Just so no one misses it – please also read the next entry down (published last night) – it is a message to all of you from my mother. If you are having trouble finding it, click on the word Journal at the top, and it will take you to all the entries. Mom’s message will be the second one down.
I apologize – I’m very late today publishing a blog. Last night (Sunday night) was a rough night. My mom called every few hours (10, 12, and 2) because she was not having a good night. Micah woke up at 4:30 am (well, Elliot accidentally woke Micah up at 4:30) and never really went back to sleep. I sat in his room with him for a while, trying to sleep in the chair. He would lay down, then 5 minutes later he’d pop up, yell “Hi, mommy!” and I’d respond with “Hi, Micah. It is time to go to sleep, lay down.” He’d say “Night, Night, Mommy,” lay down, and then in 5 minutes the routine would start all over again.
Finally, around 5 I brought Micah into our room, hoping the quiet would coax him into sleep. He would cuddle a few minutes…and then start his “hi” routine again. At 5:30, I tried turning my back to him to sleep. I think I managed to doze off for a bit, because I remember dreaming. I dreamt that I was petting a huge bulldog, who then turned into a pitbull. The pitbull had me pinned down, and its mouth was toying with me, on the verge of mauling me. In my dream, I had my hands up, protecting my face from harm. I remember calling out, opening my eyes, and realizing that the pitbull mauling me was Micah. It was 6:00, and I finally turned to Elliot (who had somehow slept through all of this) and told him that since he woke the beast at 4:30, and I’d been dealing with him for 2 hours, Micah was now his problem.
Elliot took Micah out to play for a few minutes, and then decided to just put him in his crib around 7. He screamed for about 10 minutes, and then finally fell asleep. I was thrilled – I fell asleep, too, only to be woken 15 minutes later by Maya. She fell back asleep nursing, and Micah slept until about 9, but it was a very rough night for us.
Megan took Micah to Kidville in the morning, and I met my father at the house in Potomac. He liked it, too, and it looks like the house will be ours. Thankfully, that part of our search should be over! I went up to Hopkins around 12:30, and I kept running into traffic. I finally arrived, and somehow managed to beat my parents there. We sat waiting for radiation, and luckily they were only about 30 minutes behind. While we were waiting, my mom said she wanted to write a post, so I started to jot down her message.
As I was writing, much to our amazement, Donna (my mom’s nurse at Hopkins) walked in to say hello! It was WONDERFUL to see her. We had a chance to catch up, and my mom told her she wanted to bring her with us back to Levindale. Donna stayed with us during our wait, and then returned upstairs when my mom was called back to radiation. We hung around for a bit after radiation to meet with the doctor, and then we caught the transport back to Levindale.
On my way back to Levindale, I took a little detour to Whole Foods. I called my mom’s friend Diane along the way to check on her husband, Joey, who had knee surgery today. I hear he is doing well – sorry, Diane, that I never called back – things got busy, but I’ll call today.
I forgot how much I love Whole Foods – I could spend forever shopping for wonderful foods, and then I start to remember all kinds of delicious things I used to cook. I think when my mom comes home, I am going to try and cook more – regular meals will be good for all of us, and I always did like cooking for a bigger group. At Whole Foods, I bought my mom Breyer’s Chocolate Ice Cream, among other things. When I returned to Levindale, we had a lovely chocolate snack!
My father left early (he had a 5:45 doctor appointment to check out his eye) and Jeremy arrived. Jeremy, Mom and I all hung out for a while. We actually even played a hand of gin rummy (definitely harder for mom than she realized – we’ll have to work on that). Jeremy helped mom with dinner, too, and I put away her clean laundry and set her up for the night.
While we were there, the endocrinologist stopped by to check on mom. I really liked him – we had a good conversation about my mother’s sugars, he adjusted the orders again, and he said he was aware that the nurses were not administering my mother’s insulin appropriately. We had a discussion about the problem, and he explained that because nursing homes do not watch patients all that closely, they tend to keep patients’ sugars on the high side. He felt Mom’s sugars were still too high, but he wasn’t sure that the nurses would ever administer the full dosage he prescribed, but he was working on it. I actually really liked him, and we talked about diabetes management when Mom returns home. He has several good ideas, and we may be able to reduce Mom’s insulin when she leaves.
I again talked to the doctor and the nurse coordinator about the lift and transfer issue. I pointed out that the OT policy was interfering with the doctor’s orders for my mother’s intestines, and that it was causing harm. I told them that she was again up all night, that we were receiving phone calls, and that I wanted the problem fixed by morning, or every time I got a call, so would they. We’ll see if that works – they actually seemed concerned this time. If I have to start paging them all night long, I will.
I left for home around 6, and made it back in good time. I quickly nursed the baby, and left Elliot with both kids to meet my friends Laurie and Jeff for dinner. I learned along the way that my father ran into Laurie at the doctor’s office! Funny – timing is everything. Dinner was nice – we had a chance to catch up a bit, and then I ran home. Maya was half asleep, but I nursed her again and she fell asleep.
Which brings us to this morning. Quiet night, except the baby woke up at 2:30. Micah is currently awake in his crib, but I’m pretending I don’t hear him yet. Oh well, it begins again.