Our half week vacation was a blast. Our first day on the dunes, I was riding like a kid on their first bike without training wheels. The second day I spent frustrated a lot because I couldn't even keep up with the little kids on their quads. The third day I was starting to get the hang of things but got stuck a bunch trying to climb soft sand hills with the rest of the group. I even did a night ride; eerie! The last morning I was having a total blast, and of course, it was time to pack up and go home.

The best part? Absolutely no injuries this trip. A couple people in the group blew up their motors, but that was before we got there. And most of the group left early, but we still had the best company (Mike and family) with us right up to the end. I love the Coos Bay/North Bend dunes. The towns even feel good, like I could fit right in there.

Got back home (I even drove for two hours of the trip, and through Portland, no less!) and all was well and good with mom and the girls. Cosmo got out a couple times, but he actually came up to the back door on his own and meowed to be let in! Amazing. It seems he just wandered around under the deck getting cobwebs in his whiskers and then had enough. Too bad Jasper would go walkabout and not stay so close to home or I could let them out now and then.

Yesterday was calling lots of places making appointments for mom. Neurologist is booked out until september, she gets a foot assessment and nail trim next tuesday, and the wheelchair modification dude will come here on friday to see what they can do to make mom's chair safer and fit her support needs better. I also did a ton of laundry, all of which is currently waiting to be folded and put away. *sigh*

Now if Cosmo would just stop wandering around the house yowling at the top of his lungs for a few minutes, I'd be a happy camper...

So the head PT came out today to see mom, since group health says she needs to be discharged from PT since she's doing so well. Of course, mom's been bawling since she found out, wanting to keep getting the visits forever. We all know that's not going to happen, and she's had over two months of PT so far; way more than most people get.

I make sure I take my time with the PT and let her know what's been happening and how this rightward-list mom's been doing is getting worse. In fact, it's a hazard for mom because yesterday she got her arm caught on a wall she was trying to drive past and could have hurt herself badly. Also, with the right arm over the side, she sticks the left foot in between the footrest and the front wheel. Dangerous!

Mom talks to her about how pain is keeping her from doing things she'd like to do. Granted, it took pointed questions from the PT to get this from mom, but at least she admitted it. Mom also said she'd be willing to try having modifications done to her power chair to make it safer for her and to help prevent the dangerous leaning.

Upshot of all this, the Goddess of PT has decided that she's not going to discharge mom after all. Mom needs to get in to see the wheelchair accessory specialists in Bremerton and she wants to be there for that appointment to make sure they understand mom's needs. Yee haw. Also, mom needs to work on her 'body awareness', since she has trouble finding her mouth with a straw and things like that.

My job once I get back from our half-week vacation is to call and get mom appointments with the podiatrist and neurologist. The foot guy to get her nails worked over because the foot care people won't touch her when the toenails are this out of whack. The neurologist to find out if this 'listing to port' is neurologic or musclo/skeletal in nature and to find out what mom can take for pain that won't negatively interact with her PD meds. Who knows, maybe mom needs a tune-up of her PD meds and that could help with her excessive sleepiness also.

So, today I spent cleaning up this house so I can spend tomorrow getting the camper packed for us to leave on Wednesday. Of course, tomorrow I also have to take mom swimming at the Y, go grocery shopping, and squeeze in time to get some new riding boots for me. (My old boots got creased and pinch my ankles bad!) *sigh* Never enough hours in the day...

Good lord and butter, what a disaster today has been. After 7 am pills, I told mom we'd get up in an hour so we could go to the Half Price Books sale in Seattle. Less than 20 minutes later, she's hollering for me, asking if I'm in the house. She heard the neighbor's truck leave and thought Bill had left and I'd gone somewhere. Uh, no. I was in bed, attempting to nap a bit before starting the day.

"But what about the trailer with the bicycles strapped on top that pulled out?" *great look of pained puzzlement on her face* You must have dreamed it, mom.

