Update November 11, 2023

News

Saturday

Saturday I played D&D while dad and Aaron went to the afternoon production of the kids’ play.

Sunday

Sunday the kids had their last show

Monday

Monday I either had an unexpected side effect from my anxiety med or I had a rather strong bout from my sleeping disorder. When I got up, I stumbled into a wall. When it came to driving D13 to her appointment, I seemed ok, so we went.

Then, while IL4 and I were sitting in the waiting room, I fell asleep. My mom brain eventually heard IL4 grabbing something from the coffee area. I looked up. He had a coffee cup and was holding a large container of sugar. I leapt up and almost face-planted in the vending machine. I backpedaled, and stumbled into the table. Then I sped forward and grabbed the sugar. His cup was half-full of sugar.

Figuring it didn’t matter if he kept the sugar because we couldn’t give it back, we went back to the table, and I lay my head back down on it. He then proceeded to suck soda from his McDonald’s cup straw and spit it into the sugar cup one mouthful at a time. Finally, he had the most disgusting “soup” I’d ever let him make.

That’s when I suddenly woke up. Like one minute I was letting him be gross because I was too tired, and the next minute I’m just fine. That’s how my sleeping disorder works. So, at least I was fine to drive, because we would have been stuck at the doctor’s office until I woke up otherwise.

In the evening, IL4 had swim lessons and M11 had Boy Scouts.

Tuesday

D13 was sick on Tuesday morning, so I had to reschedule her orthodontist appointment and take her to a COVID test. Normally I wouldn’t bother, but my dad had exposed her.

Then I took IL4 to his physical therapy intake for pooping. I hadn’t been very optimistic about it going in, but I felt really good about it when I left. She seemed confident that she could help, and gave some useful tips.

After that, I voted for school board members.

Wednesday

But that was a jump forward. Back to my time slightly after getting my MRI. I came home feeling relieved to be there for the first time all day. After about 15 minutes of chatting with the family, though, I got a call from a stranger saying dad had fallen down a hill (yes, same hill he broke 3 ribs on in late August) and thinks he broke his arm. He’d crawled up the hill with a broken arm, but didn’t know where his phone was.

I briefly looked for the phone, but dad wanted to go to the ER. I called in to work, since I didn’t know long it would take. But at least that gave me a break when I returned home at 8 for my first time to relax all day.

Thursday

Thursday was another tough day. I hadn’t slept well, so I was super tired, yet again. But I couldn’t nap because I was watching IL4. I made 2 hours’ worth of phone calls that had accumulated on my to-do list over the past few days.

Then dad, J19, and I went to the hill and found dad’s phone, followed by lunch out.

Later, I took IL4 to the poop psychologist. She seemed helpful, but I didn’t leave with new tips like from the poop PT on Tuesday. Mainly, she reinforced what PT said about sitting him on the toilet daily with his clothes on.

When I got home, dad wanted to go to urgent care because he was in “too much” pain. Dad has a very high pain tolerance, so that was worrisome. The receptionist at the urgent care pooh-poohed us, and dad got frustrated and we left.

We went out to dinner as a family, then I went straight to bed (I had called in to work the second night in a row due to dad’s shoulder pain and my exhaustion).

Friday

Friday was stressful, too. Dad woke me up at 6am and told me to call an ambulance because he was in so much pain. He said he’d taken 4 Norco (his narcotic pain med) and it still hurt. I packed up some Diet Dew and drove him to the hospital. They weren’t impressed by his use of the pain meds.

When we got into a room, they found that his oxygen was really low, and they tested him for all sorts of things to narrow down the reason. They kinda knew it was the 4 Norco, but they had to rule out other stuff. So we sat there as he was put through arm x-rays (found broken arm and potential cancer), chest x-ray (potential pneumonia or pulmonary edema as well as emphysema), CT scan (not pneumonia and no pulmonary embolism), and a bunch of blood tests (they blew out his veins twice getting this blood).

Finally, they admitted him so they could watch his oxygen. By this time, he was so confused, he didn’t remember what we came into the hospital for, and when we reminded him that it was for pain, he asked where the pain was located.

The hospitalist called me after I got home, and suggested that he might put dad into transitional care and that he would be in physical and occupational therapy – I was a little startled by this outcome, so I didn’t really ask any questions, but I assume he wants to help him not fall down and injure himself so frequently. Except, what would help with that is dad deciding not to traverse that stupid steep dirt path.

Week’s Photos

Letters Written

8 postcards
1 letter Michigan
1 letter Texas

Reading to myself

Leech, by Hinron Ennes
Great Mythologies of the World, by various professors
How to Read the Bible, by James Kugel

Reading to IL4

Society of Substitutes Super Fun World, by Alan Katz
Ricky Ricotta’s Mighty Robot vs the Voodoo Vultures from Venus, by Dav Pilkey
Billy and the Mini Monsters: Monsters at Christmas

D13 reading

Throne of Glass, by Sarah J Mass
The Outsiders, by S E Hinton

M10 reading

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, by T Kingfisher

Media Completed

When the Worthys have to take Noah the evil ferret along on their vacation, things go wrong. Another cute installment of this series.

Ricky is the only one not watching TV the night the Voodoo Vultures hypnotize all the mice in Squeakyville. Lovely, colorful pictures in this fun book.