Monday, July 22, 2024

Well, I have to start by saying thank you so much for all your supportive words on Friday’s post and there is a lot of wisdom in the comments sections if you want to go back and read. For some reason, it’s not letting me link back, but it is the post right after this one.

Basically, my mom went to the ER Sunday night and was seriously low on hemoglobin. Sunday through Thursday were a whirlwind!

So, I left off on Thursday morning around 7:00 a.m. before I drove to the hospital. It is an hour from my house, by the way. Both of my kids came with me and we arrived just after my Columbus, Ohio sister left the hospital to head home. She had arrived Monday around noon and stayed until Thursday morning. She’s a trooper. We had come up with a schedule – Kate: Wednesday, Amy: Thursday, and Molly: Friday so at this point we were following our schedule.

My goals for the day were to see if my mom would get seen by a PT person and to personally speak to the hospitalist. This is a rather new term for me but apparently it is the doctor that oversees the big picture of the patient’s care and is the one who determines when they go home, too, maybe?

The kids and I said hi to my mom and she looked better than she had looked since Monday. We were going to sit down and visit, but different people started coming in to do different things so I sent the kids to go eat in the cafeteria but I stayed with her.

My mom’s garage door has been a problem for awhile and her friend kept telling us about it so I called a company and they could come look at it between 12-4. So, that became the job of my kids – to be at Grandma’s house when they came and facilitate that. Guess when they came? Yes, you guessed it – as close to 4:00 as possible! So, those two waited around at the house for 4 hours and actually served a big purpose! We are getting an estimate to help my mom get it fixed.

I stayed at the hospital and way earlier than expected got to see the phyiscal therapist, listen to the questions she asked, and then see the tests she put mom through. She asked her to try a walker and I thought that was going to be a deal breaker, but she used it.

To my utter shock, the PT said that she was ready to go home from a PT stand point. She explained that she doesn’t make the call but that she is strong enough.

Then, right after that, comes the hospitalist and he says she is ready to go home. This was around 1:00 and he talked to us for a long time and said it would be a few hours before she would actually get to “check out”.

I was shocked. Sisters were shocked. We were not prepared for her to be at home. Not only would she be going home, but she would be going home with a walker (that she agreed to) and some furniture adjustments would have to be made – but my mom can live all on one level. She has two bathrooms, kitchen, primary bedroom, living room, laundry room, and dining room all on the main level. Of course, she was ready to go home!

My kids had only planned on it being a day visit, but they were so wonderful. We went to Walmart to get some things to spend the night while mom was still in the hospital (left one kid for the garage door people – I was regretting that being on our plate then!) and came back and moved throw rugs, some furniture, etc.

We got her home and settled around 5:00. It was nice to have three of us to watch her with the walker, make sure she was comfortable, bring her things, write notes, record medicine times, and things like that.

Friday morning Molly arrived around 10:00 and she and I went to the store together and my kids did Grandma duty. Mom is doing everything on her own but we were not ready to leave her alone. The kids and I left and unfortunately Molly had none of her kids with her, but she assured us she was fine.

Molly took my mom to a hair appointment because this was the top priority for my mom – probably a good sign, right?

Thursday in my hometown was simply gorgeous and Friday was the same:

I was thankful someone left me a Michelob Ultra Light.

I would’ve loved to enjoy it with my Dad. This is where he always sat to wait for us.

We got home Friday around 1:00 and I found that Eddie Otis had played with/eaten a potato. Yup, a raw potato!

Molly made me promise to do something fun so I called my captain:

And, my first mate.

It was lovely. We went to Captain’s Quarters and I got a Hugo Spritz and Tom got an Arnold Palmer.

This might be my new drink for the rest of summer:

We took our food to go and it was so smart – deconstructed pork nachos meant that we could fix them how we wanted to at home.

Saturday I slept in later than I have all summer.

I piddled and did a couple of errands and then I went back to help Molly. The difference in my mom was crazy! She was moving so much faster, had much more appetite, looked better, and more. She went to get the mail on her own. Molly was the perfect person to get her to that stage.

We sat on the porch and toasted our Dad with some charcuterie while Mom napped.

I brought Greek bowls for dinner and an old favorite for my mom of just macaroni noodles and tomato sauce. I also had some zucchini for her.

We got mom out in the car to run a couple of errands and then my mom said she was fine for us to go to TJ Maxx and look what I got – my $13 Olympics watching sandals! Ha!

We got up Sunday and did an errand for mom and got a Scooter’s iced coffee.

And, I did my press ons while sitting on mom’s patio. Her teal table looks good with my color!

I came back home and was so tired. I napped a bit inside and then I went outside to read my book and fell asleep there, too.

I’m really enjoying this so far!

I don’t know how often I will show up here this week – we will see what the week holds.

Again, I thank you so much for your comments! You all are the best!

Amy