Mom is currently in Week #3 of 5 weeks worth of radiation treatment. She seems tired.
She's been complaining about her back hurting. In August, or maybe September - not long after her last discharge from hospital - she had fallen. After complaining with excruciating back pain, Deb brought her to E/R and had an x-ray/MRI done. Turned out, she'd fractured the L5 (or maybe S1) vertebrae. The doctor performed a kyphoplasty which is a procedure where he injects a cement-like substance into the fracture. She's complained with a great deal of pain since that mishap.
Her ankles/feet had swollen up big-time again. We had her doc prescribe some fluid pills. She is taking these daily in the morning. The swelling seems to have gone down.
Deb has gone back to Alaska. She left 10/28. She'd arranged for Comfort Keepers to come everyday (either in the morning or afternoon), but they can/will only transport Mom to appointments 3 times a week. I bring her Monday/Wednesday. On those days, Comfort Keepers comes in the morning. The rest of the week, they come in the afternoon. Because we are in the infant stage with CK, there's some tweaking to be done with visits, transportation, etc. Mom was all stressed about it. So we discussed it. I asked if she felt like she had company coming and needed to entertain. She said yes. I explained that she will get used to the idea these gals are here to assist with whatever she needs help with.
I guess she thought once the cigarette nazi (Deb) had left, that I would be more flexible. WRONG. I give her one pack of cigarettes. This has to last until I see her again the following day. She seems to be doing well. Deb devised "visual aids" for her so Mom could stretch out her smoking more affectively. Deb has 4 cigarette boxes. They are marked: Midnight to 6am; 6am to Noon; Noon to 6pm and 6pm to Midnight. Each pack has 5 cigarettes. If she borrows from one, she has one less to smoke during that time period. I take the 6am to Noon and Noon to 6pm and put them in the spare bedroom. That way, she has to go all the way in the room to get a smoke. I also put 3 or 4 extras either on the dresser in there, or on the night stand. Kind of like a scavenger hunt. Something to stimulate her brain cells I guess. They are never in the same spot twice. My intent is to gradually decrease the number of extra cigarettes I put out for her once she's done with her daily allotment. And also the same with the ones in the packs until she is hardly smoking at all. And then, hopefully, not at all. We'll see if this works. Probably won't but, gotta start some place. Besides, it's always better to aim for the stars than to shoot down a well. At least you hit higher!
Dad. Dad's been having difficulty swallowing. Has been for years. Food gets "hung up" in his "hernia". He's got some upper gastro problems and someone has to come to the house to teach him how to swallow (apparently, he's been doing it wrong all these years...?) She helps him work all those esophagus muscles, coughing, clearing his throat, she watches him swallow, etc. He drinks out of this huge bottle that has a built in plastic straw. She said no more straws. Yikes! Also, she said rice is not good for him to eat. No more rice (double YIKES!). Needless to say, Dad doesn't much care for her! He is also having physical therapy come in once a week to work his legs and ankles. Deb had scheduled an eye doctor appointment. He has macular degeneration. The good news/bad news is that he likely won't go blind. Bad news: surgery won't help. So, Deb ordered some glasses for him and this special lamp that sits behind him to add more light to his reading material. I took Dad to get his glasses/lamp. He was under the impression that BAM! He would be able to read again. Sadly, not the case. He has to re-train his eyes to read. He was disappointed and I think put out by that. He wants to read very badly.
All in all, I've been pretty busy between their home and mine, and travelling the interestate back and forth, and working my job. Plus, piano, band, baseball, etc. No time to be tired or catch up on my sleep. We had sustained a bit of damage during Gustav and for 2 weeks had construction guys at our home. The lead guy is Mexican. Speaks with an accent. He's kinda cute. His wife is sweet as can be. The 2 guys he had do the job (roof, inside ceiling, sheet rock, painting, etc) were also cute as could be. Neither one spoke much English. One was Spanish (I think) and the other Brazilian... Hunky guys. They said it'd take about 3 days to do the job; turned out to be 10 and they are still not finished. That's ok. It'll give us time to build up our funds for the extras we want to do. We also had our carpet in the den ripped out and put in hardwood flooring. Additionally, the pecky cypress wainscoting we had in the den has been ripped out and the walls painted over. The room has been transformed! Looks great. September 12, 2008, Kent had a mishap at work and broke his ankle. He's been laid up on crutches since then and has undergone corrective surgery - complete with plate and screws. He was recently put in a walking boot, but is still not full weight-bearing. Won't be for at least a month. He's ready to get back to work. Staying home is great but only a day or 2 - a week tops. After that, things get monotonous and a person kinda gets cabin fever. Plus, our dog, Jacques, was poisoned with anti-freeze (by a stupidly cruel neighbor who did not like strays in his yard) and I had to have him put down. This was in October. It's been a very stressful time for me these past few months.
Well, that's it for now. Hope you all fare well until I post again! Take care and if I don't post before then, I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!
kisses, hugs and much love ~ Jeaux
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