Death By Airport Sprints

I am writing this from a crop duster airplane headed from Denver to El Paso. I am starving to death and winded from the 1/2 mile sprint I just completed trying to get from my late arriving Atlanta flight gate A25 to my connecting flight gate A58. My sprint became a life or death situation as I was running just past the half-way point of my path and I could actually hear someone paging MY NAME over the Denver International Airport intercom!! What a horrible pronunciation of my entire full name! I was frantic... even more than I already was... As I bolted past the cowboy on the moving sidewalks almost knocking him down, I could hear my own haggard breath heaving as I ran. I am sure he was surprised to see this much taller, much heavier woman running by him in an almost full-blown sprint with laptop backpack on and carry-on roller bag flailing out from my side. I then realize that the gate is down another level of escalators and run down those too. I finally run into another straight hallway of gates and see mine far in the distance... I run even faster. I get there and the door is closed with two airline employees standing there staring at me as I drop my bag, bend over and attempt to catch my breath. The guy on the right says, "are you Kelly ____?" I gasp for air and nod yes. He replys that he just took me off the list... I must have forcefully stated that he just HAD to put me back on it... and that I just RAN to get this flight... all he wanted was the magic word... "please"... Easy enough... "Please, sir- let me go to El Paso tonight".... and he did. I head out the door and see the crop duster across the parking lot from the gate... and then I have to sprint again to get on the plane before they pull up the stairs and seal the door on it! By the time I run/climb the stairs and am standing in the aisle of the plane (heaving of course) EVERY person on the plane is staring at me... very weird. The flight attendant says "welcome- you made it" and I say "yes, I did!- Thank the Lord for my boot camp training!!". And they all chuckle. So here I am... sitting on a crop duster that is only a little over half full, a kid has been kicking my seat for the past 20 minutes and I am staring out my window at the HUGE propeller next to me... only a 1 hour flight though... Halleluyah! I could eat a small horse and drink a gallon of water right now...no wonder- I just realized that my sprint was at the mile-high elevation- now I know why I was breathing so hard...

Rejuvenating Time

I was supposed to fly to El Paso yesterday for work. I am hoping this is my last trip out to the job site there since I am supposedly starting a new project here in Atlanta in May or June. Well, wouldn't you know that my flight from Atlanta to Denver was delayed due to their early morning snowstorm yesterday and the delay was longer than my scheduled layover there. So I had our travel lady in our Denver office push the trip 24 hours. So now I am flying out today- fingers crossed on that one! Since my flight to Denver was/is not until early afternoon boths days I got to sleep in some and take my time packing, etc. here at home. It is funny how much I truly enjoy being at home at times like today and yesterday. There are so many things that I get to do around the house that have been neglected for so long because of my non-stop daily schedule. For instance, I finally ironed that pile of wrinkled clothes that have been laying on top of the chair in our bedroom for months... some of the shirts were short-sleeved! Those are left from Hubby last wearing them early last fall! I made a long overdue trip to wal-mart to get toiletries, cleaning supplies, etc... I got to take my time and actually SHOP. Of course, my mind always goes to that place where I wonder if I could actually quit my job and be a stay-at-home wife/mom.... I think I would really enjoy it at first... but, then once all of my projects are done, I would probably die of boredom! Who knows...
By the way, I did pass my black belt test a couple of Saturdays ago... I have just been slowly decompressing over the past week or so since that stressful Saturday. Since I have not been back to the karate studio since that day, I have had a chance to do some long overdue things for myself. I washed all of the "gear" in my karate bag, I have been dealing with all of these joint aches that I have ignored during those last 3-4 weeks before the test (my right hand and elbow are the worst- especially my thumb and middle finger joints), and have just been taking it easy in regards to getting some more sleep and relaxing. Since my Grandmother's hospital/rehab stint is finally over and I am traveling this week for work, I will probably not head back to the karate studio until this Saturday.... that will be officially 2 weeks since my test and I am positive I will be ready to start back by then.
I still have a list of things "to do" when I get back from El Paso on Thursday night. Hopefully, it will all fall into place...

Home On The Range...

