Changing of the Guard(ian) (Sun May 30, 6pm)

Since mom was in the ER in mid-April, Jack or Bill or I have been with her constantly. Today I took off for Seattle, and Bill came down to RP to stay with her for the coming week. The plan at the moment is that I will try to get things arranged in Seattle so I can come back down next weekend and spend several weeks with her. My assumption is that most likely Kubac will recommend a pacemaker, and I think the earliest she could go into the hospital would be next Monday, a week from tomorrow, and I want to be with her. (A lot of assumptions there, but I guess we will know the real plan on Wednesday.)

This morning I cleaned her shin sore and put a new dressing on it. It has to be done every two days. I can't really tell any change since a week ago, but Bill will take her to the Wound Clinic on Tuesday for her next visit, and they will do the very thorough measurements and notes and CSI-like photos with the ruler laid alongside the wound so we will know whether there has been any progress. The sore is about the size and shape of an almond right now.

Right before noon I asked her to check her pulse and she came up with 52 beats in a minute, but then she added that there had been a bunch of skipped beats. I said that if she had a pacemaker, her heart would not be able to skip beats, and she agreed.

Last night the Rocky Point "club" had a Mexican dinner, and mom wanted to go. Wow, she sure has a lot of friends at RP! Lots of people came up to her and hugged her and said how glad they were to see her looking better. Her pal Doris Dandurand came up and said hello, then told me that she and Jack have something in common. I wondered what in the world it could be, then she told me that she and Jack had been the same weight when they were born! HAHA, now THAT was unexpected! But the most fortuitous conversation (from my perspective) was a short woman with a name tag of "Diamond Lil." She has a pacemaker, and she told mom all about it. The gist of it was: no big deal, the surgery was easy, the recovery was easy, and it has been working fine for 6 years. I was so glad to hear that, and I think mom was too.

Mom was kind of tired this morning, but I think the culprit was not her heart, but rather her canine house guest. Fritz had an urgent need to go outside last night near midnight, and a 96-pound German Shepherd lumbering down the steps makes a rather large amount of noise. I know we woke her up on that trip. Then no sooner did we get back upstairs and settled than the motion sensor light went on. I stood at the upstairs window trying to see up to the parking area, but couldn't see anything, so I tried to creep silently down the stairs, but it is impossible. I went out to the kitchen and looked up to the parking area but didn't see anything, so I went over to the sliding glass door and went out onto the deck, but didn't see or hear anything so I went back upstairs. Then an hour and a half later Fritz decided he had to go back outside, so there was another trip down the stairs, out the sliding glass door, and then back up. Poor mom. But she was cheerful this morning and seemed like she felt relatively good.

When I left at noon she was dozing in her recliner, but she insisted on getting up to wave to me from the back door. I talked to her just now and she seems her normal self. I will continue to post updates as I get them from Bill during the coming week.