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I figured that I could be upright long enough to tell those of you waiting for stuff or confirmations...I am down for the count with this crappy viral thing. I have not been sick for YEARS but since I got the flu shot to "protect Mom" I have been fighting three different bugs over the last couple of months. Maybe it is just coincidence but maybe not. YUCK. Thank you for your patience.
I got my computer back. Yes, I got sick awhile back and then my computer got sick but as I have told some people, my computer ended up at the Mac Hospital. I have been limping along with my old laptop and doing email online, which is really daunting for someone used to having everything at her fingertips. TOO MUCH. We kept expecting the Fricking Genius to call to say that they had replaced the naughty bits on my Mac but they kept having problems, all the while that we were away in Santa Clara for Stitches. When we got home late last night there was a message from Genius Joe, telling us that they were crying Uncle and would give me a brand spanking new computer to replace my old one that was on an extended warranty. WOO HOO! They were able to transfer all of the info from my old hard disk over to this hot new one and so I am ALMOST good to go. Now it seems that my nemesis, Hughesnet, is throttling us back in download and upload speed because we had the audacity to download about 200 emails that were left on the server...not a lot, my friend...not a lot. So now I will have to wait 24 hours for these clowns to take the governor off of our speed. For CRYING OUT LOUD!!! If it seems like a soap opera, it feels like one here. There are always silver linings to each of the stressful things that we have been through lately but this is still enough to make me ask Sheila about which planet is screwing with things.
Alright, we have some things to catch up on, don't we? Those of you that were kind enough to ask about the latest shenanigans when we saw you at Stitches can just ignore this stuff.
A week ago last Friday we had a visit from the physical therapist from the convalescent hospital...you know, I was not going to put mom through the ordeal, yatta yatta yatta. I should have. The guy tells us that she has met the criteria for being able to be released to her home...walking 125 feet with a walker and heaven knows what else. I believed him and prepared to have her home on Tuesday. We ran errands, getting things ready for her and then picked her up that afternoon. Hmmm, it took her 5 minutes to swing her legs around on the bed to begin to get out of bed. (should have been a red flag) We got her signed out and got her meds and were told Good Luck, you'll need it, by her nurse. (red flag number two.) It took FOREVER to get her out of bed and into the wheel chair and there were no staff members there to help us get her out of the building. Hmmm... Rod pulled the car around and it took forever to get her into the car. We made the ride home and up the driveway and she seemed happy to be sprung from the place. It took forever to get her out of the car and into her wheel chair to head into the house...look at your house mom...no response. We get her into the house and hear that shs just wants to go to bed and that is where we head. She still was not walking other than to transfer from one wheeled thing to another. (Uh oh) I got her into bed and had to help this weak as a kitten big woman turn around to get in and land in an odd position, which she refused to change. Ok...getting a little bit worried now.
I did battle all day with doctors and all sorts of people to get her oxygen and breathing machine delivered and by the time the evening came around and she ate two bites of dinner I was in full on panic. Thankfully, the friend who volunteered to stay with her while we were at Stitches said that she would come that evening to help with the breathing treatments that we were suddenly learning about as well as being thrown into caring for someone who is supposed to do blood sugar checks. I was overwhelmed and worried about leaving!
Wednesday morning came and we were ready to head out when I went in to say goodbye to mom...hmmm, the light is on and she is not in bed...a good sign...did she get herself into the bathroom? NO! She was on the floor wedged between the bed and the blanket chest and when I hollered "MOM"! she says...what? WHAT??? We tried to get her up but she kept hollering OW, which sent me reeling toward the phone and the 911 operator. It took 4 paramedics to get her onto the gurney and this was the final straw after trying to change her and help her...there was NO WAY that she could be home with a caregiver. Off she went to the hospital after I looked her into the face and told her that she was going to have to go back to the convalescent hospital because of her condition and size. She just did not do the work when she was in there and so she has just gone down hill from eating linebacker portions and lying in bed. Can you say, Horrified??? Yes.
