I did not go to visit my mom. My sisters took it in turns today so I could get some stuff done. I’ll take my turn again tomorrow morning.

I had a chiropractic appointment this morning. I hit Walmart while I was downtown and got in a longer walk around the park. I also stopped in at the Feed Bag to pick up the suet Pip forgot (and to reserve two large metal garbage cans for Pip to pick up on Monday; he got one when he got birdseed this past Monday (the task fell to him since I was a tad busy) and decided he wanted more. They’re big enough that I can’t take them in my car. As it turns out, he doesn’t have any more in stock so will have to order them.)

I hit Stewart’s on the way home, returned a book to the library, stopped to check mom’s mail, visited my aunt (since I won’t be available to do so tomorrow; and complained to the social worker about how they do her hair – it’s such a minor thing, but it would be so easy to keep her hair in curls instead of straight and straggly by not using a hairbrush on the curls and I’d like her to look nice, at least, because she has so little dignity left, you know?), and stopped at Sunnycrest again to check on the beef stick status. If you guessed they ~still don’t have them, you’d be right. I’m going to be annoyed if I found something Pip likes and they won’t carry them anymore, or at least regularly.

I did a load of laundry, ran a load in the dishwasher and emptied it, the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, and scooped kitty litter. I baked chicken for the dogs’ meals and fed Pip leftover pulled pork (yes, from the big b-day do a couple weeks ago; mom put it in the freezer) for supper. I did get fresh strawberries at Sunnycrest, so I made biscuits. I had strawberry shortcake for my supper; Pip prefers his biscuits with peach jelly because that’s how his mom used to do it.

(He refuses to eat a biscuit with anything other than peach jelly. It’s very frustrating. You can imagine my shock the first time I made chicken and biscuits for supper and Pip only ate the chicken and gravy and completely refused the biscuit because I didn’t have any peach jelly. Basically a bowl of soup, lol! I had no idea anyone would eat biscuits with ONLY jelly. I mean, I eat my leftover biscuits with butter and jelly, but solely?!! I know now and prepare accordingly.)

The surgeon’s office called today to schedule the removal of the node they found during Pip’s endoscopies. August 11, the day after my birthday, so one heck of a b-day pressie. *g* [I told him when he got home from work and he was like, I'm not having that removed! And I'm like, why not? Apparently he thinks it's not necessary when two different doctors think it is. *shrug* He's going to talk to the doctor himself to get it sorted. He's such a pain in my butt about this sort of thing.]

I finally started System Collapse, watched an HGTV program, and sent mom some messages she'll see when she gets home, in lieu of our usual telephone conversation.

Temps started out at 55.0(F) and reached 82.8. There was a mix of sun and clouds and a breeze, thankfully.


Mom Update:

My sister kept us informed of events as they occurred:

( I did bullet points so it got long )

I planned to visit mom, but since she’s in the ICU and visiting hours don’t start until 11am I had some time to kill. I did not go downtown, but stayed home to do some chores and stuff on the computer.

I did two loads of laundry, the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, and scooped kitty litter.

I typed in edits, coded and posted the smallfandomfest fic I’ve been working on!! It’s Murder, She Wrote crossed over with V (1983). To make it work, I gave Jessica another niece, lol! I read some fanfic and watched some HGTV programs. It still feels really weird to not call mom in the evening to talk about our respective days.

I saw my brother (and his GF) and my sister S (the nurse) while visiting mom. There can only be two at a time in the ICU so we took turns.

I fell again. *head desk* This time inside the house (slipped on a puddle of wet on the floor), but I landed on that same knee I keep falling on and bent that same big toe. It hurt and I swore a lot. And I realized it’s almost the one year anniversary of my first fall when I scraped my knee so badly, pulled every muscle, and cracked my big toe.

Temps started out at 61.0(F) and reached 82.6. It rained all morning, but the sun came out in the afternoon. I got in a short walk with Pip and the dogs when he (they *g*) got home from work. Within a half hour of that the clouds moved in and the temps dropped 12 degrees before it started raining again for a bit.


Mom Update:

Mom was doing pretty well when I saw her. She was so out of it, thanks to the drugs. Her voice was very raspy (because of the tube, which they removed before I got there) (if I wasn’t facing her while she was speaking, I never would have known it was her) and she slurred a bit due to the drugs. Sometimes she forgot what she was saying. She talked about Matlock a lot. *g*

They gave her an epidural for the pain and her nurse (she seemed awesome) said that they were going to keep the epidural in for a few days, and that while it was in she’d remain in the ICU. I’m happy about both; no pain, and great care.

