Wednesday, June 20, 2012

The briefest of updates

Mom continues to be up and down, and in spite of making actual progress with her walking, is now swooning and willfully collapsing while loudly declaring she is going to throw up / have a heart attack / die on the spot.

She fluctuates between being afraid she is dying to wanting to die to being cheerful and rather chipper. Rumor has it she even flirted with a handsome young doctor the other day. (I would assume her teeth were in that morning.) 

Short mom anecdote: taking a 2 minute wheelchair break in the middle of walker-lurching down the hall today, Mom looked up at the two lovely, young, earnest therapists who are accompanying her and asks "Why do I feel so fucking awful?"

"Sylvia" one of them cautioned, "Remember what we said about the cursing?"

Mom: "That it might upset some of the other residents?" They nod, pleased.  Mom takes a perfect thoughtful pause. Then adds: "Fuck 'em."

Tomorrow they transfer her to the sub-acute rehab facility where hopefully an equally earnest and helpful staff will continue to harangue and cajole her into reasonable shape to go home within another few weeks.

Because I don't known how much more of this shit I can take.

Also in honor of Wordless Wednesday (even though I am clearly being wordy) a picture of flowers:


These are from the grounds of place where Ethan goes to summer (day) camp in the city. Taken because I spent some time yesterday running around like a headless chicken and picking up and dropping off overdue paperwork with schools and camps and doctor's offices all over the Upper West Side.

I really have no excuse for the need for this. In sprite of having been a successful and highly organized producer for many years, I apparently now possess the executive functioning skills of your average fruit bat.

Whether this is actual ADD or just my aging peri-menopausal brain remains to be seen.

To quote my eloquent mother: Fuck it!


8 comments:

  1. Flowers are good. Lots of love xxx.

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  2. BWhahahha your mom and my mom would have gotten along famously. One of my mom's last hospital stays was in October of last year. While in there there was a young good looking nurses assistant who did the menial tasks of patient care like bathing patients, potty duty. Well mom got smitten on him, majorly. The day he gave her a bath she called me immediately afterwards. He apparently washed her hair first then completely stripped her. Soaped her up and then ran water over her out of the bucket thing to rinse her off. He then dried her by toweling her off and pushing her sheets under her, thereby soaking up the excess water and pushing remaining off the bed. Went to the other side and finished pulling the wet sheets off and drying her, then pulling dry sheets from the other side. She was IN LOVE. The day she came home he brought her to the car and she told him they were going to go out dancing, he laughed and said anytime. God I miss her.. I hope your mom makes that corner of deciding to get up and get on with life. It can be so hard on us when they are stuck between the 2.

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  3. For the record...multi-tasking everything for everybody..doesn't make you fruit-bat minded. It shows courage, steadfastness and a willingness to be present, whatever it takes. That being said...I'm glad you stopped to snap the pic of the hydranga's. I live in the NW and they're one of my favs.

    It's important to remember...when you see beauty (the flowers) it's a moment of seeing inside yourself.

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  4. I like your mother and her cursing. :)
    P.S. The picture is stunning!

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  5. Still chuckling at your mom's response to the helpful aides.

    ;)

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  6. Your mom's response was appropriate. Hang in there.

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  7. You are amazing. Your mom? My new (virtual) best friend.

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  8. My prayers are with you and your mom. Also the flower picture is beautiful!

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I am so sorry to have to turn word verification back on, but the spam-bots have found me - yikes!