That was my mantra today. Just your imagination, mom. You must have been dreaming, mom. I don't understand what you're talking about, mom. And on and on.

Well, we're up now so I get her dressed and out to the kitchen. We get breakfast (she fell asleep three times eating one bowl of oatmeal) and I grab mom a travel mug of coffee for the road and head out to catch the Kingston ferry. About 3/4 way there, there's a loud bang-clatter from mom's area. She's dropped her coffee mug. I shrug, remind mom not to reach for it on the floor, and say I'll get it when we get to the ferry. It's got a lid screwed on tight, it should be okay. Wrongo! I check while the ferry offloads and she's unscrewed the lid most of the way to where it was barely hanging on. About a third of the skirt on her dress is soaked, along with the carpeting, wheelchair lift, and her seat cushion cover. I dry her off the best I can with some paper towels and make a mental note not to give mom things to drink in the car ever again.

We arrive in Edmonds, and as we head for the highway, the line for the ferry going the other way is beyond the staging lanes and going up the shoulder of the approach road. Hmmm...maybe we'll take a different way home. I drive down to the HPB warehouse sale location, and there's a LINE OF PEOPLE TWO BLOCKS LONG!! Nowhere to park, because the parking lot of the warehouse has even more serpentine lines of people. Um, I'm not standing around in the hot sun for who knows how long with a damp mom in her wheelchair. So, after seeing the three hundred people waiting, I say "Let's bag this and go to the regular HPB store over in the U-District." Mom says sure, and off we go. I navigate down Greenwood to Phinney, around Woodland Park, and onto 50th. 50th is totally backed up all the way to Green Lake Way. It seems there was a childrens parade in Wallingford down on 45th, so everybody was taking 50th.

We poke along, shrugging at the traffic. We get to HPB on Roosevelt, get inside, and shop our little hearts out for the next two hours. Mom only runs into a few of their stocking cardboard boxes on the floors of the aisles, but overall we have a good time. Mom got a bit allergy ridden by the dust, but she found several books she wanted and some she wanted to get for my brother and sis-in-law. I only had to tell her to put two books back that we already own. (I ended up with one myself that's a duplicate in my collection, so no biggie.) And, as it turns out, they were having a sale (not quite as good, only 15 % off everything, but still!) and only at the U district and Capitol Hill stores. Sweet.

Getting back in the rig, mom's wheelchair rolls over the package of oatmeal raisin cookies we brought as emergency rations. Crumbs EVERYWHERE. Once again, I have to remind mom not to reach for things on the floor. I'll just vacuum out the rig when we get home. Really.

Heading for home, I decided to try the Fauntleroy ferry. We stop for a quick bite of lunch in West Seattle on the way to the ferry, and arrive just as they're loading. Score! Then I turn around to hand mom her burger. She's got the lid off her chocolate milkshake and is spilling it on herself as I look. *sigh* I help her put the frigging lid back on and then go upstairs to the bathroom to wash the kryptonite off my hands. Ten minutes later I get to start eating my own lunch.

At the ferry stop at Vashon, mom asks about the ceremony they're set up for on the adjacent dock. Um, there's nobody there but seagulls and one heron. Really. Mantra time again. Mom loves to say that she's "Just kidding" or the like when she says something that makes absolutely no sense. I just shake my head and 'whatever' about it.

We finally get home and I am hot and tired, and I still have to get mom changed and the van cleaned out. Bill's there and wants to go ride the quads at one of his friends' places right that minute. Um, no dear. Sorry. It's too frigging hot and I'm beat at the moment and really shouldn't leave when mom's having such an "off" day.

We compromise and decide to go later, in the evening, when it's not so blessed hot. So, I've had a chance to blog it out, cool off a tad, and Bill's been able to do some little fixit jobs around the house. Mom's currently asleep in her recliner, talking someone's ear off in her dreams.

Time to kick back with a tall, cool glass of lemonade and watch Bill work.