We made the trip home on Saturday in a monsoon no less. We really needed a raft to get down there it was raining so hard. We ran errands around town when we got there taking care of my Grandmother’s business. And then Hubby dropped me off at to visit my Grandmother (after helping me unload all the geriatrics purchases I had bought last week). I stayed with her for about two hours and believe it or not- it flew by! When I first saw her in her bedroom, she was lounging in her reclining wheelchair with her eyes closed. I spoke and she magically perked up. Her speech was still slurred and her words were very hard to decipher. I pulled a chair right up next to her so I could put my ear next to her mouth. She kept reaching out to touch my face as if she wanted to see if I was really there… and not a dream maybe?? I brought her copies of six bluegrass music CD’s and they put one in the player… she would get this really big smile on her face and start shaking her legs and hands to the beat of the music (all while in the wheelchair) just like she was dancing to the music. She loved it! The music just makes her so happy. They did get her out of the wheelchair at one point and let her show me how she walks around the house- up and down the halls and around her bedroom and into the kitchen and around the island. It is almost as if she does not feel pain at all! Her threshold of pain must be ridiculously high is all I can figure… Then, she had lunch and a bathroom trip… still no complaining of pain in her hip… we listened to more bluegrass- she kept her eyes closed (unknowingly) most of the time while listening- not sure why she keeps her eyes closed so much now (something to talk to her eye doc about I guess)… and before I knew it- Hubby was there to pick me up. We had to go change into our dressy clothes for a family wedding later that afternoon up in LaGrange. I felt bad leaving her… but, she did not seem to be too upset about it this time.
I called her today to chat and could not interpret one single thing she said to me… very disconcerting to say the least. I just kept replying yes and uh-huh to humor her… I just hope I did not agree to too much! I talked to her about the usual (weather, work, Hubby, etc.) and closed with how much I loved her…
I think that my visit on Saturday and today’s chat on the phone really tell a dark picture of the days to come with her… I am saddened more and more as our lines of communication are dwindling. I still feel like she is herself and she knows me but I just cannot understand her words. Very upsetting…

Geriatrics Shopping Spree

In anticipation of my visit with my Grandmother this past weekend, I spent almost all of my lunch hours and afternoons after work riding around town purchasing Grandmother supplies. What sucks about it is that each different item has to be bought at a different store than all the others- so instead of going to one store and getting everything there, I have to go to 3 or 4 different stores to buy the never-ending list of stuff that she requires. I try to buy these things in bulk sizes so I am not having to Grandmother shop every other week. Well, this week was full of disappointments in the all-week Grandmother shopping spree… the first Target that I wasted my time going into for ensure knock-offs ($2-3 less than ensure!) only had ONE 6 pack in stock! I need AT LEAST six of them since she drinks 2 a day! I tried to salvage the trip by looking for the flushable wipes… NO luck- only baby wipes and they are not flushable!!! I wound up hitting another Target and scoring 7 more packs of the ensure knock-offs. And then a trip to BJ’s Wholesale landed 2 huge cases of lady pull-ups… no wipes again- only the freaking non-flushable ones! What a crock! I did manage to find HUGE bottles of fish oil, centrum silver, and citrical at BJ’s… those all important over-the-counter pills she requires… And then I had an epiphany while standing in line with the huge cases of depends sticking out of the cart… I started to wonder at what point in my life did I start shopping for adult pull-ups and ensures? Who would have ever thought that I, Kelly would be shopping for these things in my mid-30’s? I mean my Husband could hardly stand next the cart the one time he went with me to wal-mart to buy a small supply of pull-ups… I guess it just doesn’t faze me any more at this point. I mean seriously- do it look like my big butt will fit into a Ladies Cut Small diaper? Please people! And even though I rode around most of this week with all these huge boxes of geriatric supplies in my car, I still made myself unload them into our garage on Thursday- Lord help if someone were to see them in my car…now is that so wrong of me?

Hop On the Dementia Rollercoaster!

