Thursday, August 19, 2004
The Girls are exhausted, curled up on the couch...
...having spent the day trying to keep track of my comings and goings. When I returned at home for the day late this afternoon I was exhausted, too, and hurt all over. I took a 1.5 hour nap, both Girls snugged close to me to make sure, I imagine, I didn't trot out again.
I just finished entering the results of the BMP for which blood was drawn yesterday. If you're interested, you can access it at Blood Test Draw Date: 8/18/04. Nothing spectacular about this one. It indicates Mom is stable and doing well within her own parameters. Her BUN and BUN/Creat ratio are "high", but normal, for her, as I discovered a few days ago when I did an abbreviated comparison of her CBC and BMP results from 2000 forward.
Mom's release date has been moved to Saturday at 1100, for which I am both pleased and grateful. I was gnawing my mental fingers to the bone wondering how I was going to negotiate rush hour traffic, either going or coming or both, and try to schedule the Valley visits to people Mom wants to see before we head back up the mountain. All these people are working on Friday, which meant our schedule was beginning to look like an episode of The Twilight Zone, and I was wondering how and where we were going to be able to land in case she had a bowel accident, needed to stop and hydrate before continuing, needed to eat, needed a nap, etc.
It has taken a great deal more effort on my part than I imagined to get her toilet fitted with a riser that will suit her shrunken frame and short legs. Finding one pound hand dumb bells in a rural town was also a challenge. None of the typical chain stores (Target, Walmart and K-Mart) had them. One of the in-town sporting goods stores told me there was no such thing (yes, I corrected him). I finally found them in Prescott Valley. I found the perfect toilet riser at the location I should have thought to try in the first place, Prescott's long time independent pharmacy, the one place where I've been able to get all kinds of obscure supplements, products and equipment when all the other pharmacies (all of them chain pharmacies) were unable and/or unwilling to accomodate us. On Tuesday I began the odyssey of finding the right riser at "official" medical supply businesses. Through that day and today I purchased and returned three, one to each of the medical supply businesses, two of them recommended by the hospital here in Prescott (figures, doesn't it). The pharmacy at which I was finally successful today had the perfect style, secure and exactly the right height, out on the floor ready to go, allowed me to open the box and inspect and measure the equipment, volunteered to come out to the house and help me install it for free if I had trouble (it was very easy to install so this wasn't necessary, but their offer was in direct contrast to the other three businesses specializing in medical supplies who offered installation "for a fee") and assured me they would take it back under any conditions if it didn't fit my mother (the others all waffled on this, saying they would take it back as long as it wasn't used, which, considering the type of equipment, isn't unreasonable except that the local, independent pharmacy didn't consider prior use an automatic cancellation of return policy). It was, as well, the least expensive of all the risers I tried. Luckily, I can tell from how it sits for me whether it's going to sit well for my mother.
I also spent some time laying in food staples that have either spoiled or through which I've eaten my way since August 1st, the day I took her down the mountain to the hospital. I bought interesting gifts and cards for the two staffs at the nursing home who have been Mom's excellent recuperative team within which she has flourished, and for her roommate who looked after Mom, as she was able, and turned out to be a wry delight with whom to share a room.
It is with much pleasure that I contemplate having an extra day to clean (which, of course, I put off, not being the world's most enthusiastic cleaner) and move things around for Mom's convenience. The nursing home is going to issue a prescription for continued out-patient physical therapy and is doing the research into Home Health Care here in Prescott, thank the gods. Their discharge representative is extremely helpful in all aspects of discharge and, much to my surprise, anticipated and had already negotiated filling most of my requests. The few I had which aren't typical (i.e., blood test results since the last I received) are being handled with enthusiasm.
Even after the nap (before which I should have probably dosed myself with ibuprofen but was so tired I forgot) I still ached. I suspect this is unresolved tension from the last three weeks settling in all those odd areas of my body, including my brain, that have been moving at top speed without any relaxation since Mom and I took this turn in the path of our shared lives. I'm sure it will resolve itself once we settle in to our old/new routine back here at home.
Despite the enormous tension of having her primary medical care based 2.5 hours away, I've made a firm decision not to alter this situation. I'm not at all interested anymore in trying to find suitable medical management up here. The non-alternative medical community in Prescott is much too full of itself and its "seller's market" status to be respectful, wise and helpful to us (and, as I understand, to lots of other people).