Mom had a great day wednesday at her friend's house. The friend had special made a big ol' ramp for mom to make it up her porch steps. Worked great! Mom only dozed off once, and I got to run some errands while she was there.

That evening, she walked from the bathroom to her bed, using my arms as a walker, with no trouble at all. Yee haw!

Thursday, mom pretty much slept the whole day. Except when she undid what little knitting she had accomplished the day before. *sigh* I got on the computer and found an easy, smaller project that she might actually be able to finish sometime before the sun burns out.

Last night, or should I say early this morning, mom called for me. I find her in the bathroom, needing either her dressing stick or a helping hand to put her underwear on. She's obviously been up a while, as she has her sweater jacket on over her nightshirt, and her legs are cold. I check her bed and it's also cold. She had gotten the sticky tape out of her desk drawer and I found it on the floor halfway across the room. Mom had no recollection of what she'd been doing. I got her back to bed and covered up to get warm again.

This morning she's in her closet picking out clothes for today when I get up and in there. Now she's doing that every-30-seconds doze off thing at the kitchen table. We're going swimming shortly, so hopefully the pool will wake her up.

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/366840/ (telephone)
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/278648/ (radio)
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/343585/ (clock)

I think these were my absofavoritest skits in all the many years I watched Sesame Street. They used to be on YouTube, but got deleted by Viacom. Not Mars, nope nope nope. Book book book book uh huh uh huh.

Poor Flaco shall be bumped from my default user pic for these fellows...

Yesterday mom finally got her new hinged knee braces. The down and back she did on the parallel bars looked so much better than without the braces. She wore them most of yesterday after that, even though she didn't do much (any) standing. Today mom's PT will visit and put mom through her paces with them.

Mom was pleased as punch and decided to take me out to lunch. IHOP was quiet and a good lunch was had by all. We went to the store afterwards to get another couple pairs of the slip-on shoes mom likes and then to V.V. for a bunch of new tops. So many of what mom had are just too big now.

Sunday, Bill and I dropped in on my best buddy to deliver some tardy birthday presents. A good time was had by all, especially Miss M and Bill playing Rockband on the Xbox 360. She is so good at it, it's amazing. Finally, someone better than Bill at a video game!

Saturday was slobbing around, watching Nascar, and doing laundry. So nice to just kick back and do next to nothing. I did finish the last book so far by the Thurlo's about Lee Nez. Cool beans, those books. Now they just need to write some more!

Back to today, I need to get off my keister and get our swimming gear together. It'll be time to go soon. PT this afternoon around 3. Then tomorrow is Patsy Mom's doll thingy at a house I'm not sure mom can get into. We'll see.

It was so effing humid last night that we left almost all the windows open when we went to bed. About 5 am this morning, it finally cooled off enough that I heard the furnace turn on. I got up and went around the house closing windows, and when I went by mom's room, she was dreaming up a storm in there.

She was mumbling, waving her arms, jerking and flailing. Cosmo, who was following me on my rounds, hopped up on the bed with a 'Meow!" and mom said "Mrow" back at him in her sleep. She had a hand up in the air a bit and Cos took the opportunity to bonk-smear and purr at her. Her dream changed right then to happy tones, blabbing something about how 'he's fine on my lap' and she went through some petting motions. What a sweetie. Cosmo changed mom's bad dream into a good one.

We finally got the call from Hangers Orthopedics that mom's knee braces have arrived. The next available appointment was monday, so that's when we get to go get them. Then PT on tuesday, so the PT can see mom walk in her new braces.

After swimming, we took 302 over to Belfair from Gig Harbor and stopped at the library. I had a pile of things waiting for me and a bunch to return for me and my mom-in-law. I take maybe ten minutes, leaving mom behind with her lunch, buckled into her power chair which is tied down in the van. When I get back with the books after a brief chat with one of my coworkers (who hadn't seen me since I left), I put the bag of books on the passenger seat and look back at mom...uh, mom? She's NOT IN HER CHAIR!

