Past and Future Secrets

My sister A wanted to go out to see mom at 11am; I’m relieving her around 3pm (timing at her request), so I had time to get some shopping and other chores done. I went downtown so I could go to Walmart.

Mom stuff: While at Walmart I picked up some items that mom had requested I get for her eventual convalescence at home; dropped by her house to get her mail; and stopped in at the bank to make sure they had a copy of her POA on file (since she has me signing checks to pay bills while she’s in the hospital). They did not. The process took way longer than I expected; it’s such a rigamarole now. (On the plus side, I got a call after just an hour and a half saying it had been approved, so I’m good to go.)

I passed Sunnycrest, so I stopped in to see if they had those beef sticks for Pip. They did! Just one package, but it’s something.

I did a load of laundry, hit Stewart’s on the way home, baked chicken for the dogs, did the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, and changed kitty litter. (Dear lord, that was a stinky job. My fault because I let it go longer than usual. Lesson learned. Hopefully.)

I started reading a new book and obviously got to visit mom.

Time is warping and I thought today was Wednesday so I took my Trulicity injection a day early. o_O

Temps started out at 59.0(F) and reached 74. At a guess. I hate not being home in the afternoon to check the temp.


Mom Update:

Mom was doing much better today! MUCH better. ( more )

Round 7 of comment_bingo is open for sign-ups!!





( my table back here )

Murderbot: Good ep! ( spoilers )


Resident Alien: Good ep! ( spoilers )

Visited mom again at 11am. I didn’t go downtown, but did manage to get some chores and computer stuff done before I left the house.

I did a load of laundry, the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, and scooped kitty litter. I made it to the library to return and pick-up a book. I started a new book (the first Lily Adler one), watched the current ep of Murderbot, and sent mom another message. I hope she enjoys them when she’s home and sees them.

I picked up my car from the garage this morning when I dropped off Grant. I forgot to mention it in yesterday’s post, but just when I pulled out on the main road to head to the hospital it started acting up. (Thank goodness I leave early to make sure I can find parking. And thank goodness Pip has a used car he can lend me.) It bucked and sent the dreaded ‘reduced engine power’ message, along with the ‘service stabilitrak’ and ‘service traction control’ messages I’ve gotten before. This time Pip replaced the gas pedal, of all things. He said there are two sensors in the gas pedal and they weren’t lining up. It drove well today, so hopefully that’s the fix.

I also haven’t mentioned that a bird, a killdeer, built a nest in our driveway. At first we spotted the male dancing around trying to attract a female. Then the male chased Pip one day and we joked that he might have a nest nearby. Then we saw the female sitting in our driveway forever, and it turns out, they did have a nest in the driveway. Seems like a weird place to build a nest, especially with cats and dogs living here, but what do I know, nature is weird. I got photos of the female and the eggs when she was off the nest one time.

Photos

~*~

Additionally! On the drive to the hospital I pass a house that has a bunch of irises on their front lawn. Solid dark purple and solid pale yellow. They’re gorgeous and they look so pretty together.

Temps started out at 54.1(F) and reached 73.6. It was hazy most of the day. We’re supposed to have more rain tomorrow.


Mom Update:

Mom was much better today. ( not long, but cutting for those who don’t want to read it )

I did not go to visit my mom. My sisters took it in turns today so I could get some stuff done. I’ll take my turn again tomorrow morning.

I had a chiropractic appointment this morning. I hit Walmart while I was downtown and got in a longer walk around the park. I also stopped in at the Feed Bag to pick up the suet Pip forgot (and to reserve two large metal garbage cans for Pip to pick up on Monday; he got one when he got birdseed this past Monday (the task fell to him since I was a tad busy) and decided he wanted more. They’re big enough that I can’t take them in my car. As it turns out, he doesn’t have any more in stock so will have to order them.)

I hit Stewart’s on the way home, returned a book to the library, stopped to check mom’s mail, visited my aunt (since I won’t be available to do so tomorrow; and complained to the social worker about how they do her hair – it’s such a minor thing, but it would be so easy to keep her hair in curls instead of straight and straggly by not using a hairbrush on the curls and I’d like her to look nice, at least, because she has so little dignity left, you know?), and stopped at Sunnycrest again to check on the beef stick status. If you guessed they ~still don’t have them, you’d be right. I’m going to be annoyed if I found something Pip likes and they won’t carry them anymore, or at least regularly.