I found out on Friday that the rehabilitation center has projected my Grandmother’s release date to be this Thursday, March 26- a little surprising to say the least! And because I could not make the drive down to visit her at all last week, I had at least one visitor per day planned out up through yesterday. Since my mom and brother were coming up to visit us in Marietta this past weekend, I had to schedule my dad twice- on Saturday and Sunday just to make sure someone went to see her over the weekend. Of course her caregiver goes to see her just about everyday- but, my Grandmother does not seem to really remember her after this whole broken hip ordeal. Everyone who went and visited her over the course of last week had pretty positive feedback about his or her visit… well almost everyone- except my dad. His reports are always just the opposite. I am really beginning to think it is just him. You see even after dealing with my Grandmother’s sickness for over two years my dad is still in denial- in denial of her dementia, in denial of her disabilities, in denial of her aging, the list goes on and on. So he doesn’t understand why she does the things she does and why she does not do the things she used to could do. His behavior is so typical of family members (usually men) who just cannot or will not accept changes in their loved ones. Changes that cannot be prevented or helped… yet, they just do not get it! Come on people, the information is out there to read up on it…why not just take the time to research it so you can understand her and her condition! For example, I called him on Sunday to see how his visit went on Saturday… he tells me that she was “pitching a fit and struggling to get out of the wheelchair the entire time I was there”. He says that she stays angry and combative… I called him on Sunday night to see how his visit was earlier that day- same story just a different day. So later that night I decided to make the trip myself on Monday afternoon.
I came into work early so I could leave a little early yesterday afternoon… luck was on my side because I managed to avoid any/all traffic the entire way down there… got there by 5:30. My mom called on the way and said she wanted to meet me there to visit her too. So we entered the building together and found her in the wheelchair sitting out in the common area in front of the nurse’s station. She was yelling out at some nurse walking by her at that moment, “hey! Hello! Hey! Hello!” while pulling on the Velcro wheelchair strap that keeps her from coming out of the chair… we stopped for a minute and just watched her… it kind of reminded me of one of those homeless people you see sitting on the side of the street hollering for a hand out all the while everyone walking by are just ignoring them. I slowly walked up and silently stood right in front of her path of vision…. She looks up at my face and slowly grins like she recognizes me… but, then the smile fades, her demeanor changes and she says, “where have you been?!”… Now that is exactly what I had expected from my always-agitated Grandmother…and nothing less. And then she says, “and where is your mom?” and mom pops up next to me and says, “right here!”…And now she is really surprised… she just looks back and forth at both of us… and then she busts out crying…I slowly interpret her sobs in that she is “so glad that we are all together again”… and then a minute later she has stopped crying and is babbling about something and we are both baffled at what she is saying… it seems that her ability to talk and understand her words is waning and she speaks in such a low tone that you can hardly hear her words. Well, we spent the next hour on this rollercoaster of happy, crying, surprise, happy, crying, over and over and over. And then around 6:15 her energy level just deflated and she was asleep in the chair by 6:30. We watched the nurse tech put her bed and then told her bye…. As I made the long drive back to the city, I watched the beautiful sunset on my left through the trees and thought for a long time about how different life is going to be for my Grandmother and her caregiver when she returns to Pine Mountain later this week. A broken hip and an increased level of dementia is going to make life very much more complicated… we shall see what happens…

From One Hospital to the Next

I made the trip down on Sunday and stayed with Grandmother all day in her hospital room- nothing really happens around there on Sundays so not too much to report.

After many phone calls back and forth on Monday, I received the good news that the Roosevelt Rehab Institute in Warm Springs had accepted her into their program. However, she would not be transferred there until Tuesday (we were hoping for Monday). Her blood pressure had been up all day and the doctors had adjusted/changed her meds to remedy the problem.

I decided to make another trip down there early on Tuesday morning for the transfer, the paperwork, etc. I arrived at the hospital that morning around 7am and they finally released her for transfer to Roosevelt right around 12 noon. She napped pretty much all morning as if she did not sleep much the night before... she barely woke even when they moved her onto the stretcher and into the ambulance...
I made the drive to Warm Springs and completed all the paperwork in Admissions. When I was finally escorted to her room and found her in a DEEP sleep. And that is pretty much how she was ALL afternoon... it was kind of scary especially since she had no pain medicine in a day or so... and she had to be practically shaken physically while loudly calling her name just to get her to open her eyes and acknowledge me. It really had me wondering if she possibly had another brain seizure during transport.
After several interviews with different Roosevelt folks on her "rehabilitation team" and a 1000 questions answered later, I left her around 5pm. And I felt like a mother leaving her child to strangers...
I did make a call to her Main Nurse and checked in on her this afternoon- she did finally wake sometime last night and they have been "assessing her condition" all day today- I should get a full report tomorrow... Until then-

Deja Vu All Over Again!

