Vascular test

Mom has edema in both ankles, but for some reason the right ankle is much more swollen than the left, and it's very reddish and mottled looking. Dr. Kubac's assistant Glenda was worried that mom might have a blood clot, so Dr. Kubac ordered a vascular test. It took mom by surprise because Glenda scheduled it so fast that mom found out late yesterday that the test was today at 2pm. Mom was stubbornly planning to drive herself even though they had a lot of snow overnight.

Fortunately mom's neighbors were aware of this because the wife had called mom last night to chat. She had ordered mom to call her this morning to tell her when the appointment was scheduled for, so when mom called her this morning, she told mom that her husband was going to drive her to town, and wouldn't take NO for an answer.

The county snowplow had made a real mess of mom's driveway by throwing a huge berm of snow. So another neighbor came over to plow out mom's driveway, and then he drove down in his Jeep and picked mom up and ferried her up to the road, and then she transferred into the other neighbor's car for the trip to town! Man, what fantastic neighbors! And thank goodness that they are equally as hard-headed as my hard-headed mom, and they were determined that she was not going to drive herself after that heavy snow!

He dropped her off at the hospital for her test, which only took about a half hour. Mom said that the technician was wonderful, and she explained things very well. There's no blood clot, and this is just part of the whole syndrome of congestive heart failure, where mom's heart valves are leaking and consequently her heart isn't pumping blood very efficiently. This affects the circulation in her extremities, although I didn't understand mom's explanation of why it would be different in her right ankle (something to do with how she uses her right leg more than her left to "push off and things like that"...). The technician told her that there really is nothing more they can do about it at her age and her condition, and that she has to just accept it. Mom was content with that explanation and happy that there was no blood clot.

her neighbor picked her up and then they stopped at Safeway so he could get Chinese food for dinner, and they were determined that mom was going to have dinner with them. But mom refused because Jana had been in the house since 10am and it was then about 4pm, so he agreed to take mom home but then his wife sent over a complete Chinese dinner for mom!

I am so incredibly grateful to these truly wonderful people who look out for mom! She has the best neighbors that anybody could possibly hope for!