Just need to talk to my friends (200)

Good morning all from Mom's kitchen. She and her crazy cat are still in bed which is nice. I need a massive mug of tea and some me-time to center my day.

Ron— I'm glad you're home. Has the shaking in your hands improved any?

Mom was discharged yesterday too. She was in since the 13th and completed her antibiotics there but came home with a 40-30-20-10 schedule of prednisone, nebulizer treatments and oxygen. They tweaked her meds, so I need to re-do her pill boxes in a bit. Her visiting nurse will be here around noon and I don't want to look as incompetent as I feel.

Mint— Good reminder on the pertussis. Thet do push the combined vaccine for people old enough to be grandparents and above. I got it as a booster the first time when my friend's kids started having babies. I insisted mom get it when she was traveling into the city to love on her great grandson in the NICU five days a week. DH got Tdap as his booster this month.

Lorita— you so deserve some fall weather. It must be difficult for this challenging summer to drag into the latter half of October.

David— Your wife sounds like your wife is just the right amount of protective with you. I can appreciate how missing out on your exercise would be frustrating. I agree with Judith, maybe some chair exercises would be an option. There are many on You Tube you could do at home. I have some Pilates, yoga and functional strength favorites I sometimes add to another workout.

I can appreciate the clumsiness factor with a boot. Mom had a walk shoe for some chopped bones in her foot a year or 2 back. While necessary for pain control and proper healing, I was terrified she was going to fall and break a hip. She was too and was very compliant around the walker for the duration.

Jerilynn— Your Brunswick Stew sounds like something my DH would like. When he used to travel to Louisville (his second least favorite plant location) on business, he always ordered it.

Beth— Thanks for the reminder. We have a plan in place, I take care of mom and DH (with DS as back-up) takes care of me. LOL, I've been texting him a running list of things I forgot to pack. This time I brought my hair styling tools and make up, but forgot my allergy eye drops, microwavable eye compress and prescription eye drops. Evidently I have my priorities a little skewed.

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So, mom is home. It was a bit of a dog'n'pony show to get through discharge as the nursing crew wasn't as ridiculously accommodating as previous teams have been. I did, however bust her out, by 1:15pm which may be a new record for timely discharge. We always seem to be stuck in rush hour.

The timing was critical as I'd managed to arrange a telehealth visit with her psychiatrist. Mom's psych is great and I thought a talk would do her some good so when it became clear she'd miss it otherwise, I was able to pull some strings to make it happen. We got home with 5 minutes to spare, but my laptop wouldn't allow access to the microphone and camera, so I had to pivot to my iPad which worked great. Plus, it's more like mom's phone so she's more comfortable with it.

During the appointment, I busied myself assembling a shower chair and troubleshooting her air concentrator. I watched a YouTube video to make sure had it set properly. I'd planned to do that earlier and be good to go when we hit the front door but at the last minute it occurred to me that with DS's car in the shop we were down to 1 car for 2 households. Gah. I picked a rental for a couple days. They gave me a minivan which takes some getting used to.

I got mom to take nap after we did the first breathing treatment and ran out to the store to forage for dinner. When I got back, the cat was out of hiding and hanging with her mom. The cat is weird. Because most of us who visit are either allergic or not fans, mom keeps the upstairs guest room off limits to the cat these days. Alas, this is that cat's favorite place in the house and until about a year ago she considered it her domain. The cleaner left the door open last time and the cat has reclaimed it as hers. When I brought my bag up last evening, the cat got weirdly territorial about the bed— sprawling on it and staring malevolently at me.

Between the dander and threat of feline vengeance, I capitulated and slept of the couch. For whatever reason, after I settled mom for the night and turned in, the cat decided to play with my head. She jumped up on the arm of the sofa and started lapping my face and hands. Saliva being where the allergens are, I swatted her away and finally ended up burrowing under the covers to get away from her. Undeterred, she climbed on the couch and slept me for at least the first half of the night. This must've been a terrific two-fer for her— punishing mom for being away and annoying me at the same time.

Visiting nurse today. I hope this one isn't a dud. She seemed great on the phone. I shared a concern about mom's medications which were tweaked during her stay. She has Mucinex 1200mg ER 2x daily ordered by her pulmo, the hospital held that and gave their 2-600mg guaifenesin 2x daily. Midweek, they were giving both and discharged her that way. She's said that was a lot, but maybe intentional and she would confirm with pulmo.

I'm out of my depth on so much of this gear. I'm making a list of questions for the nurse. Where can I get nasal cannulas? The ones on the concentrator and O2 tank are both at least 5 years old— they're harder and discolored. Is the nebulizer tubing supposed to get warm? How long should tanked O2 last? Do I need to carry a spare? How do I switch the thingie at the top of the tank to a new tank? Does the thingie have a name in case I have to ask someone else about it? Would she be a candidate for an Inogen instead or as well? And how do I get my paws on one?

I have pulmo follow up scheduled and am waiting to see if cardio and PCP also want to check in. I reached out to the cardio about the hospital holding her BP meds and not including them on her discharge. Her BNP is worse than it was in July— could it be worsening CHF or a function of high dose steroids or both? She's supposed to see him in a month anyway.

Enough blathering. HB

Something went well today.

Mom’s pulmonary specialist’s office got us fixed up. He’s ordered her a portable oxygen concentrator to replace the tank oxygen. The person who did our check-out not only gave me fresh new tubing for her in-home concentrator and tanks, she taught me how to exchange the regulator at home. I had brought a fresh tank from home, so she switched it on the spot. When I was getting the new tank out of the garage, I found a tag with the phone number and name of the agency which has since merged with other companies under a new name. When I called to ask about new tanks, they arranged delivery for tomorrow and expedited the delivery of the POC for Monday. So yay!

In other news, the pulmo “shamed me” for failing to give mom her daily inhaler. I’m on top of all her oral stuff but inhalers aren’t on my radar. He was trying to be gently funny, because we always laugh when there, but I just burst into tears. I’m not generally one to cry— I didn’t cry at either my sister’s or dad’s funerals— so my mom felt terrible. I guess it’s the stress and sheer exhaustion. I feel like a fool now.

I need to run to the store and pick up something for dinner. I should probably eat something. I haven’t been doing so great in that department.

HB