I'm seriously considering writing a letter to the hospital here detailing exactly how much money this community denied itself, in my mother's case, by puffing out its chest, refusing to factor in my mother and exercising its asshole "seller's market" status. Right off the bat, they denied the money from what could have been a lucrative emergency room visit, a three day hospital stay, three neurologist salaries, one PCP salary, numerous radiologic, electronic and blood tests, hospital staff salaries, nursing home profit and salaries for a two week stay, food service profit, the city services I would have used up here running our home which I didn't use during the days I was in the Valley, half of all my gas bills, almost all my coffee-and-food-on-the-run bills, pharmacy profit, I probably would have rented some movies up here if I had been staying up here, I certainly would have gone to the theater to see a couple of first run movies during Mom's in-house hospital and skilled nursing facility stays, I haven't been to our typical grocery or Costco in three weeks where I certainly would have been spending money if all Mom's recent medical care had taken place up here, I even had the oil changed and some routine maintenance done on our cars in the Valley during the last three weeks because it was more convenient since I was leaving here so early and arriving back so late. On the days I was here I was busy making up for the days I wasn't here, including zoning out from the constant up-and-down of the last three weeks. How incredibly foolish Prescott's non-alternative medical community is, thinking they've got it made. Their hubris cost them and the surrounding community close to, I imagine, a couple tens of thousands of dollars over the last three weeks. Yep, they definitely need to receive a letter from me and, I think, the local paper needs to receive a copy.
Tonight I'm sitting back and taking stock of what's been happening over the last three weeks in our conjoined lives. I'll probably stop taking stock shortly, watch a movie on TV and drink some hot chocolate to relax and settle me into an unalarmed sleep.
I can't say that I haven't enjoyed the trips up and down the mountain. Last night I rode up with the rain and it was glorious. Tuesday I was accompanied by the most spectacular sunrise and sunset. Every driving morning, heading out before sunrise, I've reveled in the courteous, professional skills of the bulk of my fellow companions on the road at those hours, the suppliers and distributors in their delivery trucks and semis. In opposition to what most commuters and non-professional travelers think, these paid, attentive drivers are the safest on the road.
I'm such a lucky one, living this life with my mother, and I've been especially lucky within the last three weeks. All there is left to say, to the Essence of All, to every spec and string of existence definitely within and seemingly without myself, is thank you, thank you, thank you. My spirit is zinging and singing with gratitude and appreciation.
Later.
I just finished entering the results of the BMP for which blood was drawn yesterday. If you're interested, you can access it at Blood Test Draw Date: 8/18/04. Nothing spectacular about this one. It indicates Mom is stable and doing well within her own parameters. Her BUN and BUN/Creat ratio are "high", but normal, for her, as I discovered a few days ago when I did an abbreviated comparison of her CBC and BMP results from 2000 forward.
Mom's release date has been moved to Saturday at 1100, for which I am both pleased and grateful. I was gnawing my mental fingers to the bone wondering how I was going to negotiate rush hour traffic, either going or coming or both, and try to schedule the Valley visits to people Mom wants to see before we head back up the mountain. All these people are working on Friday, which meant our schedule was beginning to look like an episode of The Twilight Zone, and I was wondering how and where we were going to be able to land in case she had a bowel accident, needed to stop and hydrate before continuing, needed to eat, needed a nap, etc.
It has taken a great deal more effort on my part than I imagined to get her toilet fitted with a riser that will suit her shrunken frame and short legs. Finding one pound hand dumb bells in a rural town was also a challenge. None of the typical chain stores (Target, Walmart and K-Mart) had them. One of the in-town sporting goods stores told me there was no such thing (yes, I corrected him). I finally found them in Prescott Valley. I found the perfect toilet riser at the location I should have thought to try in the first place, Prescott's long time independent pharmacy, the one place where I've been able to get all kinds of obscure supplements, products and equipment when all the other pharmacies (all of them chain pharmacies) were unable and/or unwilling to accomodate us. On Tuesday I began the odyssey of finding the right riser at "official" medical supply businesses. Through that day and today I purchased and returned three, one to each of the medical supply businesses, two of them recommended by the hospital here in Prescott (figures, doesn't it). The pharmacy at which I was finally successful today had the perfect style, secure and exactly the right height, out on the floor ready to go, allowed me to open the box and inspect and measure the equipment, volunteered to come out to the house and help me install it for free if I had trouble (it was very easy to install so this wasn't necessary, but their offer was in direct contrast to the other three businesses specializing in medical supplies who offered installation "for a fee") and assured me they would take it back under any conditions if it didn't fit my mother (the others all waffled on this, saying they would take it back as long as it wasn't used, which, considering the type of equipment, isn't unreasonable except that the local, independent pharmacy didn't consider prior use an automatic cancellation of return policy). It was, as well, the least expensive of all the risers I tried. Luckily, I can tell from how it sits for me whether it's going to sit well for my mother.
