And For Those Who May Have Wondered...

LauraJUnderwood

Silly Author Person
Joined
Aug 12, 2006
Messages
258
Location
East Tennessee
Back in August, it was learned that my mother had a squamous cell cancer that had grown out of a sore that would not heal. It was located in a rather...well...private part of her anatomy, and she was muchly embarrassed about it, and did not want it made public and did not even want other members of the family to know until she was ready to say something.

I, of course, am generally the person who takes care of my mother through all things medical. Her surgeon said there was nothing to worry about, as he did hundreds of these skin cancer removals a month, and she would be fine...

Well, I am here to tell you that was not the case. The cancer was not the issue. A common cold (or rather a super cold) was.

Mom had put surgery off until she returned from Disney World where she and I and my sister who has MS were going for a long vacation. While riding the buses, there were a lot of people who apparently did not know that it was polite to cover your mouth and nose when you coughed and sneezed. One fellow kept sneezing on my mother, and as a result, when we returned from Disney, she had a bad cold.

I had to call and delay her surgery again, and they thought 10 days was more than enough.

Mom went in for surgery the first week of October. And her surgery was a success, but the problem was she caught pneumonia while in the hospital. What should have been a few days dragged into nearly two weeks of hospital time (where I only got a couple of hours of sleep a night) and then, she had to go into a nursing home for rehabilitation to get her strength back. She has been there over three weeks.

This Friday, she will finally be coming home, and there will still be some adjustments to make. We have to have a health care individual come in and do her therapy, and a nurse to make certain she is getting her medication. We are getting her an oxygen machine and other necessities to keep her from climbing the steep stairs of our over 100 year old house.

It has been a trying time for me as well. Keeping up with work, looking after Mom, dealing with all the rest of the family, taking care of the household...

My writing suffered from all this, as I was unable to do much more than the occasional journal entry or blog.

I am hoping that now that Mom is home, I can get back to my regularly scheduled life.

But there are always changes to deal with, and that which does not kill us makes us stronger as Nietzsche said.

I just have to get my own balance back now. Get writing habits flowing again.

Because my brain will implode with ideas if I don't.

Laura J. Underwood
 
I am so sorry that you and your mother have had to go through all of this. Several years ago, my mother went from a simple foot injury, to surgery, to months in the hospital/nursing home, to coming home in need of pretty much round the clock care. So I know how exhausting -- mentally, physically, and emotionally -- it all is. But I also know that you are very strong. I hope that things improve for you both soon, and that you can get back to the writing before very long. (And while you are taking care of your mother, find ways to take care of yourself.)
 
Thanks, Teresa. I have been trying to stay sane by playing with dolls (yeah, that sounds funny, but I sew and knit for them and it keeps the fingers busy while I am hanging around with Mom.

Good news is she is supposed to come home tomorrow, though at the moment, I am trying to find out where the heck the promised hospital bed, commode chair and oxygen machine are.

They were supposed to let me know something today. I did talk to the after care folks who are going to come to the house to look in on her, but other than that, the people at the senior rehab center are being rather difficult to get hold of, and the person who is supposed to be handling the matter for me is not in her office and not answering her pager. So I have left her a rather terse message on her machine that I need to know something NOW.

We will see if that gets a response.

My mother is afraid of coming home if the equipment is not there. I am convinced she doesn't really need it, but if it makes her feel better to have it, so be it.

Just wish I could get some answers.

Laura J. Underwood
 

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