Walking through the front doors of the hospital in LaGrange felt like déjà vu all over again… as I walked into the automatic doors I thought to myself, “how am I here again?” It all started the evening before… I had been in a Leadership Conference all week for work and on Wednesday evening I felt like I should call my Grandmother to chat. The Caregiver answered and said that my Grandmother had fallen and the hospice nurse was already there and recommending X-rays. After a trip to the ER in an ambulance and about 3 hours later, it was confirmed that she had broken her right hip. Since the ball/socket bone was broken completely in half and was slowing the blood flow to her leg, the doctors ordered surgery the next day. I rushed down there the next day and made it to visit with her before the surgery. Of course, with her level of dementia these days, she really had no idea where she was or why she was there. I kept telling her that she broke her hip and that she had to go into the “repair shop” to get it repaired. Of course, five minutes later and she had already forgotten it!
Surgery went well considering all of the issues... she was back in her hospital room by 6 or 7pm Thursday night. Since they were able to do a spinal tap instead of full anesthesia, her confusion was not as elevated as they predicted. I was with her most of Friday and she is/was in some pain. Her mind is all over the place too. She has had quite a few visitors during my time with her and I try to keep her busy (between visitors) by singing to/with her, reading to her and keeping a constant flow of "conversation" with her. It is very heart breaking to see her in this state of mind- almost childlike on so many levels. But, if we keep her mind and hands busy during the daylight hours, then she will sleep at night.
If everything goes well with her PT in the hospital, they will release on Monday to a rehabilitation center. The Roosevelt Rehab Institute in Warm Springs is scheduled to assess her on Monday morning- they are my first choice for her rehabilitation. I just pray that they accept her into their program since it is the closest to home for her and if everything goes well, she will only be there for 1-2 weeks. And then she would be released to go home and at-home-PT would take place 2-3 times per week. The ultimate goal at his point it to a) get her back to Pine Mountain and b) getting her as mobile as possible... Right now, I am not really sure if walking on her own will ever be an option. It all depends on her.
I am back on hospital sitter duty all day tomorrow. Hopefully, she will be in a better state of mind. Until then….

How Un-Neighborly Can One Be?

I endured another dramatic episode last week besides the Grandmother saga. Let’s call it the case of the un-neighborly psycho neighbor… this almost exact scenario happened just over 2 ½ years ago only two days before Hubby and I got married. Two days before our nuptials, our cable service died. We called out the cable company and during their field tech’s work here on our cable line, he grabbed his ladder and attempted to climb up the community utility pole (which happens to be located about 20 or so feet onto our neighbor’s property). When out of nowhere comes the neighbor screeching at him to get off her property! Well fast-forward to last Friday and the same episode repeated itself… only worse. This time there were two field techs, the supervisor was a woman and the police would not come out to deal with the problem (the neighbor). Somehow, what should have been a 30 minute cable line repair turned into a 2 ½ hour stand-off between Comcast and the neighbor. It was awful! I must have run/walk the path from the inside of our house to the driveway about 500 times trying not to get involved… and most definitely trying not to confront the “psycho” neighbor! In the past, we have managed to not have to confront her, only let the cable folks/police work it out with her… but, this time I snapped. When she waved at me like nothing was going on in the middle of this entire ordeal, I asked her what the deal was… why the cable guy could not finish his simple task… she yelled over that could not come on her property… that she was still mad at them about something that happened to her over 20 year ago by a different cable company… something about a fried TV and how lightening came into her house thru the cable line and they never compensated her… yadda yadda yadda… and it just set me off! I took off across our property and onto hers… and repeated my question… she was standing firm on her idiotic reasoning… I tried to be as nice as I could about her most stupid issue… and how they are not the same company… how we have been without cable or internet for over 5 days… she said we could use her internet, her phone, her TV… oh please! I told her to be realistic… I told her she was always asking us for favors and how we always willingly to do them and she should do this a favor to us… but, NOOOOO…. Like I said, she is a Freakin’ Psycho. I gave up and trekked home… but, in the end and about 45 minutes later the supervisor coerced her with MONEY! What a crock! She should be flogged for being bought! What a schmuck for being such an idiot and then agreeing to take money… they finally left around 7pm… poor guys on a Friday night too! And what a loser she is for dressing up to come outside to tell them to get off her property and thinking she looked good while doing it… yes, she WAS trying to pick up the cable guys! Loser. Period.