The bad news came later in the evening when my sister S passed on (in the Family Group chat) that the surgeon thinks that my mom may have originally had pancreatic cancer that jumped to the bile duct. She won’t know for certain until the labs come back. I do not fucking want it to be pancreatic cancer. As you may have guessed, I had a knot in my stomach the rest of the evening and didn’t sleep super well, even though I doubled my melatonin to make sure I would fall asleep.

All positive thoughts welcomed.

I spent most of the day at the hospital, which I talk about below if you want to skip it. I did some hand-washing of dishes and scooping of kitty litter when I got home. I finished the Amelia Peabody book while sitting in the waiting room. It felt weird when I was finally sitting on my bed, NOT to make my daily call to mom.

Temps started out at 59.2(F) and reached 75. It was weird coming out of the window-less waiting room (for trips to the cafeteria or restroom) to see that it was still light out.


Mom Update:

Thank you so much for all of your good wishes for mom's surgery yesterday! I really appreciate it.

( cutting for those who don’t want to read )

I did a load of laundry, ran a load in the dishwasher and then emptied it (!!), did the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, and scooped kitty litter. I baked chicken for the dogs’ meals and made brownies. I mowed the lawn.

For fun stuff I watched the current ep (season finale *sniffle*) of Leverage: Redemption and an HGTV program, read more in Amelia Peabody, and talked with mom on the phone.

The water in the pond has gone down to normal levels, thankfully. Pip used the shop vac in the basement, but stirring up that water made the entire house stink. Not sure what else we’ll need to do.

Temps started out at 55.0(F) and reached 78.4. It was nice and sunny all day, with a slight breeze. Tomorrow: more rain. Ugh!

Today was supposed to be parade/chicken dinner day at mom’s. Unfortunately, we had a huge amount of rain that caused ditches and creeks to overflow their banks. The parade was canceled because of flooding but the chicken bbq was still on so my siblings and I gathered at mom’s for chicken dinners. My brother came, when he doesn’t normally come for the parade and other festivities, because he wanted to see my mom before her surgery. We sat on the screened-in porch and listened to it rain outside, which was surprisingly nice when we weren’t getting wet.

I managed to do three loads of laundry, the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, and scooped kitty litter. I also watched the current ep of Resident Alien and an HGTV program, read some more Amelia Peabody, and still talked to mom on the phone. I also got extra sleep because I slept in until 8am for the first time in ages! (Going back to bed after getting the dogs back inside, of course.)

In bad personal news, we even had flooding at our home, which is unheard of because we’re not near any creeks. What happened, in two instances, was a matter of blocked drainage. The drain outside the basement got plugged, so our basement flooded for the first time ever. (Back when Hurricane Irene gave us about 13" of rain, a tiny bit of water entered the basement through a crack in the floor, but nothing before or since, until now.)

The other was the pond. Pip puts a mesh wire over the spill pipe in the spring so the baby geese don’t get sucked down it, and that mesh got blocked, so the pond built up until it spilled over the banks. A lot of fish were caught in the spill, unfortunately. And that’s in addition to the normal build-up of water we get in a line across the property (where the slight down hill from the house meets the down hill from the hill where the pine trees are). There was so much water.

Pip has been squeegeeing the basement, but a squeegee can only do so much. He’s going to have to jack hammer an actual hole into the basement floor for a sub pump and squeegee the water into it. What a pain in the ass. (Thankfully Pip had a change of plans! He’s going to try to vacuum the water out with a shop vac ~before he goes to the effort of jack hammering a hole in the floor!) He also had to go in the pond several times to unclog the mesh so the water could flow out the way it was supposed to. (In addition to the rain, the pond fills with run-off from the hill above it, and there was a LOT of run-off.)

Temps started out at 63.0(F) and reached 76.4. Thankfully the rain ended mid-afternoon and the sun came out.

I hit Walmart, Price Chopper and the Bakery while I was downtown and got in a short walk around the park. I hit Stewart’s (for gas and milk) on the way to pick up the dogs, and hit the bank drive-thru on the way back home (because the dogs get treats). Most of my shopping was to stock up on some items in case I couldn’t go shopping next week. It was a small step in reducing my stress.

I did two loads of laundry, the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, and changed kitty litter.

I added ~1,400 words to my smallfandomfest fic!! It’s a comfortable place to end it, I think, so just need to give it a re-read/edit. I started the next Amelia Peabody book, watched the current ep of Murderbot, and attended Baby A’s dance recital.

(Their 'number' was adorable! It was basically their teacher helping them form a bridge with their body, then laying down and rolling along the mats, then helping them 'stand' on their hands before lying them down to do somersaults to the end of the mat. They performed to Circle of Life from Lion King. (The theme was broadway.)

