odd holidays
It's been some odd holidays.
My mom has had an odd limp since March. The general practice place had given her a few different rounds of antibotics, thinking it might be an infection of the bladder or somesuch. They sent her to a colon doc. He didn't find anything but grade one hemorrhoids. (Which are supposed to be typical of her age group.)
The colon imaging place had an interesting interior. I've shown pics of the place to folks and they all ask if it's a spa or something else. It had low muted colors, and very few angles. There was a lot of curved corners. It's Gemini Digital Imaging in Mesquite Texas on Galloway, if you want to go check out their interior.
So the GP place finally sent her to a neurologist. He sent her out for an MRI. The MRI place was off Beltline and for the life of me I can't remember the name of the place right now. It also had an interesting interior. There was this suspended wavy glass thing over the ceiling that gave off a 'soft' feel to the place.
Anyway the MRI showed a tumor between the 6th and 7th vertebrae. So the neurologist sent her to a neurosurgeon. One of the nuero docs, (can't remember which) found the story of all the different things the GP thought it was, until he saw the MRI. Then he didn't think it was so funny anymore. He was a bit upset that they hadn't sent her to a neurologist sooner.
She saw the neurologist the week before last (Dec 10-16) then the MRI place, then the neurosurgeon on Monday the 18th. He wanted to do the surgery a.s.a.p. (a.s.a.p. is short for "as soon as possible", for all those English as a second language folks.) So it was scheduled for Friday the 22nd.
So Tuesday she went to the hospital for CT, Xrays and more MRI scans. I did lots more sketching.
Wednesday, she went out and bought some stuff she might need in the hospital. I thought about boarding the dogs, but didn't get time to call the vets before closing.
Thursday it was back to the neurosurgeon and then to radiology so someone could mark her back. I did more sketching.
Friday it was surgery day. We had to be there by 5 am so arraigned to get there at 4:30. I usually feed the animals (we had three cats and two dogs) so I tried to fix up stuff for the cats. Lots of water, and I took the top off the plastic container that holds their dry food. So that they could just knock it over and feed themselves. Mariah and Runt are good at that.
It's just my 'not the sharpest tack in the box' uncle and me at home right now. My sis went to visit a friend over the holidays. She'd already paid for the tickets and everything.
My dad has been in Spokane WA, caring for his senile, ornery dad. No one can stand my Grandfather, he's never played well with others, and now that he's gotten Alzheimer's he says he doesn't need any help, he can still drive if he wants to and doesn't mess his pants. We're all telling lies about him. He will only obey my dad (sometimes) and has acted up for another family member who tried to help care for him. My dad's more responsible step-brother died a few years back of a heart attack. His other step-brother, well, lets just say that I'm surprised that he never took up being a drifter for an occupation.
So the two of us went with my mom to the hospital.
I went to the same day admittance with my mom, my uncle waited in the waiting room. She had the funniest admitting guy. His name was Dennis. Very funny friendly guy. The different techs came in and introduced themselves. The anesthesiologist was a good listener.
My mom has had bad experience with anesthesia before. During the c-section of my sister's birth, she saw that "tunnel of light". We don't know if her heart stopped or what. But I do know that when they brought her out, the nurses were like "Where did we put the baby?" They had to look around for my sister. She'd been placed in tray. She was still all dirty and hadn't been cleaned up yet.
The other tech (and I don't remember his speciality) was talking about how they use needles to stimulate the nerves and muscle (make them clench up and such) so that they know where they are cutting. So that they can back off when they need to. I was like "Hey, I've seen something like that on Nova!" Turns out he works for a division of Biotech, which is the firm that was profile in Nova doing that sort of stuff. Small world.
Surgery was supposed to start at 7 am and was estimated to last about 6 hours. They wheeled her off shortly before 7.
Did you catch the supposed to?
About 15 minutes later some lady calls me (and I don't even remember her name now) My mom had a "a-fib" right when they were putting her under. (I cannot spell the longer term) So they pulled her out, put her back in the presurgical room, and called for a cardiologist.
