Yet again I find myself making an apology for leaving everyone hanging about a prayer request. Thanks so much for your concern and your prayers – I have to say that I have been overwhelmed by the amount of emails from y’all checking on my mom and I truly appreciate it.

She is resting comfortably at home now after a brief stint in the hospital that began on Friday night when she was rushed to the ER via ambulance. I had gone over to her house to help my SIL with her meds (mom’s pain management Dr has her on such high doses of painkillers for her back that she has been blacking out and her Internist is trying to wean her off, but her body is CRAVING the drugs) and mom told me she felt like her heart was about to jump out of her chest and she was extremely shaky. I thought her blood pressure might be elevated, so I went to get her bp cuff and after taking her blood pressure, I turned to put the cuff back into its holder. When I turned back around, she was having what I would call a seizure — her entire body was convulsing — it was horrible, to say the least.

To make a long story really short, we found ourselves in the ER and were soon admitted. The funny thing is, that by the time we got to the ER, mom was just fine. her blood pressure was back to normal, but she didn’t remember any of the above happening. She even said that she felt so silly taking up bed space when there were people much worse off than her waiting in the waiting room. (if you knew my mom, you’d know that she treats even the most serious of ailments like they are just an annoying old ingrown toenail) The Drs ran some tests over the course of her stay there, all of which came back normal or inconclusive (we have yet to receive the EEG), so we have no idea – maybe it was stress related.

At her regular appointment last week, she found out that she is restricted from driving for 6 months, pending no further blackouts and the Dr is weaning her off of the Hydrocodone and Oxycontin (she takes enough to knock out a linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys – no joking) because he said that the drugs are synergistic with one another and are casuing the problems she is having. She’s just going to have to learn to live with the pain and stop pushing herself so hard.

So that’s my story. Up until Sunday night, I was at the hospital with mom, and since then, I’ve been at her house making sure her meds were all lined up for the week and just hanging out, trying to forget the fact that I have so much to be done at my own house. Fortunately, Katie loves doing school so much, she actually spent the time getting ‘ahead’ in her homeschooling (with the exception of Math, which she just did the required amount) and the time we spent at home together yesterday was spent catching up on laundry, paying bills, and trying to pull something together for dinner.

Not the most interesting post, but it’s fact-filled. Life isn’t always fun, sometimes it’s full of stress, but I can definitely see the rainbow through the rain. It won’t last forever, but I plan on trying to enjoy my mom as long as I have her – one of her favorite things to do is garden (and I have absolutely NO green thumb), so tomorrow weather permitting, I will once again be at her house and we will be prepping her flower beds for spring. She will direct my daughter and I as we spread mulch and dukey (okay, it’s not technically ‘dukey’ – but I get a kick out of fertilizer – it’s made from chicken dukey) all over her yard. I asked AJ if he’d like to help with the flowers and he said, “No way! I’m going to stay inside with grandpa and watch the news.” Boys.

I plan on spending a little time at the pc today to catch up on reading posts (my reader shows 296!!!) and replying to emails. I also actually have a post or two of my own, besides the standard that I’m working on getting out for this week.

And the Monthly Contest! Yes – it’s still happening – and everyone of you guessed correctly – it’s an apron! I will be posting more about that on Friday, along with a photo, hopefully. My camera is acting kind of weird, so I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to use it. I have to baby it as it is. OH, how I want a digital SLR…sigh. 🙂 Maybe someday.

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Technorati Tags: geriatrics, parenting, Texas

Look on the bright side! Subscribe via RSS.

Mom’s appointment for her MRI was a huge DISappointment, as we found out she could not have one. She has a tens unit implant from several years ago in her back for relieving her back pain, and because of that, they were unable to do an MRI. The nurse said that her back would fry in that spot, so wisely, we elected not to go through with it. Instead, her Dr. was called and she ordered a CT scan of mom’s brain.

We should know the results sometime on Monday. Last night, mom was doing much better – she was still tired, but she had no memory of yesterday morning’s events. She is of course, frightened and concerned that she’s having mini-strokes. She does not want to end up like her sister, who was incapable of caring for herself for the last seven of eight years of her life and had to end up staying in a nursing home.

I feel guilty, because my brother and his wife live with my parents and they are both so tired and burned out from his illness that they no longer have the energy to take care of my mom, but they do it anyway. I help out as much as I can, but she is a handful and has really turned into sort of meanie in her old age. (I know that sounds horrible, but it’s true). One minute she’s fine and the next, she’s extremely emotional and screaming. You just don’t see too many 76 year old women acting that way. Or maybe you do. But I never have. It certainly doesn’t make taking care of her any easier. Some days it’s a challenge to even WANT to do it, to be honest.

I’m taking her to see another Dr. today – she wants to have a “regular” Dr because the Dr. she is currently seeing only works two days a week and that isn’t really jiving with mom’s needs. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers. I definitely felt them yesterday. After my initial moments of fear, a wonderful peace swept over me and I realized that no matter what happens, it’s okay. God’s in control and I just let him pilot the boat while I tried to enjoy the ride as much as possible.

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