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PierceSleet of Ember
Dec. 11th, 2018 09:22 pmIt's been awhile, huh. There's just been too much happening of a complicated and not amusing nature. This will be a long and boring catch-up, mostly for my own benefit. First we had two days of Wol. It wasn't really a lot of trouble, since he just wanted to be fed and watered and to receive our attention for various conversations. There were many traumatic incidents from the distant past that he did NOT bring up, for which I was grateful. We had thought of places to take him, if he was interested in exploring the town, but as it turned out, he could hardly walk. He had trouble getting up and was unsteady when he did, so anywhere that required more than a few steps of walking was not an option. I feel I owe present-Wol something for the sake of the friend we had in past-Wol, long ago. Really it feels as if that person has vanished, but if what he needs is a comfortable place to visit occasionally, we can do that for him.
Friday morning, I got up early and drove off to take my mother to Wound Care. I left the Sparrowhawk behind to fix breakfast and get Wol on the road. Wol agreed to drop the Sparrowhawk off at my mother's place on his way home. The Sparrowhawk arrived all right after buying Wol lunch in mid-trip, but he said Wol's driving was not of the best. I don't plan to entrust him to our doped-up friend again!! Wol mentioned a total of five heavy-duty medications that he's on, and there may be more that he didn't mention. He probably shouldn't be driving at all. The more I saw of him, the more I felt that his doctor must be an idiot.
My mother called me three times on my way down. I ignored the first two. I don't like to talk on the phone at 80 mph. Or even 75. But the third time I was off the highway, so I picked up to see what was going on. Mother thought she was calling my Aunt Bernadine and couldn't figure out how it turned out to be me. I told her to wait till I got there and we'd figure it out. Bernadine had called her on her other phone, and she somehow picked up the cell phone instead and hit "call back." So of course she got me, since I was the last to call on her cell. The phones become more and more of a mystery to her. I retrieved Bernadine's number and put it in her contacts, but this is of dubious utility because she can't remember what her contacts are or how to find them. She introduced me to a staff member as Queenie, and to her friends at lunch as "my sister." She knew neither one was quite right, but couldn't access the correct designation. And so it went. She felt bad about it and said "I think something terrible has happened to my brain." She blamed it on not having had her usual post-breakfast nap. I made sure she had a good lunch. She slept in the car. Wound Care was uneventful. Her leg continues to improve, although there's still a significant little raw patch. I kept her well wrapped up, and she didn't get a chill. With the seat warmer on and a wool blanket wrapped around her, she slept most of the way home too. Sure enough, she was more coherent when we got home. It's just a mystery. She fades in and out.
We spent the night at Deb's house and enjoyed her excellent healthy cooking, visiting with them, and a comfortable bed. After breakfast we went back over to Mother's. I had several things in mind that I wanted to help her with, but all we really had time for was eating lunch with her and doing a tiny bit of clean-up around her room. We tried to put new rechargeable batteries in her hearing aids, but the Duchess got a brand that doesn't work with her charger, so no luck there. She was tired and falling asleep, so we said good-bye and started home about three.
Sunday, I played in the VERY impromptu Christmas pageant/cantata. It was the usual mad scramble, and Unitarian Christmas is a travesty anyway, if you ask me, so I just went with the flow and had fun. We've hauled out all the Christmas ornaments and are trying to organize them and improve on our storage methods, so there are boxes and oddments all over the living room. We have only nine days left to do all our Christmas stuff before going back to supervise Mother's TAVR procedure on the 21st. The Duchess is trying to talk me into coming for the pre-op appointment on the 19th, but that would be horrendously too much. I'm thinking about it. The Duchess has decided to take Mother to her PCP tomorrow to see if there's any simple reason for the increased confusion lately. I doubt that anything will turn up. Tonight is the second night in a row that Mother has walked away from the phone in the middle of a conversation. Yesterday, she answered her other phone and started talking to a friend, forgetting that I was still on the cell phone. Tonight she put the phone down and started reading something. When I got her attention, finally, she said "Oh, I forgot I was talking to you."
I've been holding up pretty well, but the anxiety is starting to creep up on me as the holidays approach. Maybe I'll bake something tomorrow. "A chocolate a day keeps the dementors at bay."
Friday morning, I got up early and drove off to take my mother to Wound Care. I left the Sparrowhawk behind to fix breakfast and get Wol on the road. Wol agreed to drop the Sparrowhawk off at my mother's place on his way home. The Sparrowhawk arrived all right after buying Wol lunch in mid-trip, but he said Wol's driving was not of the best. I don't plan to entrust him to our doped-up friend again!! Wol mentioned a total of five heavy-duty medications that he's on, and there may be more that he didn't mention. He probably shouldn't be driving at all. The more I saw of him, the more I felt that his doctor must be an idiot.
My mother called me three times on my way down. I ignored the first two. I don't like to talk on the phone at 80 mph. Or even 75. But the third time I was off the highway, so I picked up to see what was going on. Mother thought she was calling my Aunt Bernadine and couldn't figure out how it turned out to be me. I told her to wait till I got there and we'd figure it out. Bernadine had called her on her other phone, and she somehow picked up the cell phone instead and hit "call back." So of course she got me, since I was the last to call on her cell. The phones become more and more of a mystery to her. I retrieved Bernadine's number and put it in her contacts, but this is of dubious utility because she can't remember what her contacts are or how to find them. She introduced me to a staff member as Queenie, and to her friends at lunch as "my sister." She knew neither one was quite right, but couldn't access the correct designation. And so it went. She felt bad about it and said "I think something terrible has happened to my brain." She blamed it on not having had her usual post-breakfast nap. I made sure she had a good lunch. She slept in the car. Wound Care was uneventful. Her leg continues to improve, although there's still a significant little raw patch. I kept her well wrapped up, and she didn't get a chill. With the seat warmer on and a wool blanket wrapped around her, she slept most of the way home too. Sure enough, she was more coherent when we got home. It's just a mystery. She fades in and out.
We spent the night at Deb's house and enjoyed her excellent healthy cooking, visiting with them, and a comfortable bed. After breakfast we went back over to Mother's. I had several things in mind that I wanted to help her with, but all we really had time for was eating lunch with her and doing a tiny bit of clean-up around her room. We tried to put new rechargeable batteries in her hearing aids, but the Duchess got a brand that doesn't work with her charger, so no luck there. She was tired and falling asleep, so we said good-bye and started home about three.
Sunday, I played in the VERY impromptu Christmas pageant/cantata. It was the usual mad scramble, and Unitarian Christmas is a travesty anyway, if you ask me, so I just went with the flow and had fun. We've hauled out all the Christmas ornaments and are trying to organize them and improve on our storage methods, so there are boxes and oddments all over the living room. We have only nine days left to do all our Christmas stuff before going back to supervise Mother's TAVR procedure on the 21st. The Duchess is trying to talk me into coming for the pre-op appointment on the 19th, but that would be horrendously too much. I'm thinking about it. The Duchess has decided to take Mother to her PCP tomorrow to see if there's any simple reason for the increased confusion lately. I doubt that anything will turn up. Tonight is the second night in a row that Mother has walked away from the phone in the middle of a conversation. Yesterday, she answered her other phone and started talking to a friend, forgetting that I was still on the cell phone. Tonight she put the phone down and started reading something. When I got her attention, finally, she said "Oh, I forgot I was talking to you."
I've been holding up pretty well, but the anxiety is starting to creep up on me as the holidays approach. Maybe I'll bake something tomorrow. "A chocolate a day keeps the dementors at bay."
