Claudia, Dad, Anthony, Con, Samantha, and Anthony Michael all went to start mom's day with her. She was being washed and dressed when they arrived. When mom was finally ready, they said there was a strong smell of huron in the room but they thought nothing of it. It wasn't until they began mom's physical therapy that dad realized mom had no diaper on...the bed and mom were soaking wet. Needless to say, no one was happy about this. Dad became very upset and so did Con and Anthony and Claudia...Samantha began to cry, "They can't treat my Nonny like this!" They saw the head nurse who assured them that our family needs "family counseling" and that many patients have their diapers left open!!! Somehow they ended up talking about mom's progress (or seemingly lack thereof) on the vent. The nurse told Claudia that the current research she was quoting didn't apply to our mom because the theorists and researchers don't know our mom. Claudia told her that's how research is done and applied in the medical field...by using a small sample group and then applying the results to the population at large. She brought up Hypocrites and Nostradamus and how many of their principles still apply today... She turned to ask a nurse if he washed his hands before seeing patients...to which he replied yes he did--someone then asked him if he knew Nostradamus or if Nostradamus knew him since he was still applying a concept Nostradamus discovered many years ago. Whatever.
Dad and I visited with mom this afternoon. Mom was very tired. She even frequently slumped over to her left side. She slept and woke and slept and woke and kept this pattern throughout the afternoon. At 3:30, an aide took her temperature and it was 100.3. She may not feel well and that’s why she is so tired. I gave mom some more of the items Claudia and I bought for her at the conference. I bought her 2 small felt/velour balls that are about 7 inches in diameter. There are craters on the balls; one has large craters and the other has small…they squeeze easily too. Mom held them, one in each hand, with her fingers placed in one of the holes. She also held tightly to her piggies too. She couldn’t focus enough to complete any tasks. She was out of it---even though her eyes were open on and off. She seemed sort of spacey. This is probably due to the low grade temp. I decided to keep things low key and put on some videos for mom to watch…MASH. Right around 5:00, a young, kind woman from the place I work (who is doing an internship in the recreation department) came to read some poetry to mom…she read from the book, “Chicken Soup for the Survivor’s Soul.” She talked about how she wanted to do one-to-one visits to people in the vent wing. As she listened to the short stories, mom snuggled up to the pillow dad and I wedged on her left side…she looked so comfy. And suddenly, it occurred to me that mom hasn’t leaned on a pillow at the side of her head in 5 months. She is always kept in a flat on the back (but inclined) position, with the back of her head leaning on the bed. She looked so comfortable. After the young lady left, dad did mom’s physical therapy. I sat in the front corner of mom’s room and caught up on my schoolwork as she slept.
Sometime in the early evening, an emergency occurred in the wing. The person in the room next to mom passed away. The strange thing is that the spouse of this person is someone mom and dad knew from their allergist’s office. Dad and the spouse often stood at the front door of the facility and encouraged each other. When I saw the outburst of the emergency, I went to the door to see what was happening and saw a woman at the end of the hallway crying…I went to comfort her and pray with her and then I realized it was mom and dad’s friend’s spouse who had passed. I offered some comfort and a prayer and when she went to her family, I told dad. These are the kind of parents I have---when dad heard of his friend’s emergency and loss, he immediately went through the crowd to his friend…to comfort his friend at the bedside of the lost spouse. I can’t imagine how hard that was for dad to do; I only know how upsetting and terribly hard that was for me to witness…how close to home it all was. I later hugged dad’s friend and offered to take her and her family to the hospital because they didn’t know how to get there but another family member arrived soon after and he knew where the hospital was. I came back into mom’s room and hugged her tightly and held her in my arms for a while. When dad returned, he was teary eyed. He sat back down in the chair beside mom’s bed and held her hand as she slept.
When dad became hungry, we went to my house for dinner. Ava was there working on a project for school with Lenny so she drove home with dad. Anthony offered to check in on dad at home and possibly sleep over with him too.
Claudia and I went to a wake tonight and went to see mom after the wake to tuck her in. Her temp went down to 99.2. Thank the Lord. She was asleep at first but woke as we were praying over her. She gave a small smile at us but still seemed out of it a bit.
"The sleep of a laboring man is sweet..." Ecclesiastes 5:12
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