A Few More Gray Hairs Today
Good lord....I was driving home from my mother's a little bit ago and I thought, "oh damn, I missed Kristi Rose's Christmas show on Radio Free Nashville." Then I looked at the clock and realized that it wasn't almost midnight like it felt---it was actually only 4:00. So I had time to get home, google the generic names of her prescriptions to match up with the half-assed discharge instructions I got from the nursing home and still get to listen to Pulp Country.... Ahhhhhhhh......
So I sit here listening to her wonderful picks as I try to absorb the day....or shake it off.....I don't know which. Ernie and I met at the nursing home at 2:00.....went through the paperwork, etc. Then I asked about how the home health care (RN/OT/PT) would work. They sent me down to the office to ask somebody. She met me in the hallway and announced that Carle Home Health was so busy they didn't know if they could send anybody out. All I could do was stupidly say, "Ever?" She said eventually. I looked down at my mother in the wheelchair....looked up and said, "well.....she's not going to let me wheel her back upstairs so I guess it doesn't matter..." Inside I was yelling "FUCK FUCK FUCK....NOW YOU TELL ME?" but hell.....there we were. So we rolled off to the parking lot. She actually did really well getting in and out of the car. We got her in. We got her oxygen all hooked up and tried to get her settled. Ernie ran to the store and the hospital supply place. Then at one point she said she wanted to test her blood. I gave her the things and she just looked at it and said in a little voice, "I don't know how." I swallowed.....tried to will my blood pressure back down and showed her how and then wrote out the instructions. Then I wrote my phone number out and told her I had to go. Her homecare worker is supposed to be there in a little while to stay with her for awhile and then get her into bed.
One glass of wine down....I think I'm a tiny bit calmer. Listening to Fats and Kristi Rose is helping.
I told Leo and Owen they could open their presents to each other on Christmas Eve because that's why my sisters and I always did. Of course.....I meant Christmas EVE. Owen, on the other hand, in the true spirit of his Aunt Judi, is trying to convince me that Daddy should get me up at 6:30 tomorrow morning so they can open their presents then....
Just a dusting of snow on a hydrangea....
oh, and here's the sock on the floor that the boys have been documenting....they think the ghost of Judi is moving it occasionally..... Merry Christmas all.....