We waited.
The tech came by with the equipment first. She set stuff up. I could see the lettering on the screen and it was pretty plain and old style looking for computerized equipment.
Not that I thought anything of that. I play around with computer quite often (I'm hoping to be a web page designer or multimedia person someday) and I just figured that you don't need fancy texting for a heart sonogram program, right?
Well he comes by and asks the tech where the new one is. It's not in yet. He's a little fussed over that, and she mentions that it was just ordered.
Soooo not what I wanted to hear.
Well he cleared my mom for surgery. He didn't think that the "a-fib" was bad enough to put off surgery, as he felt that the tumor was a more pressing (pun not intended) issue. They added something to her IV bag (well actually they gave her a new one) with medication that was supposed to help with the a-fibbing.
He did say that it could have been brought on by stress and/or nervousness. I wanted to tease my mom, "What are you trying to do, woman?! Cause trouble?!" But she doesn't take sarcastic humor very well.
So a bit before 11:30 they wheeled her off once more.
Someone from the OR was calling every couple of hours to let me know that thing were going good and that the surgery would be a few more hours yet. I told her that I was aware that the surgery would take as long as necessary and joked that I didn't want them to attempt a rush job of it. She only called me back about 7:30 to let me know that my mom was out of surgery and that the neurosurgeon was up on his way to talk to us.
The neurosurgeon said that things went well. Everyone keeps asking me how large the tumor was. I didn't ask. It was out and that was all I cared out. The nuerosurgeon did say, "Whew, that was a big tumor." Not sure how that rates the size of the thing. He was leaving for the holidays but his assitant was going to be checking on my mom.
Which made me wonder if he'd cut his Christmas vacations plans a bit to do this surgery.
Mom was in surgery from 11:30 to 7:30. Whew.
We'd been told by a desk person to wait in the third floor surgery waiting room for a call to tell us when my mom was transferred to the NCCU. So my uncle and I waited. And waited. I went to another floor with a manned desk and was told to go back to the third floor. A little while later I went to another floor to ask how I would find out about my mom. This desk girl was a bit rude. I told her that my mom was in the Neuro Critical Care Unit, and she just pointed and snapped at me to go back to the third floor waiting room.
So I wandered around a bit until I found the NCCU and my mom had been there for a while. It was actually past visiting hours but they let us see her. She was a bit out of it. She was slurring her speech. She was asking when she was going home and are we leaving yet? We spent a few minutes there and then went home.
Waiting room life was interesting. There was an elderly couple with a younger teen watching Tombstone on a portable DVD player. When one of the characters cussed, the lady glared at the man, who merely said "I'm sure it's not nothing she's heard before." LOL!
I got to do a lot of sketching. With all the different visits to different specialists' places, I managed to finish out one sketchbook and start another.
Food at the cafeteria was a bit expensive. I'll pack a lunch next time.
Didn't try the coffee in the waiting room. They only had the non-dairy creamer there. Never been able to stand that stuff. Powdered milk is better than that stuff. Yeah, I'm a dairy lover, so sue me. If I ever get an acre of land or more, I'll get a pet cow.
When we came home, whew was it smelly! My mom's dog Eugene is slightly senile. So he's kept in a large cage where he can go endlessly around in circles to his heart's content without knocking over stuff or getting tangled in cords and whatnot. He will tangle himself up and not realized that he's tangled up, and he'll fall right over and attempt to keep moving. Thus pulling on whatever he's tangled in.
Eugene had made a terrible mess in his cage. Cedar incense worked really well at removing the odor. I hadn't used it because I didn't like the scent, but now I'm glad that I kept the cedar incense. I called up several of my relatives and my mom's friends. While I was on the phone my cat Thomas came over and did that stalk-legged walk with his tail swishing so that I'd know he was mad.
So I went to bed late, missed out on a lot of sleep. I think that's why I got sick. I saw my mom on Saturday, but not since. I got sick and haven't gone to go see her as I don't want to give her what I might have.
Or it could be stress. ERgh.
Well going to bed now.