I open the slider and find mom sitting on the footrest of her chair, picking at some spilled food on the floor. What in the heck happened? She dropped her jello. Uh huh. And why are you on the floor with the food?!? Very poor decision making, to be sure. Now I get the joy of trying to get her back up in the chair when there's limited room to move, her feet are on the sliding part of the lift platform, and pretty much nothing to grab onto for leverage/lifting help. Hence my aching legs and shoulder and the hernia in the subject line.

I've started some serious research about training an assistance dog for mom. Granted, it wouldn't have helped in this situation, but maybe mom wouldn't have tried to pick up food off the floor if the dog could clean it up for her. :) But seriously, if I can teach a cat to sit on command and 'high five', I think I can train a dog for service work. I found online standards, evaluation tools, and training lists. There are numerous discussion groups and some really good videos and instruction manuals available. I'm also going to check into training that might be available in the area. With the demand for service dogs growing every year and the number of trainers and dogs limited, I think it might also be a good skill to have for the future.

Well, I'm going to go bake up some very brown bananas into some bread before they fall off the hook and ponder this whole dog thing some more.

The retina specialist looked at my eye for three minutes (while his stomach growled in my ear tee hee) and said to come back in three months. All's looking good this time. Just out of curiosity, I asked him how many zaps I got the first time. (Before the second session, he said I'd need about half as many as the first time.) It turns out I only got 156 laser spot welds the first time, and 222 the second. Funny, that sounds like more than half to me! Ah well, a bit of discomfort and outright oweeeeee is worth not losing my vision in that eye.

Blargh. Must go grocery shopping this afternoon. No milk, need soap, and the house is a mess. I wonder if I can buy a maid while I'm at the store? *snerk*

Tomorrow morning I get to get my retina checked again. Everybody cross your fingers that there's no new tearing and I don't have to get any more lasering.

BTW, mom and I had a good time at the pool today. There was an older gentleman there with his daughter and granddaughter and he was following along with the exercises I was leading mom through. *grin* After the Y, mom ate lunch while I did a super fast Costco run and then we went to DQ for some small ice cream treats. Mom and I sat out on the front porch (the one facing the street, not the lake) and ate our ice cream, read books, and listened to music until she started getting dozy.

Mom took a three hour nap this afternoon, so she's still up. Hence, I'm still up. I've warned her that I will be getting her up early so she's at least up, dressed, and at the table for breakfast before I leave for my eye appointment. Bill's warned everybody at the shop that he's driving me to said appointment, so he won't be in until later. Thank gawd; I hate trying to drive with one eye dilated.

I'm going to go read some more of the latest Kim Harrison novel, "The Outlaw Demon Wails" until mom decides to get ready for bed. Good stuff, Maynard!

Do these two songs sound uncannily similar in parts? You be the judge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFbDhbl3QPY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJDDxHIaaVk

So Bill looked at the map, and asked if I'd like to to to Westport. Sure, I reply. I toss some emergency rations and sunscreen in the blue beetle and after a stop for fuel, we're off. It's a lovely drive out (except for the herds of motorcycling rookies clogging up the roads) and we have a lovely walk on their main drag and lunch. After lunch we walk a bit more, then it's back toward the highway.

I tell Bill to turn right instead of left and to head for the beach. It'd be silly to go all the way to Westport and not go to the ocean beach. We also drove through the state park campground, just to scope it out for future getaways. (The place was packed with more tent campers than I've ever seen in one place!)

At the beach, we walk out through the dunes and find a nice place slightly sheltered behind a hummock of beach grass and vetch (pretty purple flowers right now) and Bill takes a nap lying on the hot sand. I toasted my tootsies on said hot sand, but otherwise had a great time playing in the sand while Bill napped. I even found an intact sand dollar and brought it home.

