Phone Call with My Mom

I did not have a good sports weekend.

I'm still bitter about Mizzou being moved to the SEC.  One of my NASCAR drivers is in the hunt for the championship, but he's only in the lead by three points.  Another of my drivers is in hot water with his sponsor, NASCAR, and most of the fans, and by their reaction, you'd think he'd ran over all of their grandmothers and boiled their puppies (he didn't, by the way -- just to clarify).  And yet another of my drivers (in a different series) ACCIDENTALLY wrecked a championship contender and pretty much ruined that guy's chances at winning the championship (oops).

As soon as that happened, the phone rang.  (Hi Mom.)

Me: IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!
Mom: He's a loser who can't drive!
Me: You don't even know!

(We were still on the phone about five minutes later when they started interviewing two of the guys involved in the wreck.)

Me: Hey!  Why aren't they interviewing Jason?  He's standing right there!
Mom: BECAUSE HE'S A LOSER!
Me: They're being biased against him!  They aren't getting his side of the story!  No fair!
Mom: Ha ha - they don't like him, either!
Me: Shhh, now they're talking to him.

(Jason admitted he made a grave error and felt awful.)

Me: SEE???  He's man enough to admit a mistake, take ownership, and be remorseful.  What more do you want?
Mom: BLOOD!  I WANT BLOOD!
Me: You frighten me.
Mom: You asked.
Me: Don't talk to me right now.  I'm mad at you.
Mom: Why?  Because you like losers?
Me: Shhh.  Don't talk to me!
Mom: I can't talk?
Me: That's right.  I'm mad at you.  You have to be quiet.
Mom: Then can I hang up?
Me: No.
Mom (laughing): Oh, I have to sit here and be miserable?
Me: Yes, that's right.  That's your punishment.
Mom: Hmph.  Well, can I --
Me: SSSHHHHHH.  I'M BEING MAD AT YOU!

Felix comes over and meows into the phone.

Me: See?  Even Felix knows!  He's telling you how wrong you are!
Mom: No, he's talking to me because he feels bad for me.
Me: Traitor.

When Mom and Felix Gang up on Me

Last night, I received the following email from my mother:

"Hi How is my wonderful, beautiful, great daughter tonight?  I am really writing to see if you are taking Felix to see Puss in Boots tomorrow.  If you don't, I am going to tell him.

 

"Love, Mom"

 

As luck would have it, Felix was actually sitting on my lap when the email came and I opened it.  Hmph.  I asked him if he had interest in the movie, and he actually seemed to.  Double hmph.  So I then explained that we would probably have to rent it because I didn't think he would be allowed in the theater.  I called Mom to tell her that she was causing problems because Fe saw the email, and she was delighted.  "Good!  Now I don't even have to tell him!"

Today, I am cooking a whole chicken in the Crock Pot (hang on - this relates to the story).  When I cook a whole chicken, I boil the liver and gizzard, and let the cat eat them.  Oscar used to LOVE liver so much that I'd buy it for him at the grocery store, but Fe only likes it enough that he gets it when I have it on hand already.  I happened to be talking to my mom on the phone as I was boiling the innards, and Fe was mewing impatiently.  I told her that I had already told Felix that since he was getting special treats today, we weren't going to the movies -- he could only get so much fun in one day.  She informed me I wasn't being fair.

Felix kept mewing impatiently, so much so that Mom finally asked me what I was doing to the poor guy.  I said, "He just REALLY wants his liver and gizzard.  He doesn't understand the cooking process."  To which she replied, "Oh.  I thought I heard him say that he's mad you aren't taking him to see Puss in Boots today."

She's incorrigible.

Shopping for Work Clothes

A quick one because time is limited.

Rachel and I did well today.  Between Goodwill and Kohl's I scored four pair of pants and seven tops (well, six blouses and a sweater to wear over blouses, especially over sleeveless types of things).  All for just under $50!