(^_^)/
BEM
My mom has had an odd limp since March. The general practice place had given her a few different rounds of antibotics, thinking it might be an infection of the bladder or somesuch. They sent her to a colon doc. He didn't find anything but grade one hemorrhoids. (Which are supposed to be typical of her age group.)
The colon imaging place had an interesting interior. I've shown pics of the place to folks and they all ask if it's a spa or something else. It had low muted colors, and very few angles. There was a lot of curved corners. It's Gemini Digital Imaging in Mesquite Texas on Galloway, if you want to go check out their interior.
So the GP place finally sent her to a neurologist. He sent her out for an MRI. The MRI place was off Beltline and for the life of me I can't remember the name of the place right now. It also had an interesting interior. There was this suspended wavy glass thing over the ceiling that gave off a 'soft' feel to the place.
Anyway the MRI showed a tumor between the 6th and 7th vertebrae. So the neurologist sent her to a neurosurgeon. One of the nuero docs, (can't remember which) found the story of all the different things the GP thought it was, until he saw the MRI. Then he didn't think it was so funny anymore. He was a bit upset that they hadn't sent her to a neurologist sooner.
She saw the neurologist the week before last (Dec 10-16) then the MRI place, then the neurosurgeon on Monday the 18th. He wanted to do the surgery a.s.a.p. (a.s.a.p. is short for "as soon as possible", for all those English as a second language folks.) So it was scheduled for Friday the 22nd.
So Tuesday she went to the hospital for CT, Xrays and more MRI scans. I did lots more sketching.
Wednesday, she went out and bought some stuff she might need in the hospital. I thought about boarding the dogs, but didn't get time to call the vets before closing.
Thursday it was back to the neurosurgeon and then to radiology so someone could mark her back. I did more sketching.
Friday it was surgery day. We had to be there by 5 am so arraigned to get there at 4:30. I usually feed the animals (we had three cats and two dogs) so I tried to fix up stuff for the cats. Lots of water, and I took the top off the plastic container that holds their dry food. So that they could just knock it over and feed themselves. Mariah and Runt are good at that.
It's just my 'not the sharpest tack in the box' uncle and me at home right now. My sis went to visit a friend over the holidays. She'd already paid for the tickets and everything.
My dad has been in Spokane WA, caring for his senile, ornery dad. No one can stand my Grandfather, he's never played well with others, and now that he's gotten Alzheimer's he says he doesn't need any help, he can still drive if he wants to and doesn't mess his pants. We're all telling lies about him. He will only obey my dad (sometimes) and has acted up for another family member who tried to help care for him. My dad's more responsible step-brother died a few years back of a heart attack. His other step-brother, well, lets just say that I'm surprised that he never took up being a drifter for an occupation.
So the two of us went with my mom to the hospital.
I went to the same day admittance with my mom, my uncle waited in the waiting room. She had the funniest admitting guy. His name was Dennis. Very funny friendly guy. The different techs came in and introduced themselves. The anesthesiologist was a good listener.
My mom has had bad experience with anesthesia before. During the c-section of my sister's birth, she saw that "tunnel of light". We don't know if her heart stopped or what. But I do know that when they brought her out, the nurses were like "Where did we put the baby?" They had to look around for my sister. She'd been placed in tray. She was still all dirty and hadn't been cleaned up yet.
The other tech (and I don't remember his speciality) was talking about how they use needles to stimulate the nerves and muscle (make them clench up and such) so that they know where they are cutting. So that they can back off when they need to. I was like "Hey, I've seen something like that on Nova!" Turns out he works for a division of Biotech, which is the firm that was profile in Nova doing that sort of stuff. Small world.
Surgery was supposed to start at 7 am and was estimated to last about 6 hours. They wheeled her off shortly before 7.
Did you catch the supposed to?
About 15 minutes later some lady calls me (and I don't even remember her name now) My mom had a "a-fib" right when they were putting her under. (I cannot spell the longer term) So they pulled her out, put her back in the presurgical room, and called for a cardiologist.
We waited.
