Setbacks

Mom has suffered a setback after her hip surgery. While walking back from the bathroom (with the nurse) they heard a loud “pop”. Then my mom couldn’t really bear weight on her left leg and was in pain.

X-rays revealed a fracture and slight displacement of part of her femur up near the hip. It’s like the knob on the outer portion of the femur (greater trochanter). It does not appear to be in the ball socket or the pelvis, and I guess it isn’t in the new lot replaced hip part.

But what exactly this means, I don’t know.

What I do know is Mom had to be taken from skilled nursing back to the hospital. Because of her pain, they keep her in the ER overnight. This morning sometime the ortho docs will see her and I should get more information.

I’ll be heading down either tonight or tomorrow afternoon once I figure out what’s going on from the hospital.

Naturally mom doesn’t have her phone or anything with her– she left all of that at the skilled nursing facility. They’ve gathered up all her stuff for me to pick up when I can because we don’t know when she’ll be back to skilled care.

This is all incredibly stressful and I can’t really do anything to help her so I feel powerless. And sad. And frustrated. And like crying.

The only bright spot in all this is that this happened while she was in skilled nursing. So she was in the best possible location for instant and proper reaction. If she had been home on her own and this happened– I shudder to think about it.

I’m back

Back in Minneapolis. Back at work. Back to a semblance of a routine.

Mom is on her way to recovery. She’s doing physical and occupational therapy every day and is staying at a skilled nursing facility. This is to build her strength and to keep her safe until they think she can be on her own at home. All in all, I’m grateful to the docs at the hospital for allowing her to stay extra days so that she qualified for skilled nursing through Medicare. It was the right call.

While I was down in Iowa I also had to take moms dog to the vet. He is generally ok, but most of his teeth were rotten and had to be pulled. I had to make the call to do it as he is an older dog and there are risks with anesthesia. But he came through just fine and looks like he’s feeling better.

His breath is better that’s for sure!

Other things I did involved reorganizing moms kitchen to place everything that she needs within reach. No bending too far, or reaching too high. It was a bit of a task, but it’s more functional now.

In addition I got mom a smart phone. I added her to my cell plan and got her an iPhone. I did this mainly so that she can use Siri to text and to call. It can be used in an emergency too. Naturally mom couldn’t remember any of her passwords for gmail or Facebook or her Apple account, so I had to do a lot of sleuthing and resetting of codes.

But she’s all set up now- on both iPhone and iPad. And she’s able to use Facebook!

I may regret the texting thing, though. Now she’s texting all the time.

Furr-iday

And Valentine’s Day to boot!

Mom Update

So, mom’s Parkinson’s has made her recovery a bit more challenging.

Although she’s perked up some after sleeping all morning, there are ongoing concerns.

The doc came in and spoke with me about mom’s fogginess and pain meds. But the doc is also concerned about her walking and unsteadiness with her Parkinson’s. Plus she tends to shuffle which can put too much stress on the new hip.

So, mom will be staying at the hospital an additional night- which then qualifies her for more prolonged care through the insurance. Which is necessary as she will be going to a “skilled nursing facility” within the hospital network. This is necessary so she can have 24 hour care and also become stronger/steadier so she isn’t a risk to herself.

This is a bit of a change from what I was initially expecting and planning for.

But at least it’s a plan, and I’ll be more comfortable with her receiving more prolonged care.

Mom Update

So, mom’s Parkinson’s has made her recovery a bit more challenging.

Although she’s perked up some after sleeping all morning, there are ongoing concerns.

The doc came in and spoke with me about mom’s fogginess and pain meds. But the doc is also concerned about her walking and unsteadiness with her Parkinson’s. Plus she tends to shuffle which can put too much stress on the new hip.

So, mom will be staying at the hospital an additional night- which then qualifies her for more prolonged care through the insurance. Which is necessary as she will be going to a “skilled nursing facility” within the hospital network. This is necessary so she can have 24 hour care and also become stronger/steadier so she isn’t a risk to herself.

This is a bit of a change from what I was initially expecting and planning for.

But at least it’s a plan, and I’ll be more comfortable with her receiving more prolonged care.

Trying not to worry

Mom’s surgery went well and the doc said everything looked great the next day. She was fairly peppy on Tuesday and up/talkative. Getting around ok.

Today though is different.

She had an “episode” this morning when they got her up to go to the bathroom. She was foggy and was having trouble making herself walk. Like she was disconnected. She was mentally aware of where she was and what was going on, but she evidently was having trouble motivating herself to move, etc.

I wasn’t here for that so all of this has been relayed by the nurse in duty.

They think it might be opioid related but they aren’t sure. So she’s off the opioids and now on Tylenol. And although I’ve seen her walk a bit today, and she was able to talk to me ok (no signs of stroke) she is just suuuuuper sleepy.

Right now she just keeps sleeping. Maybe everything caught up to her and her body needs sleep. I just hope this was medicine dosage related and she’ll come out of it.

But I worry it’s related to the anesthesia. Or her Parkinson’s. Or a combo of factors. I don’t know.

I hope she perks up later and seems more awake and normal. I’m also glad they didn’t kick her out of the hospital on Tuesday like they usually do.

More later.

Surgery update

I’m in Iowa because mom is having(had) her left hip replaced. She’s more machine now, than woman. Twisted and ….

But seriously, she’s becoming bionic.

So far it’s now two hips, a knee, and an ankle. This surgery went well. Much better than the last time. She’s quite perky and seems to be doing well.

The good news is that she has negotiated an extra day stay in the hospital so I’ll have another day of the hospital making sure she’s ok before I have to negotiate getting her home.

I’m just glad that so far things have gone very well.

Woofy Wednesday

It’s midweek– time for a hump day treat.

Well THAT’S not very hydrodynamic.

Tinder Fail.

So evidently I’m banned from Tinder for violating some term or condition.

The weird part is: I only used Tinder twice and never engaged anyone on it.

Hrm.

I was also never notified of any violation, given any specifics about said violation, or given any opportunity to contact them about it. I discovered this when I redownloaded the app and tried to log in.

This just all seems weird to me.

I mean, I’m on Grindr, scruff, GROWLr, and other sites and haven’t ever been banned. Or even been placed on time out. (Except for Facebook, where evidently it constitutes hate speech when you call someone out on their hate speech).

Anyway, I’m a bit stumped on what exactly it is that I did. I did the whole swipe left-right thing, and I sent guys maybe a handful of messages in total. These were just like I do on other apps where I say such horrible things like “Hi, how goes it?” Or some such.

Because Tinder requires a phone number, I guess I’m SOL for any future forays onto that particular dating app. Probably not a huge loss, but still….

Furr-iday

Yet another week done where I managed to it kill anyone. Let’s celebrate with hot menzzz!

Me likey short gym shorts…..