Someone asked me what they could do to commemorate mom in lieu of flowers. Her go-to charity was https://www.livingdesert.org/
I will have some sort of memorial service later, but I haven’t yet decided where or when. After Thanksgiving, perhaps.
Thank you all for your concern and best wishes.
Got the call I’d been both dreading and anticipating. Mom passed this morning. When I was with her yesterday, she wasn’t responding to me at all and the time between breaths was occasionally quite long. And it was obvious that even with the pain meds, she was still in discomfort, so I’m glad she doesn’t have to experience that any longer.
Here she is just last August. What a difference a few weeks can make.
This is my first commissioned floral arrangement. It took me a while because I designed the orchids myself. I’m quite happy with the way they turned out.
Last Friday, mom’s right femur broke. She was in the hospital for a few days. We decided against surgery as the orthopedist felt that even if she made it through the surgery, she would not be strong enough to participate in any kind of recovery efforts.
She came back to the assisted living facility on Wednesday with the help of a hospice company. The hospice people have been wonderful so far.
Mom looks much better now that she is back in her own room. All the IV’s are gone, so she is much more comfortable. Of course, having regular pain meds helps, too!
Mom’s 99th birthday went well. Visits from the nurse to look after the last of her skin tears and a workout from the physical therapist. On a more fun note, she also played bingo and handed out cupcakes to all of her friends.
All my life I have been hearing people ooh and ahh about how wonderful a freshly-picked, vine-ripened tomato is. The word they use most often is “sweet”.
I always assumed I had never had one of these wonderful orbs, because I would never think of describing a tomato as “sweet”. Today, though, I was given a half-dozen, home-grown tomatoes and shared one with my tablemate. Afterwards, I asked her what she thought. “Sweet”, she replied.
Now that is the very last word I would have used for it. It tasted like tomatoes to me, slightly acidic and not any different than any other tomato I have ever eaten. And I’ve had heirloom tomatoes and grape tomatoes and cherry tomatoes and many other varieties. None have ever tasted sweet to me.
This is not to say I hate raw tomatoes like I understand some people do. I just know now that apparently, I am never going to enjoy a “sweet” tomato.
All the tests she had done in the hospital turned out fine, so she has now moved over to a rehab facility to get her strength back. She is having several hours of therapy a day; the goal is to get her back into assisted living.
Thursday, mom had her staples removed with no problems. She was still in a lot of pain and the doctor prescribed some pain pills that she has taken before with no problems. Friday, the med nurse called me to say mom seemed to be extremely disoriented, so they were stopping the pain meds in case that was the cause.
When I went over, she had her shorts on upside down and both legs through one opening. Even more worrisome was that she was extremely weak. I got her into bed and told her to stay there. I was thinking maybe she had another UTI and made arrangements to get a urine sample.
The people at the facility were checking on her regularly, but when they went in around 9:30pm they found her on the floor with two new tears on the back of her leg. Back she went to the ER and this time they kept her. She doesn’t have a UTI or anything else wrong that they have found so far, but she is still very weak.
Sunday, a room finally opened up and she has now been officially admitted to the hospital. Today they are planning on doing an MRI. I’ll be heading over there in a bit to see how things are going.
The bad news is that mom has had two falls in the last week. She is bruised and battered and has 9 staples in a scalp would. The good news is that nothing is broken. Besides the head wound, she mostly has skin tears on her leg. Those things are extremely painful but not life-threatening.
She is supposed to get the staples out tomorrow. Today a home health nurse is coming by to change her dressings. Good thing, as I about fainted when I wrapped them up yesterday. There is a reason I never went into the medical profession! Also, making your mom cry out in pain is not fun, I prefer leaving it to the professionals.
I got tired of dog hairs all over my sheets and bedspread, so I bought a few small blankets for Brindy to use. At night, I spread one out on the sheet and put a second one down as a pillow for her. During the day, I put them both at the end of the bed (this picture was taken just before I painted the wall):
I’ve been very consistent about moving her if she sneaks off from the blanket and she has obviously been getting the idea. The other night she wanted to be at the foot of the bed, so she picked up the blanket being used as a pillow and moved it to the end of the bed. Even more cleverly, this is what I came home to recently:
As you can see, she picked up the blanket and carried it to the middle of the bed, thus allowing herself permission to curl up on the spread. Smart dog!
Tuples and Attributes 