The tech came by with the equipment first. She set stuff up. I could see the lettering on the screen and it was pretty plain and old style looking for computerized equipment.
Not that I thought anything of that. I play around with computer quite often (I'm hoping to be a web page designer or multimedia person someday) and I just figured that you don't need fancy texting for a heart sonogram program, right?
Well he comes by and asks the tech where the new one is. It's not in yet. He's a little fussed over that, and she mentions that it was just ordered.
Soooo not what I wanted to hear.
Well he cleared my mom for surgery. He didn't think that the "a-fib" was bad enough to put off surgery, as he felt that the tumor was a more pressing (pun not intended) issue. They added something to her IV bag (well actually they gave her a new one) with medication that was supposed to help with the a-fibbing.
He did say that it could have been brought on by stress and/or nervousness. I wanted to tease my mom, "What are you trying to do, woman?! Cause trouble?!" But she doesn't take sarcastic humor very well.
So a bit before 11:30 they wheeled her off once more.
Someone from the OR was calling every couple of hours to let me know that thing were going good and that the surgery would be a few more hours yet. I told her that I was aware that the surgery would take as long as necessary and joked that I didn't want them to attempt a rush job of it. She only called me back about 7:30 to let me know that my mom was out of surgery and that the neurosurgeon was up on his way to talk to us.
The neurosurgeon said that things went well. Everyone keeps asking me how large the tumor was. I didn't ask. It was out and that was all I cared out. The nuerosurgeon did say, "Whew, that was a big tumor." Not sure how that rates the size of the thing. He was leaving for the holidays but his assitant was going to be checking on my mom.
Which made me wonder if he'd cut his Christmas vacations plans a bit to do this surgery.
Mom was in surgery from 11:30 to 7:30. Whew.
We'd been told by a desk person to wait in the third floor surgery waiting room for a call to tell us when my mom was transferred to the NCCU. So my uncle and I waited. And waited. I went to another floor with a manned desk and was told to go back to the third floor. A little while later I went to another floor to ask how I would find out about my mom. This desk girl was a bit rude. I told her that my mom was in the Neuro Critical Care Unit, and she just pointed and snapped at me to go back to the third floor waiting room.
So I wandered around a bit until I found the NCCU and my mom had been there for a while. It was actually past visiting hours but they let us see her. She was a bit out of it. She was slurring her speech. She was asking when she was going home and are we leaving yet? We spent a few minutes there and then went home.
Waiting room life was interesting. There was an elderly couple with a younger teen watching Tombstone on a portable DVD player. When one of the characters cussed, the lady glared at the man, who merely said "I'm sure it's not nothing she's heard before." LOL!
I got to do a lot of sketching. With all the different visits to different specialists' places, I managed to finish out one sketchbook and start another.
Food at the cafeteria was a bit expensive. I'll pack a lunch next time.
Didn't try the coffee in the waiting room. They only had the non-dairy creamer there. Never been able to stand that stuff. Powdered milk is better than that stuff. Yeah, I'm a dairy lover, so sue me. If I ever get an acre of land or more, I'll get a pet cow.
When we came home, whew was it smelly! My mom's dog Eugene is slightly senile. So he's kept in a large cage where he can go endlessly around in circles to his heart's content without knocking over stuff or getting tangled in cords and whatnot. He will tangle himself up and not realized that he's tangled up, and he'll fall right over and attempt to keep moving. Thus pulling on whatever he's tangled in.
Eugene had made a terrible mess in his cage. Cedar incense worked really well at removing the odor. I hadn't used it because I didn't like the scent, but now I'm glad that I kept the cedar incense. I called up several of my relatives and my mom's friends. While I was on the phone my cat Thomas came over and did that stalk-legged walk with his tail swishing so that I'd know he was mad.
So I went to bed late, missed out on a lot of sleep. I think that's why I got sick. I saw my mom on Saturday, but not since. I got sick and haven't gone to go see her as I don't want to give her what I might have.
Or it could be stress. ERgh.
Well going to bed now.
(^_^)/
BEM