Good Grief! *iz exhausted*

[mrs_helenesnape]

As most of you know my mother had a health crisis this past week. Well, we went to her appointment with New Doctor (I'll call him Dr. D) and he was very thorough in his exam, checking her to find out the extent of her paralysis, symptoms, etc. He was so concerned about the possibility of stroke that he wrote up hospital admission orders right then. So, from around 1 pm Thursday afternoon to around 1 pm Saturday afternoon Mom was in hospital getting all sorts of tests run... I shan't bore you with the lists or technical terms but there appeared to have been no stroke whatsoever. There was no place where they could detect that there had been any bleeding or possible blockage, her blood flow throughout her neck was good, and all is well with her heart (she had a scan of her heart and was on a heart monitor during her entire stay). All in all, it was good to be reassured that her symptoms weren't indicative of something much more serious. The diagnosis was Bell's Palsy, which doesn't really have a particular cause (from what I can understand from the literature which is very limited) but it is a positive diagnosis in the fact that it's not progressive and she can do facial exercises to improve those affected muscles.

 

Only one drawback (from mother's POV) about hospital stay is they told her she is going to have to take insulin injections now. She is currently maxed out on the allowable oral blood sugar medications, so she'll have to take insulin now. She's not very happy with that (she knows very well what injections in the stomach feel like... YUCK!) but if it's what she has to do to stay well then I'm all for it. She'll have to attend an education class to learn exactly how to do the shots, so we'll be exploring all the available options... new non-refrigerated injection pen, regular syringe injections, insulin pumps, etc... when we attend the Diabetes Education class. I know I will be attending as well, as I have gone with her to just about every health related appointment since her diagnosis with Hepatitis C in 2004.

 

I am completely exhausted. I have been in a dead run since Thursday, going here there and yonder for various reasons... mom needs this or that, Nicholas had Vacation Bible School all this week, my grandfather opens his dance hall on Friday and Saturday nights, so I had to do the concession stand for those nights by myself.

 

Friday and Saturday nights were HELL! Damn... those 'old people' can be grumpy and rude. I certainly don't mean 'old people' in a derogatory way, but wouldn't you consider someone who is 40+ years older than you as being 'old'? They are demanding and rude, and have absolutely no concept of food preparation order in the sense that if Customer A orders food before Customer B, customer b will not get their food until customer a's food order is complete. I am on the verge of putting up a sign to the effect of  "I reserve the right to pour hot coffee on you if you continuously harass/annoy me." During the slow times, I read and someone ALWAYS walks by and makes some sort of negative comment about what I am reading be it 'Don't you have something else you could be doing' or after taking my book from my hands to look it over and say 'why are you reading this trash/garbage/sappy stuff.' Yes, I read Harlequin romances. So what! I refuse to justify myself to anyone over my reading choices.

 

In all of the weekend chaos, I forgot that Saturday morning was Angel Food pick-up-day.  www.angelfoodministries.com explains this better than I could. All in all, I missed the deadline to pick-up what I ordered, mainly because I forgot... my brain is fried so now I have probably just lost my $50 order, unless that church was kind and held on to my food in the event that I contact them about it and not just give it away to someone else. I have sent them an email and tried to call several times (for some reason, the number they have listed is actually a fax number) so I really don't know what will come of this.

 

 

All in all, it's been a hellish week of epic proportions and I really don't want to have to go through something like this again. /end rant

 

Thanks to my marvelous flist for 'listening' to me vent.

Squishes to those who need them!

MHS

Comments

[irishredlass.livejournal.com]

I have a friend with Bell's Palsy. She has episodes of facial paralysis and then everything straightens its self out sometimes weeks later and sometimes months later. Is odd.

As to the insulin. My mother was on twice daily shots for years. If your mother is we will say "fleshy" hips and thighs can also be used. The trick is to vary the injection site.

[mrs-helenesnape.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize that Bell's Palsy was such a common condition. During mother's 2 day hospital stay, she had 3 nurses and 1 nurse's aide who have had their own episodes of Bell's Palsy.

I just hate it that mother is going to have to go through injections again. With her Hepatitis C treatments, it was weekly shots of Interferon in her stomach and those were AWFUL. Her nurse (back then) said that she could also inject into her thighs, but mother doesn't have an ounce of extra flesh on her legs at all. We'll certainly find out more during the diabetes education class.

Thanks for 'listening' to me vent Irish!
*hugs*