Happy Memorial Day to you and yours – I hope this weekend has provided some restful time for you. Thank you to all the men and women who have served our great nation – to those that have paid the ultimate price of their lives or the lives of their loved ones-we appreciate you and have not forgotten what the price of our freedom is.

It’s been a bit nutty here – but what is new really?

I’ve typed up a huge long story about mom….which I’ve moved to the bottom of the page….because it’s long and heavy…..not because other things are more important, but because it’s long and heavy – if you want to have the lite and airy….read the beginning part of this post…for the heavier parts….they are at the bottom…

Garden Update

The amount of rain and chilly days has been amazing to me! There hasn’t been any sort of continuity or predictability at all with the weather in the four summer’s I’ve been sharing this home with Joe. I suppose I never really noticed it because I’ve never really had to pay too much attention to the weather – yeah in the winter I did, but not so much the summer. I did manage to get 2 rows (four by 25 feet) in on Wednesday, but I tried to step out there Saturday, and sank up to my ankles in mud. So, I mowed and mulched around the perennial row instead.

I still have Zinnias, Cosmos, Dahlias and Glads to put in….when the ground gets a bit less soggy….

The sweet peas are struggling mightily. The trees and grass are certainly lush and green, several things are struggling from the harsh winter we had – we lost our Dogwood tree and a hazelnut tree. It’s possible we lost two azaleas, but we might leave them in to see if they rebound next year. We will see what we have for a fruit crop this year, we were hit by several windy, cold, wet and even hail one day while the blooms were sitting on the trees – goodness!

Camping Trip

We took the annual trek over to Winthrop. Other than the situation with mom (see below), the trip was relaxing. It was a bit chilly and rainy over there, but our new trailer was amazing – kept us warm and dry, lots of room for company – I even took showers….it was so heavenly to have the comfy trailer. Our old one was great too, and I do miss it, but the new one is super deluxe! So. Much. Room. Cooking….sleeping….visiting….and the amount of things I could take in this camper. The bunk house is very handy for hauling my clay stuff! I made a few things while we were over there, and even managed to get them back in one piece. Now I need to figure out how to fill up the rest of the kiln – with little to no time to do much clay, that should be interesting indeed!

We took naps, slept in, did some fishing, tried to sit around the campfire – got rained out several times, visited my favorite spot a few miles above the campground down the logging roads, I call it Babooshkas place. It’s clearly an old settlement where someone once had a home – a little grove of lilac trees, rose bushes and other trees. Joe and I have made up an elaborate story of who used to live there and what life was like once upon a time. We are looking forward to next years visit already. Hopefully my son can go next time. We certainly had a great time last year as a group, but he just couldn’t get away this year. We missed the grands, but had a great time one-on-one with Lily Bean.

Speaking of Lily Bean

She’s doing great – my daughter calls her a typical toddler, she certainly has a bit of attitude like her mama lol – but she’s doing well. My daughter is having to fight with the insurance company about all the different therapy she needs and the different devices she needs for mobility and strengthening, but she’s making it through just fine. It’s been enjoyable to watch her grow and become her own person – I suppose that goes for both Lily and Natasha.

Mom

Mom went into the hospital May 13th. It was so odd….she had come back from a short visit with my sister to Orcus Island, she was clearly exhausted and worn out. She had fallen while on her trip, she fell the morning of the 13th, then the evening of the 13th she called us around 8 telling us she couldn’t move. They took her in via ambulance, she was responsive and chatty, but clearly tired. It ended up she had another UTI. Then she continued to faint while in the hospital, they still have no idea why her heart rate is dropping when she stands up. She’s on medication for it, but who knows what’s going to happen.

I wish I could say it was a surprise that she ended up in the hospital, but as soon as she told me she was taking a trip with my sister I knew what was going to happen. It’s not uncommon for her to become overtired on outings, and to go on one for several days, it takes a lot out of her.

The timing was right on par with Murphy’s law also….she went in on the 13th, we had plans of a family camping trip to Winthrop where we were supposed to leave the 18th. We – being, my daughter and her family, as well as Joe’s brother & sister-in-law. This doesn’t happen very often – where we all leave at the same time – they are the backup support people for when Joe and I leave, so it was going to be tricky. I try to be sure someone is close by when we leave. We were going to cancel the trip, several times we chatted about moving the trip, shortening the trip, but mom insisted we go. I went to see her every day before we left, she kept insisting we go. One one hand, the nurses were rude and dismissive, I talked to them about chatting with her social worker at the state level, then the attitude changed, one of the nurses nearly fell over herself explaining mom’s chart to me….it was so odd. After chats with mom, we decided to go ahead with our trip. So we left on time, Wednesday, with no word about how much longer she would be in the hospital. I kept tabs on her via the patient portal, and phone calls.

I kept asking questions about what they planned on doing with her, how much longer were they going to keep her, what were they finding…..each time they said they didn’t know, they said they would send her home to be with family. I told them they couldn’t just send her home to have her fall again, that they needed to get to the bottom of things. I told them family wasn’t equipped to help her, they needed to send her to a facility for rehab until they could figure things out. It was a bit of a shit show really.

Friday, we received a phone call from one of the social workers – telling me that they don’t allow family members to just drop off their family so they could go on vacation. I hung up on her….honestly…there’s not even a response that I had energy to give that lady….. My sister thought it would be okay to send my mom’s brother over to get her and take her home with no resolution about her blood pressure. Last time he went to get her from the hospital in July, he ended up leaving her home alone….so I called the hospital and had another conversation with them – this time they told me that they didn’t know when she would be discharged. I called her state social worker who suggested I dispute the discharge plans. By the time Saturday evening rolled around we had another conversation with a different social worker from the hospital who was much kinder and explained things a bit more. By the time Sunday rolled around, they said they had figured things out with her blood pressure and she was ready to be home alone, so I asked my daughter to go pick her up.

My daughter is amazing, she went to the hospital to pick up gi-gi, get her something to eat and pick up her medications. She took her home, got her settled in and called me to give me an update. It is so nice to not to have to carry this burden alone. It’s not only been my daughter, there’s also Joe and the in-laws, Bruce & Jill, and even my aunt has given some support. My older sister is in the wind some place, my little sister runs a business and lives an hour and a half away, so she’s often times too busy.

Mom’s caregiver was there Monday with her, and we came home and stopped in Monday afternoon to check in on her. I stopped to see her Tuesday after work, and then spent a good deal of time with her Wednesday, did her dishes, helped was her hair and took out the trash. Her helper came again this Saturday, she has doctor’s appointments Wednesday that I will take her to. And time marches on….

I’m exhausted in the sense that I have no idea how to fix the situation, or what to even to to try and make things better for mom. I’ve hit road blocks with the funding for a care facility, and frankly I’ve hit roadblocks with moms attitude about a care facility.

I better get a move on…I need to bring mom in for a test at the doctors this morning, her helper did a home test on her Saturday, and found a UTI….off we go.

Until next time my friends – hugs to you.