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with apologies for TMI
August 29, 2013
My mom is in the hospital again. She is actually in for cellulitis; her legs are a mess.
But that is not the half of it.
When I was talking to her Tuesday night, she also dropped the bomb that she had
yet another occurrence of passing out on Sunday evening, and this this time she
managed to split her coconut. I was pretty appalled at the general overview, but once she
started going into detail I almost lost it. It happened after my dad went to bed, so
she couldn't get him. Once he takes out his aids he is completely deaf, and once he is
asleep an earthquake can't wake him. She ended up crawling and scooching all the
way from one end of that big house to the other, pounding on his door with her
feet, and still not being able to rouse him. Weak, covered in blood, crawling, calling,
in vain, for help...this is not a mental image I want to have of my mother.
When she finally did call 911, it didn't do a whole lot of good...the little burg they live
in only has one ambulance, and it was already out--Mom said the dispatcher was
having kittens because she didn't know what to do! She finally called the fire chief
and he told her to call the next town over, for goodness sake, and get their
ambulance. And to send the first responders over to check her out in the meantime.
When she was finally able to get my dad up, he was in a sleep-stupor and couldn't
wake up properly--he thought she had been shot!
She ended up spending the night in the ER, getting four staples in her
calp, and coming home, to be further denied her rest by the steady stream of
phone calls wanting to know what all the ruckus was the night before. One-horse
towns tend to be like that.
So Tuesday, when she went to town for her oncology appointment and for a
follow-up with her regular doctor re: the head wound, she mentioned, for the
umpteenth time, that she was having problems with her legs...and they finally
listened. Only they waited too long, and she ended up with a damned infection, so
they had to put her in the hospital. Not what she wanted, but frankly? I am relieved
when she's there, because I know she is getting the care she needs.
She was in a foul mood and Dad was there interrupting her on Tuesday, but I called
last night and he had stayed home, so she was able to have a good chin-wag. I spent
an hour on the line with her, just shooting the shit and keeping her occupied
because she's bored. She said her head only hurts if someone touches that spot, and
they have gotten a lot of the fluid out of her legs with diuretics and elevation, so she
is feeling better. As for the infections, they are still trying to determine what exactly it
is so they can prescribe appropriately, but she is receiving proper care for it in the
meantime.
She wanted to gab...told me all about the house my oldest brother bought. He is still
in our hometown--you couldn't get him out of there with dynamite--but he is
moving from the west edge of town to the east. (since we grew up on the north
edge, and he spent 20 years living in the house across the street from the one we
grew up in, this will make the third "edge of town" out of four that he's lived on!)
And since the east edge is the Iowa river, that means he is riverfront. With a
gorgeous frontage and multiple garages and lots of space, and not too many
neighbors, which will make him very happy. That river means a lot to him, and he
already owns a summer cabin on it, a few miles downstream. Apparently this house,
while being fairly nice, still has lots of things that could be done to make it nicer.
That is important to him; his homes are his hobby, it seems like, and he had done
about all there was to do to the old one.
Not happy with my weight right now--it seems to bounce up and down from 296 to
299 and never really progresses. I have been eating less, and trying to eat healthier,
(Did I mention I completely gave up eating candy?!) and not eating anything after
dinner, and exercising more...but it isn't getting me anywhere.
I really need to work on portion sizes, but when I started looking into it I got
seriously bummed out, because recommended appropriate portion sizes are SO tiny.
And I know from experience that as soon as I start getting caught up in that whole
measuring-weighing-judging thing, it is a short and slippery slide into disordered
eating of another stripe. I start going into uber-control mode, then fatigue and
disillusionment will set in and I will start resenting the whole thing and end up
spite-eating myself back up the scale. Hmmm. I wish I didn't know me so well.
On the bright side, the candy thing it going pretty good. I haven't had any in nine
days or so, and I do miss it a little, but not as much as I thought I would. It is
making the whole "eat nothing after dinner" thing a lot easier, I have to say. I
haven't even had any dessert since last Saturday, when I had a half-cup of light ice
cream. At least I know I'm being kinder to my blood sugar levels and my poor
pancreas...but things like that, which are really a tough give for me, should result in
some weight loss, dammit! And I don't know that I can credit any personal
willpower for it, anyway--more likely it is the fact that my thyroid levels are getting
back to where they should be, so I am not constantly craving carbohydrates.
And don't even get me started on what happens to my digestive system when I eat
"sensibly". I am a person who, for some reason, does not get any benefit in the
short run from a diet rich in fiber. Part of the general "fed-upedness" that I always
wind up with is that eating high-fiber foods combined with limiting fats, dairy, and
quantity in general means constipation. Which means feeling disgusting most of the
time and having to fall back on laxatives. I can only stand that for so long before I
stop reaching for the dulcolax and start reaching for the strawberry malts.
Reading: The Pines of Lory (1901), by John Ames Mitchell. From Manybooks: A man and
woman, neither old, are by a mischance left on an island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where they are
forced to abide for some months. Through a peculiar combination of circumstances they find a house
ready prepared for their occupancy, and the story is then concerned with the fortunes and misfortunes of
the two until they are rescued--if rescue it can be termed. Link
"Man and woman stranded on island/in wilderness" genre. Just started it; not sure what I think yet.
Listening: Eve 6, The Goo Goo Dolls, Green Day, The Airborne Toxic Event, Foster The
People, Warren Zevon.
At Random:
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