And Mom and Rachel got to bond on the phone about how awful I am to shop with.  Mom correctly predicted how I react to certain things, and when Rachel said, "Yep!" Mom said, "I'd drive off and leave her there."

Hmph.

Phone Calls with Mom

Those of you who have read for awhile know about the various conversations Mom and I have had about the tv show "The Mentalist."  We were at it again Friday.

Mom: There's nothing good on tv tonight.
Me: Watch what I'm going to watch.  No, wait - never mind.  You never like my suggestions.
Mom: I like that show with that mentally ill guy!
(Then she has a giggle fit.)

Me (laughing): He's not mentally ill!  He's the Mental-IST!
Mom (laughing harder): Ohhhhhhh.
Me: Well, do you know what I'm going to watch tonight?
Mom: Okay.
Me: It's on ABC.  Do you know which channel that is?
Mom: No.
Me.  Oy.  It's Bryan Busby's [a local news meteorologist] channel.
Mom: Oh, that's channel 9, that's really channel 12.
Me: Uh-huh, anyway, it's going to be on there at seven o'clock your time.
Mom: So, Bryan Busby at seven.
Me: Otherwise known as ABC.
Mom: I don't know what ABC is!  I can't remember all those!  Just tell me what channel!
Me: Mom, I don't know what channel it is for you!  For me it's channel 6!
Mom: That's ESPN.
Me: Oh my God.  (pause)  So, are you going to watch?
Mom: I don't know.  I don't keep the remote.
Me: Then why are you griping about being bored tonight?
Mom: Well, I want to enjoy what I'm stuck watching!
Me: Then tell him to change the channel!
Mom: He won't listen to me.
Me: Oh my God.  Which one here is mentally ill?

List #21: Lies My Mom Told Me

Every parent tells the little lies.  But these are the lies my mom told just because she could. 

1.  Anyone remember "The People's Court" when it was still with Judge Wapner?  We used to watch that every day.  And when they would go to commercial in the middle of a longer case, they would freeze the frame.  When I was a kid, I obviously didn't understand a "freeze-frame," so I asked Mom how they did that.  She told me they had an artist who drew the people they way they were and when they came back from commercial, they had the people get back in position they way the guy had drawn them.

2.  When Price Chopper (our grocery store) started using a scanner at the check-out, I was FASCINATED and didn't understand how it worked.  Mom told me that the Price Chopper man (the mascot for the store was a guy in a butcher apron with a tiny axe who would chop the prices) was inside the scanner and he worked in the machine all day.  Sometimes she would even pick me up, and then she'd tell me I hadn't looked fast enough.  Occasionally, I'd go to the cashier for confirmation.  "Is that true?"  One cashier hedged one day and I got suspicious.

3.  When I fell asleep in the car and Mom wanted to wake me up before we got home (so she didn't have to deal with carrying me in or waste the extra minutes waking me up when we got home), she'd yell, "OH MY GOD!  There's an elephant!"  I have no idea why, but this worked for years.  This cracks my mom up to this day.  "But you fell for it EVERY TIME!"  (In my defence, I didn't want to miss the elephant standing by I-70!  Would you????)

I'm sure there are others, but these are the ones that have apparently scarred me for life.

Supper by Committee

Last night, I decided it was too hot to cook in my apartment.  Of course, this was partly due to my own stupidity.  I have window units in my living room and in my bedroom, and when I took a nap in my bedroom, I turned off the unit in my living room in an effort to save energy and money.  So when I woke up and returned to the rest of the house, it was stifling hot.  (Lesson learnt: Next time, leave it on a wee bit or at least leave it on fan.)

Although I had thawed out two hamburger patties for supper, there was no way I was turning on the stove when the living room was still warm.  Now, when I'm on my couch, I sit directly in front of my window unit, so sitting there was fine.  But, literally, if I crossed the room, I could feel a difference in the temperature.  So the thought of turning on cooking heat was a bummer.

