Things changed in a hurry, once we were gone, and I got a call from my sister that my mom was back in the hospital. That happened right around February 1 so I hadn’t even been gone a month yet. Mom wasn’t eating right or enough and was so weak that she could barely function. The doctor said that it’s what they call a “tea and toast” syndrome. Seniors don’t cook for themselves much, they get run down and wind up in the hospital to get built back up and the cycle continues like that. The doctor said that mom was no longer able to care for herself and needed to either go in a nursing home or someone had to stay with her to cook for her so she’d get proper nutrition. I volunteered to fly back and stay with her. Linda and I had made her a promise when we went on the road in 2007 that when the time came we’d be there to take care of her so she wouldn’t have to go in a nursing home.
I’ve been home for about seven weeks now and I can’t tell you that it’s been easy. Mom can be very nasty, doesn’t like most of what you make for her and I think she has some dementia issues. She got really nasty towards Linda, right before we left, so I don’t know what will happen once Linda returns home. Mom’s short term memory is pretty much shot and she doesn’t listen to anything the doctor tells her to do or not do. She continues to lose weight and she can’t afford to lose much more, since she’s down to 105# now. We have gotten her to drink the Boost drinks, to try and add some calories to her daily intake. She can have all the ice cream and junk food she wants…anything that might put some pounds on her. I’ve had people tell me that due to her age that she has a right to be grumpy or cantankerous. I disagree…I think if God has allowed you to be on this earth for almost 90 years that you should be damn grateful for every morning that your feet hit the floor. He put you here for a reason and it wasn’t to make someone else’s life miserable. Has your soul learned the lesson it was sent here to learn? Have you evolved into a higher level being than when you arrived here? I know one of the soul lessons I was sent here to learn was patience and boy have I been getting a work out in the last seven weeks. LOL
While I have been in Pennsylvania with mom, Linda is still out in Texas working. She hopes to finish up sometime in May and then come back to PA. It’s been really hard being apart. It was just a year ago that we spent six months apart when I went to Indiana to do a farming internship. Now we’re apart for another 3-4 months. But we’ll do what we have to do and honor the commitments that we’ve made.
The weather has been horrendous since I’ve been home. Lots of snow this winter and they are even calling for snow showers this evening. It’s been a very cloudy winter and we haven’t even had any days that resemble spring-like weather yet. My brother is in the middle of maple syrup season and there have been many days where it doesn’t get above freezing so the sap doesn’t run. At this rate the season will continue on into April before we’ll get some warm days where the sap can really cut loose. It’s also been very, very windy and I fear that the bees will have had a tough time getting through the winter. We won’t know until we get a warm spring day and my brother can check his hives for signs of life. Hoping that came through it ok but it’s doubtful.
This coming Tuesday I have an appointment with a dermatologist in the area to get a spot checked out that I’ve been watching for a few weeks. Rather than drive 15 hours round trip to Norfolk to my regular dermatologist, I got an appt locally. That way when they tell me that it’s nothing, I won’t feel so bad. If it is something, I’ll go back to Norfolk to get it taken care of. Keep me in your thoughts and prayers.
I guess that catches you up on what’s been going on around here. Keep smiling and living life to the max!
Usually the weather, in the southern states, is reasonably tolerable and we can boondock some nights in rest areas along the way. It has been bone chilling cold and seems more like we are back in Pennsylvania rather than in Alabama or the Carolinas. The polar vortex (do you remember how much I hate those two words) blanketed a large area of the country and we couldn’t seem to outrun it. It snowed our first night in a campground and we awoke to the white stuff. Consequently the roads were covered with salt, the rig became a mess and the windshield was yucked up with salt and streaks. When we stopped at a Flying J, I was happy to see the long handled windshield washers in the bucket.(the day before I had tried to use the short handled ones to clean the windshield, while hopping like a kangaroo to reach the viewing area. The guy filling up next to me was over 6’ tall and took pity on me and came to my rescue and washed the windshield for me) My happiness was short lived as everything in the bucket was frozen solid….it was that cold out. Bitter cold!