Hi ho, hi ho, to ER we go

Just as I was heading off to bed, Herd mom having difficult time getting comfortable. Just last Monday I brought her home from the hospital diagnosis, pneumonia and fractured vertebrae. This after being home 6 weeks after quadruple bypass. This after being home 6 months after surgery to repair fractured femur that kept her in rehabilitative nursing home. Eight months prior to that 3 back surgerys within 2 months. She has been through so much over the last Two years that it has taken a tole on her physically as it would any one. That makes Dad very uneasy since she is his primary caregiver as my husband and I are to both if them. Dad had a stroke a few years back and is in dialysis 3 days per week. Thank God that between My 2 brothers and James, we have managed caring for them through these later years. We are grateful to still have them with us as we are a very close family. Thank you again lord.

Get SIRI-ous!

So far, Siri and I do not work well together. It took me 20 minutes to get directions to a bar & grill across town and we ended in a bad exchange of comments. I definitely have Sybil SIRI.

Sunday

Sunday's use to be my favorite day of the week. It was my day to spend at my leisure whatever that may be. Now my day had turned to night. 9pm until bed time after everyone else is down for the night. Fed, dishes done and put away, laundry folded and put away, parents with their night time pills tucked in for the night at. 8:30. Whew...my time to watch recorded shows, sew, knit, craft or just think.

Aging Parents

This has been far more difficult than I ever imagined my adult life to be. My parents were only 74 and 76 years young when my husband and I decided it was time they were looked after a little closer. I received a call from Mom one morning around 5:30 telling me that Dad fell out of the bed in the middle of the night and was talking crazy. She laughed kinda puzzled like and waited for a reply from me. She said he was saying words that did not make any sense. I drove 20 minutes like a bat out of hell to pick them up and take him the the ER knowing all the while he had suffered a stroke. The ride was a maddening 30 minutes from the country through work traffic. It was amazing and frustrating how many people ignored my flashing lights and hand motions to move over so I could get through the traffic and hopefully save him but it was not to be. He talked like a little gremlin with run-on sentences in a suspicious tone and said the weirdest things. At one point there was a well to do African American woman in a white Mercedes blocking the road that would just stare into the rear view mirror as I motioned her to move. Dad said, throw some silver dollars out there on the street, when she jumps out to get them, run over her and I'll move the car, run her down, that will teach her. Now what you have to know about my dad is he has never said and unkind word about anyone, ever!

We finally made it to the ER and they diagnosed a stroke caused from hardening of the arteries. Irreversible, leaving him with a 50% memory loss and very over medicated. Mom was making it worse by giving him dramamine because his other medications would make him sick on car rides. That would make him sleepy but not nauseous , then she would get him a large cup of coffee to wake him back up when they reached their destination. It was a mess that I was not entirely sure how to tackle but the obvious start, the pills and doctor visits. My husband and I gave up our empty nest, stored most of our stuff, our daughter moved into our home—I was not ready to relinquish all my means of escape. Plus, the shape he was in, we were surprised he made it 6 months and never dreamed 4 years later we would be caregivers to both parents. After a couple weeks he was almost back to normal, could ride without getting sick and make conversation. He was out of a medical fog!

In less than a year, we learned the medication given to him during heart surgery caused kidney failure so in June of 2009 he was put on Dialysis 3 days per week in a town 20 minutes away. This starts a new chapter. Where did my life go?