Chinese delivery to the rescue!  But what to order?  I called Mom for ideas.  So told me I was definitely in the mood for cold noodles with sesame sauce and fried rice.  Okay, sure.  I've not had them before, but anything cold sounded like a winner.  But I decided I needed more.  So I IMed Ria and asked her what else what I wanted.  After some negotiating, we decided I wanted: crab rangoon, veggie fried rice, crab rangoons, and steamed veggie dumplings.

(Note: I had suggested to Mom that fried rice would be unhealthy, but she told me it isn't unhealthy when it's what you're in the mood to eat.  I was astonished that she had let me live THIS LONG without telling me this little rule of eating.  I think it's sinful, really.  But she taught home ec, so she MUST know what she's talking about!)

I ordered from China Inn, and I have to say they have great customer service.  I discovered this morning that they had accidentally sent me pork dumplings, and I called them immediately.  They checked the receipt and confirmed that I had, indeed, ordered veggie.  They offered me my choice of a credit on my account, I could come pick up the correct order, or they would re-deliver.  I asked them to re-deliver, and within 30 minutes, I had fresh, hot veggie dumplings with absolutely no hassle.  Yay!

Next time I get Chinese, any suggestions?

The Work-Out Challenge

Week 1 down and five weeks to go!  Go me!

Meanwhile, my mom has conquered the American Girl extravaganza for the year.  She and her friend are making their way back home from AG headquarters.

The past week was largely uneventful other than, you know, the big, interesting thing that happened.

More later, when Felix isn't holding my arm captive.

Wednesday Weigh-In

This week I gained 0.4 pounds, which I am actually quite fine with.  Losing nearly three pounds (2.8) the week before was pretty ridiculous, especially since it was most stress and not healthy weight loss.  So eating healthy, getting back into a semi-normal routine of things, and calming down AND only gaining 0.4 pounds in the process is mighty fine with me.

Now, for the funny story of the week that does not involve my mom trying to fix me up with a guy who lives 1500 miles away from me and doesn't even live in my mom's town.  Oy.

Awhile ago (and we're talking probably about two months ago), I was going through some things, I found twelve $0.41 stamps.  A few weeks  ago, I decided to go buy some make-up stamps since I was almost out of stamps anyway.  I was feeling all proud of myself for not just chucking the old stamps and buying a new book.  Yay for not wasting money!

Well, between when I had found them and three weeks ago, I forgot the denomination of the stamps.  So when I happened to have a package to mail out anyway, I went to the post office and decided to buy a book of stamps.  "Oh wait," I thought, "I just need some make-up stamps!"  Look at me being all frugal.

So I go up to the counter, post my package, and tell the woman I have twelve forty-two stamps at home, so I need twelve make-up stamps.  She gives me my stamps, my total, I pay her in cash, and I come home, feeling all proud.  I'm saving money.  I'm fiscally responsible.  Go me.

And I put my stamps together and my heart sinks.  Crap.  They're $0.41 stamps.  Not $0.42 stamps.  Sigh.  Well, maybe the postal worker somehow KNEW they never had such a thing as $0.42 stamps (they probably did; I'm making this part up - don't Google it and tell me I'm wrong), psychically knew what I MEANT, and she sold me what I needed ANYWAY.  So I look up the required postage.  Nope.  I'm short by one cent.  Damn.

So, last week, I go to the post office.  For the sole purpose of buying twelve one-cent stamps.  And I'm angry the entire time.  Stupid stupid stupid.

I get home, I call Mom (who knows about the entire saga), I'm putting my stamps in their stamp place (which is by the envelope place), and I suddenly say, "HEY!  WAIT A SECOND!  I have to go back AGAIN!"

Mom tells me to stop yelling in her ear and asks me what's wrong.

"SHE ONLY GAVE ME TEN OF THE TWO-CENT STAMPS TWO WEEKS AGO!!"

"Uh, and you didn't realise this when you paid her for them?  Can you not multiply ten times two?"

So I explain to her that I sent  a package at the same time and only knew the TOTAL, and that I, in fact, am QUITE capable of knowing that ten times two is twenty.