Does The Drama Ever End?

Last week was such a tiresome yet eventful seven days for me… I was supposed to have been in El Paso from Monday morning to Wednesday evening. Well that did not happen thanks to the unexpected snowstorm that blew in on that Sunday, the day before. Cancelling the trip meant my missing our one safety lunch for the field crew- grilled T-bone steaks! We handed out t-shirts (designed by yours truly) and hooded company logo sweatshirts and gave away prizes. I really hated to miss the fun. But, on the positive side, I did get caught up with a bunch of paperwork that I did not finish before my “almost” trip. On top of the fact that I am so stressed right now trying to get ready for my big karate test in less than 2 weeks. I am going to the karate studio every day for any spare hour that I can… plus work, boot camp, etc.
And top of all that, my newest saga started on Wednesday afternoon…. Yes, around 1pm on Wednesday I started receiving all these phone calls and voice mails from one of the Nurses at the Hospice who we hired to do my Grandmother’s hospice-at-home care. This is a service that folks can qualify for when they get to a certain point in their aging life… they are an on-call nursing service 24/7 and they provide bathing services, etc. 3-5 times a week. Well I just signed the papers to hire them about a month ago. And it seems like I have gotten phone calls from them about once a week since then regarding some of the most idiotic issues. The biggest issue (keep in mind this is THEIR issue) that they have called on me about is the posey vest (a restraint vest) that my Grandmother sleeps in at night. First of all, her Doctor suggested it and prescribed it in order to keep her from falling/rolling/getting out of the bed at night and hurting herself. At a certain point in one’s journey with Dementia, the victim tends to wake up at night and not know where or who they are and will climb out of bed to “get away”… coupled with her severe Glaucoma and that can be a recipe for disaster! Well the hospice does not support the use of restraints (of any type) AT ALL. And they have tortured me since their discovering the vest… they have called numerous times raising all kinds of hell about it and demanding that I sign papers relieving them of any responsibility if she chokes herself to death on it… yadda yadda yadda... Well the phone call this past Wednesday topped all the others…. This nurse must have called me over 6 times while I was on the phone with the Caregiver asking what was going on and was my Grandmother okay. As it turns out the Nurse was AT the house with my Grandmother and calling me from her car in the driveway! I finally answer the phone only to find out that the Nurse was calling to tell me that the Caregivers are beating my Grandmother… HUH? Not to delve every detail, but they did not see any bruises after I questioned about it. They did not see it actually happen. But, upon routine questioning my Grandmother told them that they hit her. Really? My Grandmother who is well into the stages of Dementia told you that she is being hit? Do you understand how Dementia works? And that she will tell you just about anything for attention? I was so pissed! And I think the Nurse was pissed that I did not get upset about the idea that my Grandmother “might” be getting beaten. I told her that I was coming down there that weekend and would assess the situation then. Obviously that was not a good enough answer because she asked what I was going to do with my Grandmother until Sunday… Uh, nothing? Leave her where she is? Can you believe they wanted to take her WITH them! Back to the hospice house! I told them NO. As her Legal Guardian and Power of Attorney- NO! So they informed me that they would be filing a report with Adult Protective services (that would be like DFACS for Seniors by the way)… of course, I asked “WHY?” And they said they had to since she told them about her getting beaten. After 5 minutes or so of going back and forth about how I do not agree with that decision and what a crock of crap this whole ordeal is, I hung up. They called me back only after they confronted the Caregiver with their accusations and she then her kicking them out of her house. Needless to say, I called our Doctor and got a referral that afternoon for the other hospice in Columbus. I was set up with their program and services by the next morning. Fortunately, they did a transfer from the “bad” hospice so we would not have to deal with them any more.
And of course, the Caregiver is devastated. She just cannot understand how this transpired. Or why. I keep telling her that we know the truth and we are on her side 100%.
Oh and the APS lady showed up on Saturday morning unannounced… she checked out the house, the Caregiver and my Grandmother… she just kept asking “please tell me why I am here again?”… Imagine that!
I met the new hospice service Nurse on Sunday and completed the paperwork. I then spent the day with my Grandmother, took her to my Mom’s for lunch and asked her about her statements earlier in the week that stirred up so much drama. Her answers changed every 5 minutes… again, imagine that… damn dementia!

