Happy Memorial Day

I want to start with anniversary greetings to Lori and Jim who were married on this weekend in Statesboro, Georgia ~ 35 years ago!!!!!

I do have a Mom update, she is now being walked to the bathroom, which is an improvement.  However, Amy just texted me saying that her oxygen levels plunged and she had increased water weight.  The doctor is adjusting her diuretic now.

When Mom was placed on oxygen, it made an immediate difference with the blueness of her hands.  However, the blue color comes and goes, which means the oxygen is not the cure all that I thought it might be.

I go and visit Mom daily and Amy goes daily and take Loki.  Lori visits with Snoopy and I have to tell you.......Mom and her roommate LOVE the dogs.  Oh well.

Love, Leslier

Monday Update

Bennett got me up at his usual time because he was starving ~ and we are getting alot of rain.  It is quiet because now Bennett is asleep, Melanie is still asleep and Amy and Loki are asleep.  Somehow that is just wrong.

I am waiting on the delivery of a hospital bed and oxygen for Mom.  She finally decided the king-sized bed was doing nothing for her and she really likes being able to keep her head up when sleeping.   I straightened out her closet and dresser drawers and ONLY took out 1 garbage bag for Goodwill.  

Amy got Mom a stained glass piece so we made some changes to her window display:

Lori made the one on the left, Amy bought the middle one and Mary Discher made the one on the right.

Amy and Lori found a new rug for the screened porch:

And we put the old one onto the deck:

My back bed is doing real well ~ the perennials are doing great for their second year{

our one rose bush 

And on the family side, here two pictures that Mike sent me from Prom on Saturday night.  

Jesse with a bridesmaid

Caroline and her date

Maddie and Caroline (Amy did not recognize Caroline, and she really has grown up in a year!!!!)

Much love, Leslie

The New Money Making Proposition: Or How I Am Learning to Love Our Emergency Services

If you are a doctor or nurse or just handy with medical stuff (speak the lingo or play one on TV) you should open an Emergency Room.  

Amy and I carted Mom to the Urgent Care here in Durham and were referred to Duke's Emergency Room because Urgent Care was not equipped to take care of Mom.

So we went to Duke's ER.  It is so nice, they offer FREE valet parking if you are going to the ER.  That was a perk.

Here it is, Monday about 2pm.  And it is packed.  Hmmm.  They triage Mom right away because Urgent Care called the ER and said Mom was coming.  

Then we sat in the ER waiting room.  Mom finally got into the ER room at 5:30pm.  

The staff were very nice.  At about 2am, the doctor showed me how to work the television so I could change the channel. I had finally seen a full cycle of Bizarre Food.

I did not bring any cash ~ but I did have two bottles of water and some crackers.  Mom was sleeping. 

They did a chest X-ray, a CT scan.  They kept trying to draw blood but could not get a vein.  

At 1 am I met the night time doctor and we were still waiting for a bed upstairs.  The night nurse told me that Duke has 900 beds and they were all full.  That was the hold up.  They were diverting cases because they had no where to put them.

They finally got a vein on her left shoulder for a port and then around 3 am an ultra sound nurse came in with an ultra sound and found a vein for a bigger port to pull the blood.  That was pretty cool to watch.

The exams showed that mom had two pockets of blood internally and that was  swelling in her belly.  She was also retaining fluid.  Her extremities were Navy blue.

They said she did not have a UTI nor pneumonia.  But they were not sure what was going on.

They also talked about her heart: Mom has afib and congestive heart failure (which is pretty normal for elderly people, especially the ones who don't want to move around or exercise).

They put in a catheter and Lasix in an IV to try and pull the fluid.  They put her on oxygen because no one could get a reading on the oxygen in her blood.

The oxygen was great.  The blue in her extremities cleared up!

Amy brought me a huge care package at 11am - a roast beef sandwich and a coke and magazines and candy.  She was terrific!!!!!!!!

Amy brought me another sandwich at 5:30pm.  What about Mom you ask?  Well, she was sleeping and they did not want to give her anything in case they had to do surgery.

Then, at 7pm, miracles of miracles we get a room and a bed on the cardiac unit!!!!!

I finally went home at 8pm.  Lori came and picked me up.

Mom's care manager called me this morning.  We had a long chat.  We talked Home Health Care, oxygen....all the basics.  We talked about what we wanted.  

We want Mom to come home at her baseline ~ which is to be able to walk with her walker around the house.  Not the most difficult of goals.

We also will keep her on oxygen or have a compressor for when she needs it.

She did tell Lori and I this afternoon during our visit that this new thing called a catheter was great because she did not have to get up and walk to the bathroom anymore.  

I told her she wasn't coming home with a catheter and that she would be walking to the bathroom.  I guess I am now written out of the will.

We were treated very well at Duke ~ I have no complaints.  

Hopefully Mom will be home in a couple of days.  

Just wanted to let you know what was going on and maybe how to start a new career.

Love, Leslie

Could Be Worse

Let's see.....not much has been going on, but there have been moments of interest.

Who to start with?  Let's start with Zoe.  We text and last night she was working on her last paper "two more pages and I'm done!!"  I told her that it was hard to believe that she is now a sophomore and she said: "apparently I had enough credits that I technically already was!  I have one more class to take after next semester and I'll be done with a minor."  I neglected to ask what the minor was in, I never had a minor (I don't think having two much fun counts).  So good job Zoe! 

I decided to finish planting our tomatoes and thus was going down the back steps with a box of tomatoes and hydrangia and boom, boom, boom I somehow tripped and fell down the stairs.  No one was there so I picked my self  up and tested my fingers ~~ everything moved, no blood, some stiffness...so I planted the tomatoes and mulched.  Decided to save the hydrangia for another day.  Six days later all is well.  I do have a pretty big bruise on my left elbow.  Moral of the story, I need to be more careful on the stairs.

Mom is having a weak spell.  She seemed to be much better last night.  Yesterday morning Melanie got me up about 5 am to go outside so as I was coming down the stairs I noticed a strobe like light from Mom's room.  I figured it was her flashlight signaling she needed help. So I let Melanie out and went to Mom.

She needed help.  She was half in and half out of her LazyBoy chair that was in the reclining position.  The flashlight was plugged into the outlet by the door and making me crazy with the flashing.  I tried to unrecline her chair.  Nothing.  I turned on the light by her chair. Nothing.  I went to turn on the overhead light.  Nothing.  I go and get Amy.

Amy comes and helps me get mom up and safe and then goes and checks the fuse. Lights!!!  So now I am poking around and find that Mom had dropped, poured her ginger ale into the surge protector next to her chair and it shorted everything out.  Joy joy joy.

So Amy got me a temporary surge protector so I could work the chair.  Got mom up and in the bathroom and back in bed.  Then on to Amazon for a new surge protector and I got an acrylic tray to put over the surge protector and try and prevent this from happening.  

I do have all the good tops for the cups ~ I really don't want to go to sippy cups that they use for children.  

We are also only using Cetaphil products on Mom.  I believe I have gotten all the fancy soaps, lotions, etc but I am sure something will show up.  Why are we doing this? Something is making her itch and Amy and I are determined to stop this.

On a happier note, I hope all my sisters who are Moms have a Happy Mother's Day!  You deserve it.

Love, Leslie