We stopped by Hunter Farms at the southernmost point of the Hood Canal on the way home for ice cream cones. We strolled through the greenhouses and wandered through their plants while we ate. Yum! They have a pond there now and they have the most gorgeous water irises along the edge. I want some on our lakefront once we get around to doing some landscaping. That and the Dawn Redwood, Incense Cedar, and Purple Smoke trees.

Mom and her sitter had a good time today, and I brought some levity to the family when I took Grace home. I'm a sucker for kitties wanting pets and fresh ripe strawberries. I shared my belief that I have a mark on my forehead, invisible to humans but dayglo bright visible to animals. It's known as the Universal Sucker Code. That lets all cats, dogs, and other critters know that I'm good for a scritch and some attention anytime. *grin*

Back home, mom's running into furniture with her power chair, partly because she's sitting so caddywampus in the seat that her left foot is hanging off the footrest and her right arm is dangling over the armrest. She's also going through a file folder and box of my papers because she thinks they're hers. *eye roll*

Tomorrow should be a good day. My dearest friend and her daughter are coming over for a little private celebration and I have mini cheesecake bites all ready for the birthday girls. It's a new recipe and my guinea pigs (parent and inlaws) say they're totally yummy. They were pretty easy, so I think I'll make a couple three batches next week to take to the 4th of July potluck to which we've been invited. Maybe I'll mix mini chocolate chips into one batch...It'll be doubly kryptonite to me then! (There's too much egg in cheesecake for me to handle. Dratted egg intolerance-type allergy. But I'm pretty good at making recipes I can't eat anyway!)

I'm going to take my nice sun-toasted body and slob out on the couch in our air conditioned house with my latest library book and relax until mom's ready to get ready for bed.

So today is another day off for Bill and I. It starts out with me waking up from some seriously weird dreams. I go in to give mom her 7am pills and she's lying half in half out of the bed, in an orange nightshirt and a pink and white sweater, with a yellow and turquoise lap quilt over most of her. *shudder* She insists on talking to me about how Bill came in to give her pills at 5:30. Nope, you must have dreamed it. Oh, and what are those blueprints rolled up there? Um, that's your bathrobe draped over your chair. I stumble back to bed to continue with the weird dreams.

How weird, you ask? Well, Bill had to go in to work today for some customer or something. I go by there and teenagers stopped by the shop telling everyone how the cops are pulling over every 4th car on the highway and that there's tons of wrecks south of here. For some reason, I catch a ride with a guy and his son going south, and there's cars on the shoulder every half mile in flames. Great columns of fire and smoke. I finally say, whoa, pull over, I'm getting out here, thanks anyway. It's one of those weird places that you've been before in your dreams that isn't anyplace in the real world but you recognize it anyway. I get out and start walking back north on the frontage roads and such. I walk through the halls of some institution, then a buddhist monastery, then through a playground, growl at a bunch of kids that were terrorizing some other kids, and finally continue walking back up the highway. After passing the third hulk of a car, I find some people waiting by a pile of confiscated coolers and ice chests and ask to borrow their cell phone to call Bill to come get me. After having trouble getting his cell phone to work, I say the heck with it and wake myself up.

Back to the real world, Bill came out of the shower this morning complaining of having a head cold. Oh no. We have no idea what we're going to do today, but I'm betting that a motorcycle ride is out. Hard to blow you nose with a helmet on.

Idiot cats were racing around the house last night. They went under the puzzle table at about mach nine and Cosmo tripped on the cord to the antique lamp I had there. CRASH! The funny thing is that the heavy, white glass overshade broke in dozens of pieces (spraying tiny fragments everywhere) and the light bulb broke off in the base, but the extremely fragile glass chimney (converted oil lamp) didn't break. Weird.

So there I am, vacuuming up glass shardlets from the table, floor, and sofa when I'd usually be in bed. Then when I finally do get to bed, I can't sleep. Grrrr. Of course, Bill gets up this morning and shuts the cats out of the bathroom so he can shower, so they're wandering around the bedroom yowling. They, humf. Cosmo is yowling. Jasper just hops up on the trunk at the foot of the bed and curls up on Bill's work shirts. Gotta make sure Bill smells like our cats in case he encounters any strange furs during the day.