"Oh, good.  You were worrying me there for a second."

So, now I have to go back to the post office.  AGAIN.

For two two-cent stamps.

All because I didn't want to waste $4.92.

(I did point out that at least I'm not driving to the post office and paying for gas each trip.)

My Monday Adventure

Some of my past jobs have included desktop support, which I actually quite enjoy.  I don't enjoy it nearly as much when my mom calls me from Missouri and wants me to do remote desktop support from 1,500 miles away, especially since I switched to Macs.  It was easier when we were both on PCs and I could at least get on my machine and see what she should seeing.  Now I have to do it all from memory - eesh.

Yesterday, I get this call from her.  To make a long story short - she had a virus on her machine.  Oops.  She has some kind of virus protection software, but she never runs it (helpful).  And she doesn't know what it's called.  And it's not an icon on her desktop.  So I gave her a few options for looking for it.

Then she calls me a few hours later.  "I went to Office Depot, and it'll cost me $170 for them to take the virus off.  But they also have some laptops on sale for $249.  I may just do that.  What do you think?"  We discuss the computer and she said they actually had a few, she tells me about them, and we discuss it.  She says she's not making a decision today, anyway, but at least she has some information.  Okay, great.

Then I get a call several hours later.  "I'm at Best Buy.  They have a computer for $349.  It's got XYZ and blah blah blah.  What do you think about that?"  I tell her that it definitely sounds a lot better for her than the Office Depot deal, but I have some questions about it.  She asks the salesguy my questions, then relays the answer to me.  I ask a few more questions, and the literal game of "Telephone" continues.  Finally, she asks the salesguy if he would mind talking directly to me, especially since I was starting to get a little heated (he was trying to sell her a machine that they didn't have on display because they "don't usually sell it, to which my reply was something along the lines of, "Oh, really?  So the child wants to sell my mother something he usually doesn't stock and won't let you even see before you drop several hundred dollars on it?").

Well, it turned out that he was actually a pretty nice guy.  We straightened out the issue.  He had another laptop there that was essentially the same (same weight, size, screen contrast, etc.) except the processor was a bit faster (he gave me the specs, and it really wasn't a huge difference).  So I finally approved the sale on her behalf.  Then we discussed what else my mom would need.  I asked him to sell my mom the MS Office Suite, and we worked out a deal so that mom will go back in two weeks and he'll install it on her machine for her (after she's sure she's keeping it, which she will, but she's always scared she won't - don't ask).  I also asked him to show her external hard drives that he had on sale and discuss with her the importance of them and how easy they are to work.  I told him he was absolutely NOT to sell my mom any anti-virus stuff because I was going to walk her through the free AVG, and he said that's what he uses.


Then Mom got the phone back and proceeds to tell me that he's cute, he's a computer science major, he works to pay for school at Maryville (part of the University of Missouri system), and he's drinking Monster Energy drink (is that supposed to be a selling point?).  I told Mom to make sure to get his name because if he did her wrong, I WOULD find him next time I was back in Kansas City.  He actually gave my mom his full name (which I won't divulge here).  Although I will say that he said his middle name is Noland, named after Noland Road in Independence, which is the main drag, akin to Broad Street in Philadelphia.  He was named that because that's where his parents met.  I laughed and said, "Is he sure that isn't where he was conceived?"

My mom died laughing and said, "I am NOT repeating that to him."  Of course, he overhears this and wants to know what I said.  So my mom ends up telling him.  He said something, which my mom didn't repeat... until she called me from her house later.  His reply was, "No, actually, I was born in Blue Springs [the next suburb over]."

Mom said she tried REALLY hard not to laugh when he said that.  But she reiterated that he IS really cute.

Wednesday Weigh-In

This week I lost 0.8 pounds, bringing my total since I decided to start tracking to 4.2 pounds lost.  It's not bad since I stopped working out about a month ago when I got the MR arthrogram (aka: the big-ass needle in my hip with the crap injected into my joint) and then started physiotherapy soon thereafter.  Although some would say that physio is like working out, so there you go.

