No News

They say no news is good news but that's not necessarily true. Sometimes it's just a sign that you are so busy handling the crap in your life that you don't have time to sit down and talk about it. 

For nearly a month I have been running around taking care of my mother and trying to do everything I can for her. It seems like every time we think things are looking up something else happens.

Mama broke her leg in April and had to stay in ICU for several days. Then she was moved into rehab for about three weeks. She started having spells where she couldn't breathe at night so they sent her back to the hospital. What they thought was panic attacks turned out to be fluid built up around her heart and she had to stay in the hospital for nearly a week. The doctor didn't release her until I pitched a fit. He told her she was going to go home but we didn't hear any more from him all that day. 

I left the hospital to switch cars so that Mama could ride in her car. It has air conditioning. I also went by the place that was going to provide oxygen for her to see if the doctor had sent them a work order. The healthcare company called the room at the hospital around five o'clock to see if she was coming home. I told them I would contact the doctor's office to see what the holdup was all about.

I called the doctor's office but couldn't talk to the doctor who was supposed to release her. I talked to the doctor on call. She told me to get the nurse to page the doctor because he was at the hospital making rounds. By this time I was becoming irate. 

The healthcare service provider promised to bring an oxygen tank to the hospital and take an oxygenator and wheelchair to her house even though they closed at five. 

When the doctor finally came into her room he tried to blame the delay on the healthcare services provider for not bringing her oxygen sooner. I wasn't having any of that crap and told him we had been waiting since eight o'clock that morning to be released and I had made sure everything was ready for her. I told him I had even stopped by the business to make sure they were going to bring her oxygen tanks. He still tried to blame them. I told him they weren't the ones responsible for signing the release papers and he couldn't blame them. I knew exactly who to blame. He said he was never going to use them again. It wasn't his choice. We had chosen them. He finally said he was used to getting blamed for things so he guessed he would take the blame. Yeah, right! If he is used to being blamed for things he needs to reevaluate his work ethic. Something is seriously wrong.

We finally got home around seven o'clock. We were never so happy to be back home.

Life goes on. 

Scout and Katie are planning an outdoor wedding under the grape arbor at Mama's house. I want Mama to feel well enough to attend the wedding and be a part of the celebration. 

Katie has been invaluable to us throughout everything. She even went with Donny to the doctor in Tennessee the other day for his appointment to find out about having a permanent defibrillator surgically installed. I was at the hospital busy wrestling with Mama's doctor at the time.

Colt met a girl and doesn't hang around the house much anymore. I will need him to stay home with Donny in case he needs him because I am staying at Mama's house to take care of her until she is back on her feet.

I don't feel like I can depend on anybody else to take care of Mama and Donny and I feel stretched like a rubber band. Sometimes I wish I was twins.

We are all hoping everything starts going more smoothly. We could use the break.

AS ALWAY

PIO

MAY

Have you ever seen those commercials where the old lady is laying in the floor hollering, "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up?" I always admonish my mama to keep her cellphone on her so she won't be helpless like that old woman on TV. I'm glad she listened.

I got a call last Sunday. Katie told me to get to Mama's house right away. She had fallen. Mama tried to call us but couldn't get anyone. Scout found her and called 911. We rushed up there in time to see her being loaded into an ambulance. They took Mama to the hospital to examine her. She broke her leg.

The doctor couldn't do surgery right away because she takes blood thinner medicine. They finally did surgery on Monday and the doctor inserted a long metal rod in her thigh bone. 

Mama spent several days in SICU* until they finally moved her to a private room. She sounded coherent when she was in SICU but began to sound unclear later on. I stayed with her most of the time at the hospital because she didn't need to be alone. 

It took a while for them to regulate her oxygen level and heartbeat. She began to get feisty and kept wanting to get up. She couldn't stand laying in bed any longer. Her doctor released her to go to rehab today. I'm glad because she wasn't in any shape to go home alone yet. I'd make some lame joke about my mama going to rehab if it wasn't so sad. I hate seeing her so helpless.

Everybody was concerned about Mama. Aunt Jonnie and my uncle, Robert, drove down from Chattanooga to check on her a couple of times. We went to the Oakwood Cafe for dinner while Mama was in surgery.

Patsy sent Mama some flowers in the hospital because she couldn't be there. She moved back to Illinois recently. Mary Jane had moved back to Savannah a couple of months ago to be with her son so Patsy thought it was time to move closer to Donna and Butch.

It seems like we have lost so many people we love in one way or another. I counted and I've been to four funerals since Thanksgiving. Daddy and his sister, Vivian, passed away six weeks apart. Then Scout's fiance, Katie, lost her father three weeks later. Two weeks after that, Daddy's best friend, Gordon, lost his battle with cancer. 

Since November we have lost four loved ones and Donny had a quadruple bypass. To say we are up against the wall is an understatement. I was finally glad Donny was released to go back to work and thought things were improving until Mama slipped and fell. 

I felt like we were under a stormy cloud and hoped things wouldn't get worse but they did. 

A friend of mine who is on Facebook contacted me and told me that her husband had a heart attack and they weren't able to save him. I was shocked and devastated because he was a good friend of mine, too. I've known him most of my life. Steve was four years younger than me. I couldn't believe it. I went to the funeral home to pay my respects to his family today.

It seems like when it rains, it pours. It breaks my heart that my friends and family are passing away. There are so many wonderful people that used to be in my life that are now gone. I miss them so much and I wonder if things will ever be normal again. I doubt it. Nothing's ever the same after you lose someone. I only hope all our luck improves soon.

*surgical intensive care unit

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Rachel, Steve, Connie, Maranda, Vivian, Nita, Junior, and Madison

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

RIP

Edwadene McAllister, Grampaw Carter, Ev Chastain

REMEMBER

Mother's Day, Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day

AS ALWAY

PIO