Feel Like Complaining

My mom has been in a rehab facility now for almost two weeks. Therapy is going well and she has minimal complaints; really ;-) Overall I think it's a good facility and she could probably be released in 2-3 weeks. But if I'm dead of exhaustion by then who knows what will happen to her. I have two brothers but only one that lives in town. We split going to her house everyday to water and pick up mail. I'm not really sure why we have to go everyday but we do. It's a really nice mobile home community and I don't think any of the over-55 gangs are out looting mailboxes. At first I was happy to pick up whatever she needed to make her more comfortable but now I'm so tired of making the trip 3xweek. It's not like she lives out of town or anything but it's still getting to be a grind. And then I visit her 6xweek. I don't go Friday's, well.....just because. The lady I work for sucks the life out of me and by Friday I have nothing left to give. Plus the las...

My mom recently spent a week in the hospital. She's at a rehab facility now to gain her strength back before she goes home. To say that she is not a pleasant person most of the time is an understatement. I would not want to be her nurse because it's difficult enough just being her daughter. To give you an idea of how my week went and some of the things she says, listen in to her conversations: She finally was able to eat broth and jello five days after surgery. Mom: "the broth is way to salty and the jello was too sweet, don't these people know anything. I've cut way back on my salt and I'm bloated up enough as it is. And now they're giving me insulin because my sugars are too high and they're giving me sugary jello?????" She was finally able to eat more solid food. Mom: "The rice cereal was lumpy and tasted like baby food. It was way too much food and they know I've gained weight and I can't eat all of this. I don't need all that ...

I am not trying to make light of a situation that is touching so many lives today but I had coffee with a friend a few weeks ago and this topic came up. We have known each other for several years and know of each others struggles. My friend's husband has Parkinson's Disease, liver disease, heart problems and diabetes. He is pretty much bed ridden now because he is too weak to do much else. My friend has suffered for years with Fibromyalgia, and more recently has had brain surgery to remove a tumor. I guess it doesn't really matter what ailments they have but both of them haven't been able to work for years and now rely on disability, and VA benefits. My family has had it's own struggles, not health, but financial. We were saying that so many people now have to make choices about their needs and wants and have to make certain things a priority. We laughed and said that we have been doing this for years; it's nothing new. I do nothing different than I have for a l...

Another day that didn't go exactly as planned. We were supposed to visit my mom in the hospital and my two brothers would meet us there. Mom called and said she didn't feel up to company; had a bad night. Her BP was low and had a fever. So I called my older brother and he called my younger brother who was on his way into town. My younger brother stopped by for a quick visit which was nice, haven't seen him since last Fall. I told him to go up to see mom anyway because she wanted to see him since he drove all the way here. So, all dressed up and nowhere to go, I put on my yard work clothes and dug into the dirt. We got a lot accomplished and finally finished the first go around of weeding. Now we'll just have to keep up with it. We put in a funny little garden of zucchini and beans. It's a very small area so we hope it will grow. Now my husband and daughter are upstairs fixing me dinner, which is all I wanted this year. I've never really written about my own mot...

It's 1:34 am. I'm tired but can't sleep. My mom had emergency surgery late this afternoon for a rupture appendix. I went to the hospital but she stayed in recovery longer than anticipated so I had to come home. I did talk to her on the phone for a bit around 10:00 and she sounded awful. I thought it would make me feel better if I could at least talk to her before I went to bed but it didn't. I went to bed but was too wired to sleep. Got up and took a swig of Vodka to calm my nerves. (This is a very rare, but desperate measure to get some sleep). I did sleep for about an hour, but that's it. Husband is home from work early and he's snoring, another reason to meet my computer for a late night tryst. I'm sure I will have to work tomorrow (today) but don't really want to. Working for an elderly lady is hard when there's another elderly lady who needs me more. But I need the money so that's just the way it is. Mother's Day will probably be spent i...

My daughter and I were driving to the store this afternoon and as we got closer to an intersection we could see this guy with a folded up cardboard sign. He was with a woman, maybe his wife, but who knows. He started at the corner, opened up the sign which read: Laid off Two Kids Need Rent Money They then put on their sad face and started walking very slowly down the sidewalk toward us. I suppose when they get so far they turn around and repeat. The sympathetic part of me feels guilty when someone is staring me right in the face asking for help. But then I looked ahead at the other corner of the intersection and there is another guy holding a sign facing traffic coming in the opposite direction. The sign says the same damn thing and is made out of the same white cardboard and written with the same marker. Are you kidding me? I look in the side mirror to see how far away the couple was because I wanted to ask them if the person working the other corner is their kid because it's an a...

I like to buy Easter candy...after Easter. I mean half-off, how can you beat that? I bought candy for my daughter for Easter and she doesn't share, so my husband and I have to resort to thievery while she's at school to get any candy. While buying groceries last week, I bought a couple of Cadbury w/caramel eggs, just for me. I contemplated giving one to my husband but wasn't committed to it yet. I hid them in the fruit basket because I knew no one would look there. Friday night my daughter went to work with my husband for the first half of his shift and I was settling in to have my favorite dinner....popcorn. You just haven't lived until you have a large bowl of popcorn with butter and Johnny's popcorn salt. Oh, but don't forget to add the M&M's or any other kind of chocolate. That's what I wanted the eggs for. Before I put the pan on to pop the corn I dig around in the oranges and apples to find my eggs. They're not there. I can feel my pulse in...