Most of mine has been through eating better, except this past week, which has been stress eating, which is to say "Not eating much at all, except weird food combos."  (Don't ask.)

I was going to lighten things up today and show off something I knitted recently, but since tomorrow is recipe day and Friday is list day, I'll give one more update today, show off my knitting Saturday, and give an update on Sunday.  (That's the plan, anyway, barring some unforeseen event between now and then.)

Today, as planned, I worked on my bedroom.  I focused on the storage boxes under my bed.  I condensed four storages boxes down to two, which may not be as impressive as it sounds since the two that are empty are the smaller ones (about 2/3rds the size of the larger ones).  I filled a bag for recycling, I filled a bag for shredding, and I have a smallish-sized box of things that can be donated or are ready for a potential yard sale.

The bookshelf in my bedroom has three shelves of books that are ALL books I've been trying to get rid of.  So if I have this yard sale, they will all be on the lawn.  So that's done.  Next up is the closest and weeding through clothes.  I don't know if I have energy for that today, since today was kind of emotional.  The stuff under the bed was mostly pictures and newspapers and magazines of EVENTS.

At point I just burst out laughing (Ria and Diana will probably be the only ones who get this).  I'm picking out newspapers and magazines one by one to see if there are any I can part with.  John Ritter's death.  Christopher Reeve's death.  George Brett's retirement.  Wayne Gretzky's retirement.  Obama's win.  Johnny Cash's death.  John-John Kennedy's death.  Papers from September 12 and 13th.  Clint Bowyer and Greg Biffle win at Kansas Speedway - wait, WHAT?  Yeah, recycle.

I also discovered a lot of pictures.  You remember back when we took our film to CVS or Eckerd and got it developed?  Yeah, pictures.  Felix when he was a little kitten, looking terrified of everything.  Oscar drinking out of a cup on the coffee table.  New Dog sleeping with his hedgehog on my bed in Missouri.  Mom's wedding and reception.  A friend's wedding I went to in Boston.  The boy I nannied for in Missouri, who passed away from Huntington's Disease when he was 10 years old.

I'm glad I had duplicates, because I set aside some pictures to mail to some folks.  I think they will be pleased to get them.  As much as I like digital cameras (and, yes, I know I can print off the pics), it was fun to flip through all these and laugh and cry.

Preparations

This week, I'm going to start the process of purging.  I'm going to go through my stuff and try to weed out what can be thrown away, recycled, or possibly set aside for donations.  If I have to move next month, then I won't be doing this at the last minute at a frantic pace and possibly making mistakes.  And if things end up working out, well...  I'll feel accomplished.

In the meantime, my mom has decided to start cleaning out the closet in what will be my bedroom in her basement.  It's a room we call "the café," because it's set up to be a little café.  It has a lunch counter, barstools, and a working jukebox (or at least the last time I tried it about 20 years ago, it worked).  She's basically using the same reasoning - the closet could use a good cleaning out and if I don't end up needing it, well... at least it's done.

In the meantime, I'm contemplating maybe holding a yard sale.  I know I won't gain a ton of money from it, but I could get rid of some stuff and get at least a little money from it.  But I really don't want to hold one by myself.  The idea of sitting outside by myself all day just kind of kills my soul.  So I'm going to ask some of my local friends and see if anyone would be interested in joining with me in this venture (local friends - pipe up!).  Also, local friends, quick straw poll - please comment on whether you'd be interested in dropping by to browse.

I also want to thank everyone for the support, wishes of good luck, and pleas of "NOOO, DON'T GO!" (even the ones that were from cats to Felix).

Where did spring go?

First, I know I usually post a recipe on Thursdays, but I haven't tried anything new lately, so nothing new to post.  Sorry.

Somehow, spring has disappeared and summer got here way too soon.  Don't get me wrong - I enjoy summer, but it has it's time and place -- after spring and before fall.  Not after about two weeks of spring and then a full week and a half of rain.  That's just lame.