Mom and I left during intermission (we'd seen about a dozen performances and there were about that many left), but my niece Ireland remembered me mentioning that I'd have to miss them do 'Dancing Queen' so she recorded it and sent it to me, which I thought was nice.)

I browned ground beef and boiled pasta to make ziti for tonight’s supper.

Temps started out at 65.1(F) and reached 73.4. We were supposed to have patches of rain and thunderstorms all day, but we only got some rain in the afternoon (no thunder or lightning, thankfully, because the dogs hate it).

This one got long. Sorry about that. o_O

I had a chiropractic appointment and a pedicure this morning. I was relieved about the chiropractic appointment because my back started bothering me this morning in the shoulder blade area, to the point where I got up early because I couldn’t get comfortable and back to sleep. The pedicure was lovely and I chose a salmon-y color for my toenails.

I hit Price Chopper while I was downtown and Stewart’s (for milk) on the way to pick up the dogs. I got in a short walk around the park and did another ‘crazy 8' walk with the puppers (.50mi). (It’s a combination of two other trails that resembles a figure 8, hence the name. It’s my favorite and takes me around the pond and through the orchard.) I realized this morning that the next few weeks will be less than ideal for walking, since I’ll be going to the hospital the first week, then spending time with mom (split with my other two sisters), as she can’t be left alone for long because she’ll need help getting around and with the tubes.

(We’ve been told she’ll need care for three weeks, but we’ll see how that plays out in actuality. My one sister has already offered to take night duty and will be spending the nights with mom, so my other sister and I will just need to figure out the days. It helps that we won’t need to spend every minute of the day with her, so there’s some leeway for one leaving before the other arrives to take over.)

(Those who know me well know that I’m already dreading this, despite loving my mom very much. Not only the disruption to my usual schedule for an entire month, but also having to spend more time than I like ‘people’ing’. *bites nails*)

Speaking of my mom’s surgery, I have just found out from the surgeon (via my sister, the nurse) that the operating room has been reserved for ten hours. Ten frelling hours! For some reason, that makes me more nervous about the surgery.

In other unhappy-making news, I have sores in my mouth. The tongue sores from being burned by the pineapple went away and I had one glorious day without sores, and then, whammo!, more sores. I have a sore on the top of my tongue, inside cheek, roof of mouth, and at least two canker sores on the gum on the bottom front. I don’t know if it’s related to the pineapple, or if it’s from repressed stress, but I’m salt-water-rinsing like a fiend.

(I had a ball of anxiety in the pit of my stomach last night that kept me awake for a while, so another vote for general anxiety over everything that’s coming down the pike in the next few weeks.)

I did a load of laundry (more dog sheets), ran a load in the dishwasher and did the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, paid a bill online, placed an order online, wrote out checks for my aunt, baked chicken for the dogs’ meals, and scooped kitty litter.

I finished the Duncan Kincaid book, watched an HGTV program, and talked with mom.

I grilled steak for Pip’s supper and made French toast for myself before Pip got home (he likes French toast, but we haven’t found a good GF bread to make it with and I didn’t want him feeling left out, even though he was getting steak).

Temps started out at 62.6(F) (quite a difference from yesterday morning!) and reached 93.7. (I feel the need to remind everyone (myself) that this is the temp in the shade. It’s probably ten degrees warmer in the sun. *melts*) Pip put the AC in the bedroom last night.

I did zero shopping while I was downtown \o/, but still got in a short walk around the park. I did run to a local shop on my way home to get the meat sticks that Pip likes, and of course they were out of them. I got a yogurt parfait to try and was impressed to see that they used fresh fruit (strawberries, raspberries and blueberries). It was good, and filling.

I did a load of laundry, the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, scooped kitty litter, hit the bank drive-thru, and paid a bill online.

I finished Network Effect and started the next Duncan Kincaid book, and talked with mom. For my walk with the dogs, I went on a different trail, one that’s .50 mi instead of .25. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to add on a 1/4 mile each week. If so, by next week I’ll be doing a mile a day, which is good, considering. I also did some more writing, ~900 words on a brand new fic for smallfandomfest. (If you guessed that it’s a Murder, She Wrote crossover, you’d be right. *g*)

We had leftover pulled pork (from Sunday’s b-day party) for supper, so another night I didn’t have to cook!

Temps started out at 39.9(F) (I know! I was o_O about it too!) and reached 84. It was very nice out, but still cool inside the house, so I wore a sweatshirt most of the day while iside.

I have rewatched the next few MSW episodes and I wanted to share some thoughts with you. The eps in question are: 2.10 Sticks and Stones, 2.11 Murder Digs Deep, 2.12 Murder by Appointment Only and 2.13 Trial by Error.


( all comments back here )


What are your thoughts on these eps?