Respite Repeat

Who knew I would be at this so long as to need another respite? Here we are, approaching the two month mark of Mom's dependence and my sister Ruth has come to tend to Mom this week. I am so thankful for Ruth's willingness and her capable, loving care for Mom.

For a while, it seemed Mom had reached a plateau, neither declining nor improving. But now she is showing signs again of wearing down, wearing out. She is headed toward four naps each day. It seems when she gets into bed for a change, her bed "feels so good," she decides to stay in it. This could be also connected to getting sore from sitting and sleeping on her back. Tonight Mom asked Ruth to prop her on her side. Mom did not verbalize discomfort (and of course never pain), but something must be up to make her move. And she's getting a new catheter tomorrow, a week ahead of schedule, sort of at her request. I'm guessing the old one must be painful, if Mom agrees to a catheter change out. That's what we have to do, guess, because Mom won't/can't/isn't aware enough to tell us if it hurts.

For my part, I have appointments scheduled every day this week. This morning, after taking Ev to school and Nate to educational therapy, Meg and I headed over for a follow-up with our wonderful functional medicine doctor. Dr. Caldwell is not satisfied with Meg's lack of healing so far, so she initiated a "full court press," which basically means a lot of nasty supplements to choke down for the next month. After receiving that bit of news, we picked up pet food, bought new tennies, and shopped at Sam's. We picked up Nate and went to the lake house. I worked in the garage until 3:30, then we cheered Ev on at her last softball game, and headed home.

A funny thing, my respite has not gone unnoticed by our credit union. They called this afternoon to make sure I was the one behind the sudden flurry of debit card activity yesterday and today. Nice of them to check. I thought about explaining my erratic spending habits, but just thanked the nice lady and hung up. And that won't be all. Tomorrow I'm getting a root canal, followed by two fillings Wednesday, a long overdue cleaning Thursday, then vet appointments for both dogs Friday. And somewhere in there, Dave and I want to go see Blue Like Jazz.

Whew. This respite is wearing me out.