Not 15 minutes later, mom calls me. She needs help getting through the bathroom door. Huh? You've got the commode right there by the bed. She says that I told her not to use it during the daytime. Uh huh. I meant not to use it when you're up and dressed (like earlier this week at six in the evening when there were other people in the house!!!). If you're in bed, go for it. Sheesh. Good grief, it's daylight at 4:30 am right now.

After that, she wanted breakfast. *sigh* Yeah, I really want to make oatmeal for you and pour your juice and make tea when I really want to just go back to bed. I gave up and made her breakfast. Then I got my own breakfast because I can't be up for a while in the morning without getting hungry. So much for getting that last hour's sleep.

I'm taking mom and mom-in-law swimming today. I'd love to sit this one out, but I can't not be in the pool with mom. She needs one-on-one lifeguarding, even when she's got a floatation belt on. Maybe my mom-in-law could keep an eye on her for a few minutes so I can go swim a couple laps and burn off some of my grumpy.

Yesterday mom's doll club friends were meeting at a house with three steps up the front porch. The gal there put her back support on and hauled some boards out front to use as ramps up the steps for mom, and shifted the furniture in her living room so mom could get around in her power chair. Of course, the rocks in the front landscaping were causing traction problems, so she and another friend grabbed some rakes and moved the rocks so mom could get to the base of the ramps.

Tuesday at the pool, I met up with my best bud Hannie and we talked about my throwing a b-day party for her and her daughter. She'd spent most of the week so far putting out fires for her friends. She called today telling me how her mom had set up a party for the daughter without telling Hannie, so they're both kinda fed up and peopled out. Our birthday party for them will now be just us and the xbox and torturing mom with us playing rock band and guitar hero until our ears bleed. Sounds like it's going to be a kick. Who needs a bunch of people to have a good time? Not us!

Mom was tough to wake up today, so I begged off going to the Y today. She finally woke up while I was folding her laundry and the PT called around 10:45. I'm kinda tired myself today anyway. We can go tomorrow instead just as easy, so mom's PT can come today. I've got mom's sitter set up for saturday, even though Bill and I have no plans. I know he's got an invitation to play basketball at a buddy's house that afternoon, but we may go see a movie instead. Who knows?

I'm just taking it easy today listening to some music. Everything from Jordin Sparks (One step at a time) to Gossip (Listen Up), Travis Tritt (You never take me dancing) to Apocalyptica (I don't care). Just a little variety. *grin*

Saturday, mom and I went to a doll and teddy bear show in Puyallup. We got stuck in traffic getting there because the main drag through town was shut down for some street fair or something. I did all the driving of mom's power chair because of the expensive dolls on the tables and throngs of people. Mom was looking specifically for a Patsy doll, but the authentic ones were too dratted expensive. She bought a sweet mom & child set and a native doll instead. We even stopped by Hancock Fabrics on the way back through Tacoma so she could buy some black fusible interfacing for her Amish doll clothes.

Poor Bill spent all day at the shop doing computer software upgrades and cleaning half the shop. It looks great down there, especially since we went out sunday afternoon and bought some flowers for the flower box out front and a new welcome mat. We even snuck down to Wendy's and bought cheeseburgers for dinner, which I accompanied with corn on the cob and peach cobbler.

Mom rested a lot during the day sunday, so I worked out in the yard, transplanting some shrubs to make way for some landscaping work we need to do out beyond the carport. I did tweak a muscle or three falling off the embankment, but I'm not too sore today. Mom got up and used her walker to go from her recliner to the bathroom and back, and again at bedtime for a similar short trip. That's so good to see, especially with her gimping around with a bad right knee so bad on friday and saturday. We're planning to go to the Y on Tuesday this week, as well as again later in the week. It all depends on when her knee braces come in.

