Tuesday, July 29, 2008

When it rains...it pours!

You know the saying..."When it rains, it pours".
Well, it poured in my life today. A torrential downpour. I was so overwhelmed in a matter of minutes. What could have been so bad you ask...Well, pull up a chair, grab your coffee and I'll vent on you for a few minutes. Is that alright? Well, it'll have to be alright cause here I go.

First, I didn't sleep very well last night; I was extremely worried about the surgery my mother was going to endure this morning. I was in prayer half the night. I finally crawled out of my bed at 5am, lazily let the dogs out then poured me a huge cup of coffee. I spent some more time with God, then started to get ready for the day. On the way to mom's house I got behind a John Deere Tractor going 25 mph...that's what happens when you live in the country! I never had an opportunity to pass him. I had no choice but to follow him 9 miles. When he turned off...I did a little hooray dance in my seat. Then when I finally got to the interstate traffic was backed up and crawling at 30 mph. I could have screamed! But, instead I cried. My emotions have been in high gear for awhile now. Anything can make me cry and I mean anything! But, that's a whole different blog in it's self. So I call Mom and tell her I'm coming... just running into a few road blocks. Finally, I pick up mom, get her to the dentist. They take her in and tell me it will be about 3 hours. OK, I go run some errands my mom asked of me and a few of my own.

Mom has Lupus and without going into great detail, it has ate away the bone in her mouth and was causing abscesses. They had to pull teeth, scrap away bone and so fourth. She is also on blood thinners...one of the reasons I was extremely scared for her to have this surgery. She had to be taken off the medicine 1 week before the surgery. There is a huge risk in doing this. She could bleed to death if something goes wrong. Someone has to be with her for at least the first 24 hours. She has to stay in bed for 72 hours and be as still as possible.

So the nurse tells me mom is all done and ready to go home. I pull the car around to the back door to pick her up. The nurse puts her in the car and in 2 minutes flat gives me instructions on how to take care of my mother.

There are two ice packs put them on the counter and hit it with your fist...like this(she demonstrates in thin air) 15 minutes here 15 minutes here (as she points to chin and cheek) every time shes awake...she has two different pain medications give her one of each when you get home...keep her at a 45 degree angle for the first 24 hours...do not let her lay down...she can aspirate. Etc... I swear the woman didn't take a breath...it was one continuous sentence. My head was spinning. I will say this though, That was one of the nicest dentist offices I have ever been in. Everyone was super sweet and took super care of my mother!!!

When they were giving me those instructions, Tori had stopped by to get my debit card so she could go buy her & I sushi for lunch. She was to go to the post office then get sushi and meet me at Grandmas.

My mom was SO out of it....drugged up hard core. There was no way I could get her in the house by myself. I call my sister Kim, she said Yes, I'll meet you there. (she works right around the corner) she calls me back a few minutes later...she was walking out the door and realized she couldn't leave...there was no one else there to watch the shop. I didn't panic I said, OK, I'll figure something out. So I call my brother Chad. He is not in town and said he would come(he is a good 20 minutes away) but I was almost to the house. I panicked and you guessed it...started crying. Kim called back and was able to leave after all. Thank God!!! The two of us get mom in the house....slowly. She settles into the chair. 45 degree angle. I go back out to my car to get mom's medication. I see that I missed a call from Tori 1 minute earlier. I call her back. Here is where my day became the torrential downpour.

Hey Tori, sorry I missed your call...we were helping Grandma into the house.
Momma, I wreaked my car.
What, Are you OK? Where? I'll be right there.
No, stay with Grandma.
Love you
Love you

Of course my sister told me to go...go be with Tori. She was there and would take care of Mom. Well, remember the instructions the nurse gave me in 2 minutes...I gave them to my sister in 15 seconds. I didn't know how long I'd be with Tori.

I cry and cry as I drive to my baby girl.

I went through 2 accidents with Meg, both being very bad, so I was anticipating the worse. As I pulled up to the scene I was relieved that it wasn't as bad as I foresaw. I tend to do that a lot. I think all mother's do...or at least the one's in my family. Tori was headed to Grandma's when a car in front of the car in front of her...slammed on his brakes...making the car in front of her slam on his and then she had no time to react and rear ended him. So I pull up, got out of my car and I hugged Tori and was just happy she wasn't hurt. I was also very happy to see one of her best friend's, Kristyn whom she has known since kindergarten standing by her side. God was in control of that one! He put Kristyn in that intersection I believe so she could comfort Tori until I could get there. She stayed until we all drove off. That speaks volumes about the friendship those two have!

Tori didn't get hurt, physically. She had a headache...and will probably be a little sore tomorrow from the jolt.. She didn't get a ticket...the cops were gracious and wrote it up as $2000.00 in damage...anything over $2500 they have to ticket you. They said they have 6 or 7 accidents like this a day cause the town has grown so fast! It is actually about $3500 in damage. She loves her car and was upset because she has been driving almost 3 years and this is her first accident. We actually were just talking about this a few days back. I'm just glad she wasn't hurt.

Mom is doing good. Her face is a bit swollen. She actually does very well recouping from surgeries. We just have to get her to stay still and stop trying to look at her mouth.You aren't supposed to pull at your cheek and she kept doing so. My shift ended. Tori and cousins, Emily & Krysta are with her now and will be staying the night. Oh and the instructions....I took about 15 minutes and talked it over with them.

So if you have hung in there and read all the way to the bottom I thank you for letting me vent it out. I don't have a stress headache anymore! I think I'm all cried out as well.
I'm going to go crochet now.
I hope you all have a pleasant evening.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well geezum crimaney Betty you sure did have one hell of a day! It's kinda funny though because reading your blog actually made me chuckle. Especially the part about mom looking in her mouth(Glenn chuckled at that too) Tell Tori I love her and that I am happy she is safe..
LOve you,
Barbara Jean

Anonymous said...

& you did awesome through all of it!
grandma & i were talking about how you were a lot calmer than you normally are.
thank you for everything!
lovelovelove.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for all you did for me yesterday while under crisis mode. You actually stayed very calm through it all. As much as I can remember of it anyway. Tori is taking real good of me. I don't know how much sleep she got last night as she woke me up several times to sit higher up. You really taught your girls right.
Thank GOD her accident was a minor one. No cuts no scratches.
Love you,
mom

Anonymous said...

Love ya, Mrs. Betty!

You're so awesome for being there for everyone ♥

-Nat