Timber!

We had some damage from the snow and wind storm this past Sunday night. Our cable went out around 8pm and we discovered why the next morning... a tree had broken at its trunk about 5 above the ground and had fallen directly toward our house and vehicles. Fortunately, the tree's trunk missed our SUV by inches. The tree was located across the creek too and still reached almost 15 within the edge of our house!




As you can see poor Hubby's work truck got the most damage from one of the large branches on the fallen tree. My company car was not touched- thank goodness!

Not Funny!!

Okay the joke is just not funny anymore. Whoever put my name on the mailing list needs to stop- because the packages keep coming in our mail. And they are addressed to ME.
Yes, for several weeks now I have been receiving packages with free cans of baby formula. Addressed to the new Mother with the new baby. Did I miss something? Because I am not a Mother nor am I even pregnant! But, someone out there either thinks I am or really wants me to be...
And the cans of formula are not the cheap ones either- these are "the closest formula to breast milk" a Mother can get! When I bring all of these packages to Hubby's attention his response is: "who keeps sending the breast milk?"... Only he would pick up on THAT part!
Not sure what the expiration dates are on these since I have yet to actually open one of the packages... I guess I will have to find one of my pregnant friends and pawn them off on them. But, whoever is behind this scheme Needs to Stop.

Humbling Times...

Hubby and I flew down to south Florida this past Thursday afternoon to spend a few days with my cousin. It was so nice to spend some time with her since we have not seen her since September 2007. Of course, those were happier times in 2007 than now since she lost her fiance about 3 months ago while scuba diving. The entire trip was a very humbling experience for me and Hubby. Her pain is so alive and very evident in everything she does and says. And her whole world has been turned upside down (mentally and physically) in such a short amount of time since his death. Her ability to think and focus is practically gone. She tries to be strong and not lash out in bitterness or vent about her frustrations- especially to us her guests in her new home.

Oh yea- did I mention she has already had to move out of their house and into a much smaller condo closer into town? Instead of staying at their home and taking her time mourning and grieving the loss of her partner, her lover, her mate, she has had to deal with his family quick-selling off their vehicles, RV, etc., their pushing her to sort through all of his clothes, selling off extra furniture, moving stuff into storage that would not fit into her condo, and actually having to box everything else and move it- ASAP. And all in less than 2 or so months after his funeral...Unbelievable! Her head is swimming and spinning- she has not stopped since the day they buried him! All you can do is feel sorry for her and her situation. We tried to visit her as her family (especially since none of her family has been there since the funeral) and support her mentally and at least physically help her unpack some boxes.

Besides the fact that we got so sunburned the first full day of our visit on the boat she rented (we rode up and down the inter-coastal waterway enjoying the sun and wind) so we had plenty of time to stay inside on Saturday and unpack some boxes.

That day (Friday) was her birthday. The marina brought back a lot of painful memories though on the boat trip since the dive shop that he went with on that fateful day was just a little ways up the river. And of course, every one there at the marina knows her and what happened... very sticky situation to say the least! Saturday afternoon she took us to some friends of hers to a seafood fest on the river. Yummy- swordfish, oysters, shrimp and conch!! We had a blast eating and hanging out on these folks' dock in the sun and wind. Saturday night we were dead tired. Hubby passed out early and we stayed up talking about stuff. I mostly listen since I absolutely cannot imagine how she feels- all I do know is that I hope I am NEVER in that situation. I cannot think of what my life would be like if Hubby died- it is such an awful subject to think about. I just hope she grieves and bounces back.

Hubby and I talked about her and her situation off and on all day yesterday after we left her. It really makes you think about your life and what could happen if a tragedy like that did occur... just think about that.

Sun to Snow in 24 Hours

After our nice sunny 80-degree trip to south Florida for a long weekend, we really did enjoy ourselves. Sun, fun, boating and relaxing... more trip details later...


And today we returned to cold, icy, dreary and yet snowy Atlanta!! Only got about 1-2 inches... by the time we made it outside to "play" in it, it was already half melted!! The wildest part of our snowy Sunday was that a deer jumped across our driveway and bounded off into the woods as we were coming home from Florida- yes, here in Marietta!! How crazy is that??

Again, I Agree 100%

Their line of thinking just does not make sense to me. This toon hit the nail on the head!