All in all, it was a good weekend. Mom got to buy some dolls and walk a bit, I got to get all sweaty working in the yard and read a couple three books, Bill got to clean the shop (which has been bugging him with its filth) and play video games and watch races, and we all got a chance to get out of the house.

Mom managed to make it through the night without falling out of bed at all! Yahoo! And she says she really likes the bed in the corner and how I've got the rest of the room arranged. Score one for me. I only need to move mom's grab pole about six inches toward the head of her bed and it'll be just right. I even got a second pole for the bathroom coming, this one with a horizontal bar that can be lifted and locked every 45 degrees around the pole, so she can use it in the shower as well as on the can.

So I get mom up, dressed, and breakfasted and she's all, "When do we go to the pool today?" Yeah! We go down to the Y and lo and behold, my friend Hannie and her family are in the DP spot right in front of us. Limited socializing, because her dad's alzheimer's, but I do get a chance to chat a teeny bit with Hannie in the hot spa near the end of our time in the pool. We'll catch up again soon, I know.

Mom did just great in the pool. She used one of the flotation belts so she didn't have to worry about falling down in the pool. We hung out in the shallow end and mom did some flutter kicking and other leg exercises while holding on the edge. It is frustrating to her that her legs won't cooperate for even a doggy paddle, but she did quite well standing for a good five minutes with the buoyancy help of the water. She also did a few down and backs walking along one edge of the pool. We did some range of motion exercises with her arms and shoulders also, then it was time to go enjoy the hot spa. Spaaaaaah. *giggle*

After we finished getting cleaned up and dressed, we had our picnic lunch on the benches outside the Y. Very nice weather, if a bit cloudy. We got to listen to a cheesed-off squirrel and an olive-sided flycatcher (hic-free beer!) and people watch everybody going in and out. Then it was off to Costco to spend more than I intended and pick up a couple things we really needed and a handful of things that looked good. I would've done better if I could just have gone directly to the things we needed and then out, but mom wanted to tour the whole store.

The rest of the day was quiet, and we just nuked frozen things that we picked up at Costco for dinner followed by an evening of reading books and watching tv. PT tomorrow and a trip to the downtown library.

I hear mom talking in her sleep early this morning and then THUD. I get up, go in her room, turn on the light, and there she is on the floor. *sigh* Check over time. No injuries, check. Big puddle on the floor, check. Mom just wanting to go back to bed, check. Okay. I try to get her up into her wheelchair and her legs are like a couple of two by fours, all stiff and rigid. Ooof. No go. I end up sliding her around the bed on her fanny to the pole where she can use her arms to help me get her up into her wheelchair.

I get her toileted, changed, wiped down, and the damp pad changed on the bed and she's back to sleep in an instant. As I wash my hands and feet on my way back to bed, I consider what I can do for a temporary bolster or something to keep mom from falling out on the right side of the bed again until the rail can arrive. I doze off to thoughts of rolled blankets, foam wedges, etc., thinking that at least she will be good until morning.

Wrong-o! Bill wakes me to say that he couldn't wake mom to give her her morning pills. Mom was mumbling and thrashing around in her sleep and through the bathroom walls he just heard a thud. Guess what I find? Yup, mom's on the floor on the right side of the bed again. No soreness, more puddles, and a really wet bed also. This time I ask if she wants to just start her day and she says no, she just wants to sleep some more. A change and I settle her in her recliner as I don't want to deal with stripping her bed at 7 am.

I'm tempted to turn her bed so only one side is open to the room and the other side to the wall until I can get a rail installed. Hmmm...it'll involve rearranging her room quite a bit, but she says she likes having her room rearranged and the wall next to the bed sounds good to her. Just more work for my already tired muscles.

She's got her doll club friends coming over today, so I plan on going out to do some errands (2 libraries, the bank, groceries, etc.) while they're here to keep an eye on her. Now it's time for two loads of laundry and a shower for me.

