Just Another Herd Creature

It's Mother's Day - that yearly Hallmark holiday meant to sell cards, flowers and candy.  When my mother was alive, I always sent a card and/or flowers depending on our financial situation.  It's been more than 10 years since she died and I can truthful say that every day is mother's day for me.  I have at least one mom-memory every day.  It's often small things. For example this morning, when I was getting out of the shower, I remembered how my mom taught us to dry ourselves off from head to toe while we were still in the bathtub, so we wouldn't track any water on the floor.  We didn't have a bathroom rug or a bath mat.  Of course, I gave this up many years ago and I use a bath mat now. 

Every time I peel a potato, I remember my mom's expert use of a paring knife to take as little potato off with the skin.  When I had to peel potatoes, half the flesh would end up in the pig's bucket.  My mother would show me over and over again how to do it and I never got it.  And carrots were even worst – one carrot became one carrot stick under my knife. When I finally discovered the peeler tool, I was so happy. And so was my mom, alas the pigs were less happy. 

These memories come unbidden. She is a part of my everyday life, her words, her deeds, are linked so deep within me; I can not imagine what a day would feel like without them.  I’ve never been a mother, never really wanted to be a mother, but on this commercial holiday, I take a moment to wish that part of me that is her, a very Happy Mother’s Day.

I've notice dbubley has been more out of breath the last 4 or 5 days. The rehab center works like this: you call a main number and leave a message with a nurse, who then relays it to the doctor in charge of her care. I did this on Tuesday. Wednesday dbubley was out of the facility from approx 12:30 to 4 pm for an appointment with her surgeon. Thursday morning a physician’s assistant, who works with the doctor, stops in to see Betty and asks her a few questions. The PA told dbubley it’s probably caused by her weight and lying down in bed for a few weeks. 

Dbubley tells me this and I start to see red. She was in bed for 4 months after her kidney surgery and she was never out of breath like this. I left the paperwork with the number to call in the van. I was just getting ready to go get it when my cell phone rang, it was the PA. I didn’t even let her start in on dbubley's fat causing the problem, I told her this has not been an issue in the past and we need to figure out what has changed. They have her on warfarin to protect against blood clots while she is so immobile. I’ve been watching the blood work (I do love the fact that Kaiser gives you access to your test results on-line) and her PT INR (International Normalized Ratio – Prothrombin Time) number is more than twice the highest normal range. I asked the PA what the therapeutic number they were aiming for and could this med be the cause of her breathing issue. She assured me it wasn’t and in her 25 years had never seen this problem and her number was right where they wanted it to be. I then told her one of the side effects listed for this med (and quite high on the list) was breathing problems. And my Google search lead to several sites with reports from patients and doctors of this effect. She said she’d have to look into this. I also asked how dbubley's last chest x-ray looked and she admitted there seemed to be some fluid build-up. She ordered another x-ray and would give her a dose of lasix to reduce it. 

She then tried to push some of the blame on dbubley when she said “Well, she didn’t tell me everything.” With the type of meds she is on, unless she is in a 5 or 6 level of pain, when you ask her how she’s doing she’ll say “okay”. The only reason dbubley even mentioned the shortness of breath is because I kept saying something to her every time we talked on the phone. Well tonight I got a call from the facility letting me know they were starting dbubley on an antibiotic because the chest x-ray showed she has a “touch of pneumonia”. 

Don’t tell me this isn’t a case of medical fat bias! How bad would she have had to get before someone noticed and looked more closely at her. 

Good news: I’m off work for the next 7 days. Bad news: four of them are furlough days. Good news: they couldn’t come at a better time because I have to completely pack up and clear Betty’s bedroom and front room of all furniture because we need to change the carpet. We need to do this because 1) it is in really bad shape 2) Betty will not be able to bare any weight on her leg for a long time, if ever. So we will be using a Hoyer lift to move her in and out of bed. Trying to move the lift on her mushy carpet is very difficult for me. I worry about injuring one or both of us, so we need to fix it. With our wonderful, wacky winter weather I decided to rent a Pod storage unit to move everything into and it will just stay in our driveway.

So once again, I’m looking for volunteers.  I need packing help, I need boxes, I need motivation! Most of the packing is books, CD’s, knick-knacks and electronics. I will probably have to hire some heavy lifter people for the hospital bed and a few other things. If you know of anyone, I will certainly take recommendations. 

Monday I’m going flooring shopping and ordering the Pod, but the rest of the week should be all about packing. We are getting rid of her big desk, so if anyone is interested in it – let me know.   We may also be getting rid of one of her televisions – we’re thinking of buying a wall mounted TV so it will be easier for her to see from her hospital bed. 

If you have time this week AND can not think of anything better to do (then you don’t have a very good imagination) . . .  and would like to come help, give me a call/email.  

Thanks to four wonderful Elf’s including serene (who has a journal, but I can't seem to get a link), her niece and 2 friends,  we got a really good start last Sunday at my 2010 Xmas DecoMania, but there’s still plenty to do. More boxes to move and unpack, more garland and lights to put up and esp. more ornaments to place. Plus this is the first year we have our beautiful back yard, so I’ve got a few plans for it too!

I made a mistake listing the days I will be decorating in the last post. I am not available on Sunday, Nov. 14, but I am available on Saturday, Nov. 13. Here’s the corrected list of days and the times I’m going to start on each day. Drop me a note or call, if you haven’t already, and let me know the day and approx. time you might be coming.

I promise will be my last "call for help" posts, I just wanted to correct the days in case anyone wanted to volunteer, but could only do it on Saturday. As I said before, if you don't have the health, time or inclination to help, it's really okay and I hope you can come to the open house - announcement coming soon.

Thank you!

Thursday, Nov. 11 10 am

Friday, Nov. 12, 10 am

Saturday, Nov. 13 11 am

Monday, Nov. 15 10 am