I did a load of laundry, ran a load in the dishwasher and emptied it, the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, and scooped kitty litter. I baked chicken for the dogs’ meals and fed Pip leftover pulled pork (yes, from the big b-day do a couple weeks ago; mom put it in the freezer) for supper. I did get fresh strawberries at Sunnycrest, so I made biscuits. I had strawberry shortcake for my supper; Pip prefers his biscuits with peach jelly because that’s how his mom used to do it.

(He refuses to eat a biscuit with anything other than peach jelly. It’s very frustrating. You can imagine my shock the first time I made chicken and biscuits for supper and Pip only ate the chicken and gravy and completely refused the biscuit because I didn’t have any peach jelly. Basically a bowl of soup, lol! I had no idea anyone would eat biscuits with ONLY jelly. I mean, I eat my leftover biscuits with butter and jelly, but solely?!! I know now and prepare accordingly.)

The surgeon’s office called today to schedule the removal of the node they found during Pip’s endoscopies. August 11, the day after my birthday, so one heck of a b-day pressie. *g* [I told him when he got home from work and he was like, I'm not having that removed! And I'm like, why not? Apparently he thinks it's not necessary when two different doctors think it is. *shrug* He's going to talk to the doctor himself to get it sorted. He's such a pain in my butt about this sort of thing.]

I finally started System Collapse, watched an HGTV program, and sent mom some messages she'll see when she gets home, in lieu of our usual telephone conversation.

Temps started out at 55.0(F) and reached 82.8. There was a mix of sun and clouds and a breeze, thankfully.


Mom Update:

My sister kept us informed of events as they occurred:

( I did bullet points so it got long )

I planned to visit mom, but since she’s in the ICU and visiting hours don’t start until 11am I had some time to kill. I did not go downtown, but stayed home to do some chores and stuff on the computer.

I did two loads of laundry, the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, and scooped kitty litter.

I typed in edits, coded and posted the smallfandomfest fic I’ve been working on!! It’s Murder, She Wrote crossed over with V (1983). To make it work, I gave Jessica another niece, lol! I read some fanfic and watched some HGTV programs. It still feels really weird to not call mom in the evening to talk about our respective days.

I saw my brother (and his GF) and my sister S (the nurse) while visiting mom. There can only be two at a time in the ICU so we took turns.

I fell again. *head desk* This time inside the house (slipped on a puddle of wet on the floor), but I landed on that same knee I keep falling on and bent that same big toe. It hurt and I swore a lot. And I realized it’s almost the one year anniversary of my first fall when I scraped my knee so badly, pulled every muscle, and cracked my big toe.

Temps started out at 61.0(F) and reached 82.6. It rained all morning, but the sun came out in the afternoon. I got in a short walk with Pip and the dogs when he (they *g*) got home from work. Within a half hour of that the clouds moved in and the temps dropped 12 degrees before it started raining again for a bit.


Mom Update:

Mom was doing pretty well when I saw her. She was so out of it, thanks to the drugs. Her voice was very raspy (because of the tube, which they removed before I got there) (if I wasn’t facing her while she was speaking, I never would have known it was her) and she slurred a bit due to the drugs. Sometimes she forgot what she was saying. She talked about Matlock a lot. *g*

They gave her an epidural for the pain and her nurse (she seemed awesome) said that they were going to keep the epidural in for a few days, and that while it was in she’d remain in the ICU. I’m happy about both; no pain, and great care.

The bad news came later in the evening when my sister S passed on (in the Family Group chat) that the surgeon thinks that my mom may have originally had pancreatic cancer that jumped to the bile duct. She won’t know for certain until the labs come back. I do not fucking want it to be pancreatic cancer. As you may have guessed, I had a knot in my stomach the rest of the evening and didn’t sleep super well, even though I doubled my melatonin to make sure I would fall asleep.

All positive thoughts welcomed.