So this morning I have an appointment for the three month follow up after my retinal laser surgery. Bill kindly drove me to the appointment since driving with one dilated eye is just so much fun. NOT! I go in, they check my vision, and give me the dilating drops. Wait for a bit, then back to see the doctor. (Way cool, the room I was in had his diploma...he got his bachelors in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins and did his residency at Temple University Hospital) He comes in and has me "look up...up and left....ooooh.....a little more left...hmmmm."

I knew when he said "ooooh" that I was not going to like it. Turns out that my retinal tear had managed to extend beyond the perimeter they welded down last time. Drat it all. I had to get 222 more little laser zap welds on my retina today. Headache city, let me tell you. The pain in my eye subsided almost right away when he was done, but the headache and neck and shoulder aches from gritting my teeth and trying to hold still while still flinching every zap are killer.

So, I'm back to the beginning on the follow up appointment schedule again. I go back in two weeks, then four weeks after that, then the three month post op again. *sigh*

This afternoon all three of us have to go sign papers at the title company for the refi of the house. Granted, mom's not on the loan, but she is on the title so she has to be there also. The loan is just for Bill's and my portion of the house, since mom's paid for her percentage outright. Of course, this means that should anything happen to mom, Medicaid will go after that percentage of the house under 'estate recovery' laws to recoup their expenses for her care. So, when all is said and done, we could loose the house if we don't have assets enough to pay medicaid back should anything happen to mom.

On the mom front, we had the appointment at the orthotist yesterday where they watched mom walk and analyzed the vagus of her knee joints for fitting her for knee braces. They've got some new ones on the market that have removable support hinges so we can take them out on the inside of her knees where the rub on each other due to the bad alignment of her legs. Mom is sooooo knock-kneed its not funny. Add to that this rightward list that she's developed since the last fracture and the PD poor balance backward lean and I'm at a loss as to how she manages to stand at all. The deflection is almost 30 degrees on her right knee! Ye gawds.

On a brighter note, they should have the new braces in for her by the end of the week or early next week. We also got to go shopping at V.V. after the appointment (since we were over in E. Bremerton anyway) and picked up for mom one doll, five new skirts, three new dresses, and two more nightshirts. Score! I even found some workout shorts and another swimsuit for me. Next time we shop, we need to find more tops and blouses for mom; too many of her old ones are much too loose on her now.

Drat, with all the chaos of my eye and all, we didn't get to go to the YMCA today. Oh well, thursday will have to do. I'm still huddling in the darker corners of the house waiting for my pupil to stop being so dilated.

Bill is off picking up Grace for mom-sitting while I got mom up, dressed, and breakfasted. Then we're off to go play! So far, the plan is to run a couple errands, then go visit the Y and maybe do a little exercise or swimming or something, goof around, and maybe go visit my best friend for a little xbox smackdown. Nothing too firm, we're just going to wing it and take it easy.

Mom had a crazy nightmare last night. I could hear her yelling and shrieking over the monitor. I got up to check on her, and it took me nearly 15 minutes to wake her up. She even took a couple swings at me in her sleep! Must have been some intense dream. I finally got her awake enough to go to the bathroom, then back to bed.

Cosmo is really good about waking me on the weekends right at mom's 7am pill time. Of course, his automatic feeder goes off at 7:15 am, so that might have something to do with it. I swear that cat can tell time.

Yesterday I was visiting my in-laws next door and we got to watch a momma chestnut-backed chickadee getting a beakful at a time off the suet feeder and then taking it to one of her three fledgelings meeping in the bushes. The suet feeder was about a foot from us, but she was too busy to care we were there. Way cool! Then I got to go pick up the deceased mole that was lying in the upper yard so (just in case it was poisoned) whatever scavenger got it didn't get poisoned too. It's just amazing how big their front feet are and how plush and soft their fur is. Too bad they're so small or you could farm them for the fur... imagine oversize ant-farm like things with moles tunneling around in them... tee hee!

Well, Bill should be back soon and I need to swap loads in the laundry before we head out today. Ta ta!