels will watch over her and keep her safe.