She is back in there and we finally went to visit her today. She was telling me that she knows that she needs to get busy so that she can go home. Yeahright...go for it...make it happen. I just told her that it was all in her hands and that the only way that she could hope to come home would be if she could walk herself to the bathroom and keep herself clean because I was not falling for this again. I said it nicely but firmly but Cinderella has left the building. No more of this . She is safe and well cared for (as well as can be expected with someone with her attitude and situation) and she has enough money squirreled away to allow me to pay for this care, which is now private pay. So be it. It takes 3 skilled nurses to change her and I am not going to grapple with a very large dead weight. Two of us tried it the morning that she was taken and it was all that we could do to clean her up. Done.
We had a lovely weekend at Stitches and I will write about it tomorrow. Here's hoping that these Hughesnet jerks let me upload this. One step at a time...
I do not know what is happening around here but time is kicking out my legs. I was going to continue writing the post that I began a few days ago and found that it was just so outdated because of all of the changes that have gone on around here.
I had begun talking about how I was having to go up against the physical therapy people at the convalescent hospital because they were insisting that we bring mom home and have the staff follow us up here to see how she was able to cope with the house and her facilities. This was their plan...of course this also meant that she had to go right back down there and go back to her bed. I just could not see this happening and told them that this would be too much for her, especially if she had a long van ride to the ENT doctor the next day. They finally relented and promised to come up themselves and evaluate the house and see what we needed to alter. It took a lot for me to stand up to do this but I just knew that it was a cruel and exhausting exercise for this 82 year old woman. Everything changed last Saturday when we went down for a visit because we got shooed out of her room, practically taken by the collars by her nurse. Didn't you see the sign on her door??? Uh NO, the door is open and we turn toward HER when we come to see her. The big red sign was promptly moved from the door to the wall outside of her room. Quarantine. Yeah, she was now off limits, as was the whole facility because of an outbreak of the intestinal flu. We left, wondering how this was going to impact everything.
Monday rolls around and after an overnight snow that turned to ice overnight, we were pretty much trapped up here for the day. The workers came but could not get up the hill, even with chains and so here we sat. We finally thawed out enough to get down the hill and to town on Tuesday and were barred from the door to the facility again. Mom still had the red sign on her door and that was that. Please tell her that we came to see her. Ok.
The next day I call to see how she was and while SHE tested negative for the virus, her roommate is now down with something and so the room is still off limits. No PT for either of them...just sitting in the bed.
Thursday morning I decided to try out my new Bog boots and headed out back with Tank and Sasha in tow. It was sunny but a lot of the land is fill and goopy because of the clay content. I decided that I would like to clamber down into the creek and so I am soon joined by the dogs and then Rod, who never wants to miss such fun. He and Tank went slogging through the creek, which is really stair-stepped, down about 100 yards or so. Sasha woofed at me, worrying about going in the water and I encouraged her to do it because if the Head Wuss (that would be ME) could do it, SHE could do it. Big mistake. Rod and Tank come back up the creek and Tank begins his usual horseplay, grabbing her ruff. This time, she freaks out, letting him have it with such force that it shocked me. Right after her admonishment I heard the whining begin. I looked at her and there was at 2 inch gash in her left foreleg. Rod got her up and out of the creek so fast and I was still trying to get my footing while he was inspecting her leg up on the porch. It was remarkably dry, although it had gone down to the muscle. I got on the phone and got to know our closest Vet clinic in a hurry. We took her down to the wonderful Smith Flat (just across 50 from us) Clinic and they got on it right away, getting her sedated and tucked into a holding pen. The doctor told us that it was remarkable that she had not severed the artery that runs up "right there" and so her surgery would be unremarkable.We were all going to be OK.
Not so fast...there was a message on the home phone from the Kaiser doctor who visits the Convalescent Hospital. Mom has pneumonia again and is going on antibiotics. Today, I am not putting it off any longer...I am going to insist that they gown and mask me and I am going in there. Not good, my friends.
Now then, there are lots and lots of pictures of the progress across the driveway. They would have been broken up in a couple of posts but because of all of the drama around here, that didn't happen. So, I give you the day that the trusses arrived and on to yesterday when the carpenters unplugged their cords, turned off the generators and went home for good.
This last picture is of my office and dye room. It just says that no matter what...the show must go on. At this point, we have no idea if mom will ever live in her little house.
