Mom & Me Four Archive

    I'm finally "in the mood" to get my ass over There and do some serious fill in, but my time is limited at the moment, so here are a few for-myself reminders:

• Meals yesterday were a bit topsy turvey. Mom talked ice cream all day so I figured last night would be a good time to finish off the little bit of the non-chocolate ice cream we had left from the holidays. In case you're wondering, to Mom there are only three flavors of ice cream: Chocolate, Butter Pecan and Non-Chocolate, in that order. I was continuing to hanker, as well, for non-cured Canadian Ham and Jarlsburg Swiss. So, lunch/dinner (which happened late enough to qualify) was a drawn out affair beginning with grilled ham and cheese sandwiches on sourdough and V-8 juice at about 2030 and Non-Chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce at about 2200. Her pills were administered throughout the evening; supplements and antibiotic at dinner; blood sugar and aloe vera gel with ice cream; lisinopril at bedtime.
• Bowel Movement pretty much on schedule at 2115: Good volume; good consistency but a little hard, probably due to the furosemide and it's diuretic effect; elimination extended but not hard; very easy clean-up.

    I've got another hour before we reach the 12 hour sleep mark, although I've heard Mom's reconnaisance cough a couple of times so she may struggle out of bed a little earlier. I'm keeping my ears tuned. I'm not sure what we'll do today, although I've been trying to find a good time to interview her about teaching. I'm hoping she'll be at optimum interview status today. I've started a couple of times in the last few days but she's been in "yes/no/oh, Gail, I don't know" status so I've deleted all those efforts. And, of course, stats.
    Sidebar: You'd think, wouldn't you, that writing every little detail down here would satisfy my need to vent, but no. I realized, this morning, talking to MCS, that every time I'm on the phone with her or another one of my sisters I manage to turn the conversation to Taking Care of Mom and run my mouth off to what I am sure is their distraction. I'm sure, too, I'm boring as hell when I do this because quite a bit of it is repetitive. I'm kind of like a one-horse town in that respect, right now. I've been thinking about it and I'm not sorry that my focus is as acutely concentrated as it is. It works for me. But, it doesn't work really well for the few social relationships I retain (I might add, it has been my decision to curtail social relationships; that also works for me). I'm not sure if I'll be successful at modifying this behavior but I'm going to give it a try. If, however, being more cosmopolitan in my conversational acuity doesn't work for me I'll just shrug my shoulders and agree, "Yeah, I'm a Caregiving Asshole. Deal with it."