Worried about Mom

She called me on my cell phone two days ago while I was at work. I didn't hear it ring. By chance, I checked the phone and found two voice mails. One was April from the day Jonathan took the wrong bus and ended up at our house. The second was Mom, sounding very weak, asking me to call her.

She sounded perky when I called her. I admit I'm suspicious of her sometimes. I immediately thought that she was going to fake illness to keep me from going to my cousin's funeral. It turned out that was wrong. She said she needed a new thermometer because the one she had told her her temp was 91 degrees earlier in the day, about the time she called me. It was a new mail-order thermometer that only takes 10 seconds to take your temp. She said it was higher later in the day but still below normal. She also needed me to pick up her prescription at Kaiser.

I needed to see my chiropractor and get my pain adjusted plus get my x-rays back for yesterday's doctor's appointment. To get there before they closed, I had to go directly from work. So I did that even though I thought I'd have to double back to Mom's to get her Kaiser card. The new Kaiser hospital is right on my way back to Mom's so I decided to see if they'd give me her prescription without her card. I called her and got her card number and her prescription number.

I figured I could at least prove I used to have the same last name by showing them my driver's license with two middle initials (I kept my maiden name as a middle name) and by showing them my social security card that has all the names spelled out.

To my surprise, they gave it to me without any of my proof. I also picked up a thermometer for her. She looked pale and seemed a bit confused when I got there. She took her temp with both thermometers. The new one said 98.6 and took a full minute to get there. The 10 second thermometer said 98.1. I noticed she pressed the button and took a few seconds getting it into her mouth. The first time she tried, she didn't get it there in 10 seconds. Maybe it's user error.

When I mentioned going to the store, she brightened and asked me to pick up some coffee for her. She'd gone to 7-11 and they didn't have her brand. She didn't like the brand she bought. I was so tired and it was late but I said OK anyway. She saw that on my face and said she didn't need it right away. The next day would be fine. Good. That would be my opportunity to check on her.

She told me when she needed a transfusion two weeks ago, her temp was low and she felt tired like she had in the morning. She said she was feeling a lot better. What I don't understand is why they don't have her taking iron if she's so anemic that she needs blood transfusions and ProCrit injections. I made her promise that if she felt bad again the next morning that she'd call her doctor.

Yesterday was my sister's birthday. I called and left a message at lunch time singing happy birthday to her. After work I went to Mom's with her coffee. She didn't answer the door. I followed her oxygen line to her bedroom where it disappeared under the covers on Dad's side. I thought she was sleeping there but it was just the blankets all rolled up. She was in the spa in the back yard. She looked fine. She sounded fine.

She got over her anger at my cousin and said she was going to send flowers to the funeral. She was thinking about what lovely huge bouquets Rosemarie had sent to Dad's and Aunt Marge's funerals.

Last night my sister called to thank me for the surprise song and to discuss her concerns about Mom. Sunday, Mom had called them because her watering system had broken and water was spouting out of a pipe. She couldn't turn it off with the timer for some reason. Bruce had to turn the water off to the whole house and cap it. Sherrie said there was a lot of confusion about when Mom's dental surgery appointment is this Thursday. She's supposed to have the first part of her implant done. Mom had told Sherrie it was at 1PM. Now she was saying they wanted her there at 12:10 for a 12:30 appointment. Mom said she'd better find the paperwork and confirm it. She said it was in a big white envelope. She started digging through a stack of junk mail and other stuff and instead of going straight to one of the six or so white envelopes, she methodically read each piece of junk mail and moved each one into another stack. Sherrie said it was scary to see her read ads for tire sales when she should have been able to discard them with a glance.

She said Mom started talking about "we" again instead of "I" which worries both of us. Is she slipping into dementia?

We're going to have to start dropping by at least once every week to check on her. We'll coordinate between us to make sure someone checks on Mom.

We're also thinking about talking to her doctors. Why would they give someone a transfusion and wait five weeks for a recheck appointment?

Yesterday was too crazy.

I had some great news for myself yesterday. At my checkup I found out I've now lost 42 pounds! That's another four pounds since the last time I weighed myself a couple of weeks ago. Two more pounds and I'll be under 200. Yippee! My doctor was really impressed. She scrolled back on my weight in graphic format and it's a steady decline at a very healthy rate. She went through my nutrition supplements and wants me to drop the Vitamin A and change the balance of Vitamin B's. The others are probably fine. When I told her what I'm eating daily and about walking on the treadmill, she was very happy. :)

( Non-graphic female stuff )

She's convinced my blood sugar will be back in the normal range. We'll see. I hadn't eaten so I did my blood tests before I left. My oatmeal was in the car. Man it got thick and hard to eat!

When I got home from work and Mom's, I was picking up the mail when Eric got home. The little girl from next door was up on our porch trying to get Scampi to come over to her. She kept talking to us. When I called "Honey?" from the kitchen to Eric in the bedroom, she answered. The chaos of it all created a big problem for me. I saw my weekly paycheck in the mail. In my mind I threw the mail on my chair and when we got back from getting El Pollo Loco take-out, I threw the mail in my chair onto the couch. Yeah, I'm that disorganized.

Having Alexa on our porch was disturbing to both of us and to the cats. I finally told her we needed to let the porch be a "safe" area for the kitties. She took the hint. :)

Today I went to the couch to get my paycheck and it wasn't there. Nothing but catalogs were on the couch. I'd been sitting on a catalog since the weekend. Did I only throw that onto the couch? Now I vaguely remember wanting to put the junk mail into a box we used to throw it in but that box is now unavailable because Eric stacked stuff on it. I had to go into the kitchen to put it in the recycle bag. Did I recycle my check? This morning was trash pickup and Eric put everything out last night. If I put my check and (who knows what else) into the recycle, it's gone.

Oh how I hope Eric remembers what I did with the mail last night and I pray it wasn't put into the recycle!

If I can't find my check tonight I'll call the temp agency and tell them I accidentally recycled it. Please stop the check and issue me another.

Sometimes having ADHD really bites. If I don't follow my rituals, I'm lost.