I also spent some time laying in food staples that have either spoiled or through which I've eaten my way since August 1st, the day I took her down the mountain to the hospital. I bought interesting gifts and cards for the two staffs at the nursing home who have been Mom's excellent recuperative team within which she has flourished, and for her roommate who looked after Mom, as she was able, and turned out to be a wry delight with whom to share a room.
It is with much pleasure that I contemplate having an extra day to clean (which, of course, I put off, not being the world's most enthusiastic cleaner) and move things around for Mom's convenience. The nursing home is going to issue a prescription for continued out-patient physical therapy and is doing the research into Home Health Care here in Prescott, thank the gods. Their discharge representative is extremely helpful in all aspects of discharge and, much to my surprise, anticipated and had already negotiated filling most of my requests. The few I had which aren't typical (i.e., blood test results since the last I received) are being handled with enthusiasm.
Even after the nap (before which I should have probably dosed myself with ibuprofen but was so tired I forgot) I still ached. I suspect this is unresolved tension from the last three weeks settling in all those odd areas of my body, including my brain, that have been moving at top speed without any relaxation since Mom and I took this turn in the path of our shared lives. I'm sure it will resolve itself once we settle in to our old/new routine back here at home.
Despite the enormous tension of having her primary medical care based 2.5 hours away, I've made a firm decision not to alter this situation. I'm not at all interested anymore in trying to find suitable medical management up here. The non-alternative medical community in Prescott is much too full of itself and its "seller's market" status to be respectful, wise and helpful to us (and, as I understand, to lots of other people).
I'm seriously considering writing a letter to the hospital here detailing exactly how much money this community denied itself, in my mother's case, by puffing out its chest, refusing to factor in my mother and exercising its asshole "seller's market" status. Right off the bat, they denied the money from what could have been a lucrative emergency room visit, a three day hospital stay, three neurologist salaries, one PCP salary, numerous radiologic, electronic and blood tests, hospital staff salaries, nursing home profit and salaries for a two week stay, food service profit, the city services I would have used up here running our home which I didn't use during the days I was in the Valley, half of all my gas bills, almost all my coffee-and-food-on-the-run bills, pharmacy profit, I probably would have rented some movies up here if I had been staying up here, I certainly would have gone to the theater to see a couple of first run movies during Mom's in-house hospital and skilled nursing facility stays, I haven't been to our typical grocery or Costco in three weeks where I certainly would have been spending money if all Mom's recent medical care had taken place up here, I even had the oil changed and some routine maintenance done on our cars in the Valley during the last three weeks because it was more convenient since I was leaving here so early and arriving back so late. On the days I was here I was busy making up for the days I wasn't here, including zoning out from the constant up-and-down of the last three weeks. How incredibly foolish Prescott's non-alternative medical community is, thinking they've got it made. Their hubris cost them and the surrounding community close to, I imagine, a couple tens of thousands of dollars over the last three weeks. Yep, they definitely need to receive a letter from me and, I think, the local paper needs to receive a copy.
Tonight I'm sitting back and taking stock of what's been happening over the last three weeks in our conjoined lives. I'll probably stop taking stock shortly, watch a movie on TV and drink some hot chocolate to relax and settle me into an unalarmed sleep.
I can't say that I haven't enjoyed the trips up and down the mountain. Last night I rode up with the rain and it was glorious. Tuesday I was accompanied by the most spectacular sunrise and sunset. Every driving morning, heading out before sunrise, I've reveled in the courteous, professional skills of the bulk of my fellow companions on the road at those hours, the suppliers and distributors in their delivery trucks and semis. In opposition to what most commuters and non-professional travelers think, these paid, attentive drivers are the safest on the road.
I'm such a lucky one, living this life with my mother, and I've been especially lucky within the last three weeks. All there is left to say, to the Essence of All, to every spec and string of existence definitely within and seemingly without myself, is thank you, thank you, thank you. My spirit is zinging and singing with gratitude and appreciation.
Later.
