Nothing new under the sun, just new people having the same human experiences.

Six months ago, my mom underwent an 11 hour surgery to bypass 100% blocked bilateral femoral arteries. She had pre-existing COPD and anemia secondary to stage 3 kidney disease, and experienced hypoxemia during surgery. She came out of surgery with receptive aphasia, difficulty swallowing, stroke-like weakness of all her limbs, bad memory loss and confusion, and had to go on dialysis. She spent over a week in ICU, then another on progressive care, then entered a nursing home rehab where she stayed 3 months and got covid, (omicron variant), which didn’t get real bad, but set her back some in her mental function where she had improved. She got off dialysis, and has lost weight and her diabetes is so much better she no longer needs meds for it. She was supposed to immediately start home health physical therapy when she got home, but because she had lost faith in her Nurse Practitioner and wanted to switch to another provider, the NP she was established with wouldn’t sign the home health orders. So a whole month went by before she even got started, and she did another 3 day stint in the hospital because of a very low heart rate, which turned out to be due to her Metroprolol. Now she is off that, as well as several other meds. She was on way too much during rehab. Her hair is falling out from it. So today I cut it short in a style I have wanted her to try for years. It looks nice on her!

Meanwhile, it became clear we have to bring her from her home in WV to VA where my two brothers and I all live near each other. I have divided my time between my home and hers 2 out of every 4 weeks for six months now and we need help from my brothers. I need to be home with my hubby. She will stay in the home of my younger brother, and I will care for her there during the day. My older brother had a significant medical event a few weeks ago himself and spent time in ICU, and is still on very restricted activity, and medical leave from work. He’ll help when he is able again.

So we are in that stage of life. Mom is getting around physically pretty well (slow, a bit unsteady) but memory is slipping more and more. She scared me yesterday by going in the kitchen and frying bacon!!! (I took over). So she regained this mobility, but with enough mental decline to make that mobility a little risky. She will walk into the bathroom with her walker, and walk back without it. She’s fine most of the tine, but prone to sudden dizziness from Menieres. But then, she was using the walker when one of those dizzy spells caused her to fall, so maybe it diesn’t make much difference. She has had about 5 falls in the past 3 months, but no broken bones, just some pretty bad skin tears. (Darn blood thinners!)

We have an appointment to establish care with a new doctor down in VA on Wed. (But the way things are going, we might be raptured before then!)

I know I am not keeping up the latest developments for you guys these days, but I also know we are all still eagerly listening for that trumpet!

If you’re like me, you can hardly stand to even read headlines anymore anyway! What a cesspool, huh?

Come, Lord Jesus!