Saturday, July 30, 2005
A Load Off
This morning I asked MPS if she could look after our mother while I was at traffic school on August 6th. She was happy to do it; even considers that it will help her out. That is a huge load off my shoulders. Although I was prepared to handle leaving my mother alone in the hotel room and checking on her during the break halfway through the class, I was extremely anxious about two problems: That she would be disoriented and, despite me leaving notes all over the room for her not to venture outside, postings about when I'd be back to check on her and back after the class, plenty of her favorite prepared food, her usual entertainment materials and the TV on Animal Planet, and, that, as she has been saying, it would give her a chance to sleep as much as she'd like without me bugging her to awaken, she would venture outside, anyway, and not figure out how to get back in; and, that she would fall and I wouldn't discover her fallen self until a couple of hours afterwards. The gods must surely be with me on this one.
I'm letting Mom time her own nap today. She's having a minor swelling problem (for which I gave her 20 mg furosemide this morning) and her joints are beginning to revolt against the quick change air pressure we've been having the last few days. Today seems to be the worst. Even my joints are protesting, despite the fact that I love the rain we're finally experiencing.
She is responding very well to the daily low dose antibiotic Macrodantin. It isn't even darkening her urine (who knows if it's darkening her feces; her feces is always black-just-this-side-of-green from all the iron she takes). She has exhibited none of the side effects. I'm hoping that on the occasion of her next routine doctor's appointment (late October/early November) she will have had 3 months of UTI freedom without body compromise. I continue to feed her pure cranberry juice (diluted with water and sweetened with Splenda®) and yoghurt, in part because one of the side effects of Macrodantin in an increased suseptibility to vaginal infections, since it does not differentiate between "good" and "bad" flora.
As of August 2nd, which is my mother's 88th birthday, we will also be celebrating one year without any medical emergencies. I'm stoked about this landmark. This will be the first year since the fall of 2002 that I haven't had to trot her into ER at least twice a year and we haven't had to endure specialist appointment after specialist appointment and specialist test after specialist test. As well, everything about her health and well being remains stable or has improved. This year has been the essence of graceful aging for her. I hope my skills and caregiving can keep up with her and she continues to enjoy a graceful Ancienthood right up to her death. Over the last few days I've been reviewing all the caregiving horror stories I've heard over the last several years and can't help but feel humbly grateful to What/Whomever we express gratitude when we're not sure what the genesis of our luck is that Mom and I are not adding to that catalogue.
I'm beginning to think that the trick to caregiving is to expect everything, embrace everything and trust my instincts about what kind of embrace each event deserves.
Later.
I'm letting Mom time her own nap today. She's having a minor swelling problem (for which I gave her 20 mg furosemide this morning) and her joints are beginning to revolt against the quick change air pressure we've been having the last few days. Today seems to be the worst. Even my joints are protesting, despite the fact that I love the rain we're finally experiencing.
She is responding very well to the daily low dose antibiotic Macrodantin. It isn't even darkening her urine (who knows if it's darkening her feces; her feces is always black-just-this-side-of-green from all the iron she takes). She has exhibited none of the side effects. I'm hoping that on the occasion of her next routine doctor's appointment (late October/early November) she will have had 3 months of UTI freedom without body compromise. I continue to feed her pure cranberry juice (diluted with water and sweetened with Splenda®) and yoghurt, in part because one of the side effects of Macrodantin in an increased suseptibility to vaginal infections, since it does not differentiate between "good" and "bad" flora.
As of August 2nd, which is my mother's 88th birthday, we will also be celebrating one year without any medical emergencies. I'm stoked about this landmark. This will be the first year since the fall of 2002 that I haven't had to trot her into ER at least twice a year and we haven't had to endure specialist appointment after specialist appointment and specialist test after specialist test. As well, everything about her health and well being remains stable or has improved. This year has been the essence of graceful aging for her. I hope my skills and caregiving can keep up with her and she continues to enjoy a graceful Ancienthood right up to her death. Over the last few days I've been reviewing all the caregiving horror stories I've heard over the last several years and can't help but feel humbly grateful to What/Whomever we express gratitude when we're not sure what the genesis of our luck is that Mom and I are not adding to that catalogue.
I'm beginning to think that the trick to caregiving is to expect everything, embrace everything and trust my instincts about what kind of embrace each event deserves.
Later.
