Review

What a week! It’s been a pretty hard one here.

About a month ago, my parents put their house on the market, and made arrangements to move into a retirement community. Last week, my sister-in-law M arrived in town to help them prepare for the move.

Saturday, Scott and I spent the day helping with preparations, planning to do more on Sunday. But Sunday before we could get to the house, M called to inform me that she’d talked with the folks and Dad was going to go to the ER. He wouldn’t tell her which one. There are 3 major choices.

We spent 30 minutes tracking him down, then rushed to join him. We lost the entire day as we waited at the hospital. It was hard on Dad, and by the time we left, he was exhausted.

Monday was the big day. Scott and I arrived at the house with the truck from U-Haul and by 5 p.m. had moved all the big items they’ll need in their new apartment.

Tuesday Dad was still weak and tired, but tried valiantly to help with the ongoing preparations. That night we all decided to take the night off.

Wednesday night, we moved more stuff. Dad was even more exhausted, Mom is of little help due to the Alzheimers. We spent part of the day at the doctors with Mom, as she has stopped eating, hasn’t had a real meal in over a month, and M felt we needed to go back to the Dr to see what more could be done. We were told that very likely we should prepare for the end, that it was likely that mom’s brain was shutting down her digestive system. Mom is still enough “with it” that she could adamently declare that we were not to feed her intraveinously.

Thursday M and the folks were back at the house… suddenly dad just announced he couldn’t do any more and sat down… M told me he was sweating heavily. He decided to go to the doctor but steadfastly refused to allow M to accompany him. He finally relented to allowing Mom to go with him. M called me, and I rushed over to the dr office.

Dad was admitted to hospital, but the preliminary diagnosis was not good.

M spent the night at the apartment with Mom and Friday we all met back at the hospital… Mom had an appointment for a CT Scan to see if there was a physical problem preventing her from eating.

By the time we got up to Dad’s room, they’d conducted a load of tests, and were preparing to release him. ALL of the dire diagnosis of Thursday were wrong. He wasn’t bleeding internally… his heart was NOT giving out, indeed, his heart was far healthier than the average 80 year old!

Dad is dehydrated (they rehydrated him intraveinously) and exhausted from over-exertion. He’s taking the weekend off, and Scott and I will take on the daunting task of working at their old house.

And Mom announced on arriving home at the new apartment that she was STARVING! She ate 2 cups of pop corn, the most nutritious thing she’s eaten in weeks. And she was looking forward to having grilled salmon in the dining room.

So, it seems to have worked out… but the stress and anxiety of the week left me drained. I know I need to be strong for them. But its very hard to watch my parents decline like this. We’ve been blessed with a close lovin relationship, and I hate how the cards have turned.

And that dear reader(s) is my week.