Tired, but can't resist a party (Sat, 19 Jun 5:30pm)

Mom was still tired this morning and basically took it pretty easy all morning. She wanted to wash her hair, but she isn't supposed to get the surgery site wet just yet, plus she isn't supposed to raise her left arm over her head, so she leaned over the kitchen sink and I washed her hair for her. Then I held the hair dryer for her while she used her right arm to curl her hair the way she wanted. Between the two of us we got the job done, and she was happy with the result!

I checked the pacemaker, and this time I measured the goose egg with a tape measure so I will know whether it's increasing in size. It's an oval, 3" long and 2.5" wide, and it sticks out from her chest a full inch and an eighth. I know the pacemaker itself isn't that thick, so there probably is some accumulation of blood under it, but it isn't really purple--it still just looks like a healing bruise.

There was a surprise birthday party at Myrna's for Linda Garrison, and even though mom felt pretty fatigued, she still wanted to go for a short visit. We got there at 2pm. A woman named Michelle--one of Linda's friends from California--was there. Last year Michelle had helped Greg repair mom's water pump, so she came up to mom and greeted her with, "How's the old pump?" Mom put her hand on her pacemaker and said, "Well, it's getting better all the time!" Michelle didn't realize that mom had just had pacemaker surgery. Later when she found out, both mom and Michelle had a huge laugh over that. Michelle said that she thought mom was very attached to her water pump, and extraordinarily glad that it was working better!

We stayed at the party for about an hour till 3pm, and by then mom was ready to head home. We came back and I built her a fire and made a broccoli and mushroom quiche for dinner.

Mom commented today that she had just realized that it isn't just the pacemaker surgery that she is recovering from, but also the preceding two months that started with her almost dying, followed by weeks of precarious health as her heart continued to malfunction. I keep telling her that she has good reason to be exhausted, and that it will probably take a while to recover. Seems like this realization has made her more willing to relax and rest because she isn't constantly thinking that she shouldn't be "so lazy."