I had a rather exciting day today.  A woman I did some work for when I was getting my Master's degree had referred me to a colleague of hers for a potential job that may or may not exist.  I went for an informational interview today, just so we could find out more about each other.  It ended up that we quite like each other (professionally), and I'm feeling very optimistic about how this might turn out.  There's actually much more involved, and this might get a little tricksy, but I don't want to go into detail here.

My mom has her biopsy tomorrow, and she's just hoping the weather is good.  She's been making jokes about hoping that they aren't in the middle of cutting her head open when they announce needing to run to the basement to take cover.  So, now you see where I get my morbid sense of humour.

My headache was kind enough to hold off until I got home from the interview, so I apologise for the rambling.  More tomorrow.

Update on My Mom

My mom went to see her rheumatologist today to follow-up on her hospital visit.

Not to brag or anything, but her rheumatologist was flabbergasted that the doctor in hospital didn't do the biopsy, as I had been pushing for.  "Wait - what?  They DIDN'T do the biopsy?  Why not???  We better get that scheduled right away!"  So she's going to see a surgeon tomorrow for a consultation and to schedule the biopsy on her ophthalmic blood vessel... JUST LIKE I WANTED THEM TO DO ALL ALONG!

This biopsy will tell us definitely whether she has the arteritis or the second option, polymyalgia rheumatica.  The treatment for both is basically the same, but still - we want to know for sure what we're dealing with.


Now, here's the funny part.  When Mom was in hospital, I had asked her if she was having joint pain.  And I SPECIFICALLY said, "Are you having joint pain?  Like, pain in your knees?  Or pain in your shoulders when you go to put your coat on?"  (In the interest of full disclosure, I know nothing about rheumatica.  My friend Peter, who is a doctor I worked with at Temple zeroed in on this the night I called him when Mom went to the ER.)  And she said no.  That type of pain is a symptom of the rheumatica, but not of the temporal arteritis.  Okay, fine.  So, today, when her doctor brought up the rheumatica again, I said, "Oh, yeah!  That was why I was asking you about the joint pain!"  She said, "Well, I have been having some pain in my elbows and shoulders."


"Uh, Mom...?  THOSE are joints."

"Well, I was thinking more about the muscles when you asked."


"Uh-huh..."

Corner Café

Tonight, I called Mom to tell her about my Pay Per View adventures with DIRECTV (it was Harry Potter, get your minds out of the gutter!), and she wasn't home.  This was odd since I knew she had gone to lunch with her brother-in-law and his grandson (and some other people on that side of the family), and they didn't have any other plans for the day.

I called her later in the evening, mostly just to make sure that everything was okay.  She said that when they were out earlier, Dale (her husband) had asked for a piece of sugar-free chocolate pie to go, but when he went to eat it tonight, it was coconut pie.  So they had gone back to the Corner Café to exchange it.  They were told that when the server went to get the chocolate pie for him, they were out, so she just gave him coconut.  Uh, what?

Dale said he liked coconut, so that was fine.  This exasperates me, but it's not my pie.  At this point, though, they weren't sure if it was the sugar-free pie (and since Dale is diabetic, this important), so they threw it out and cut him a new slice from the sugar-free coconut pie.

Now, this is where the story is actually important.  Mom was making fun of Ray and Kathy (who had actually chosen the restaurant) because when they get stuck on a restaurant, they go there (LITERALLY) every day.  They were there on Thursday with Mom and Dale before they went on a Kohl's shopping spree, and they were back there today.  And Kathy had mentioned that they were there again Friday.  I said to Mom that she was not much better because she had been there twice in three days.  But then when she mentioned going back to return the pie, I said, "Ha!  Now you've been there three times in three days!  You're tied with Kathy!"  She maintained that it didn't count because she didn't go IN to the restaurant -- she just drove there and Dale went in.  So DALE it tied, but she is not. 

I told her that I was going to blog about how she's just as bad as Kathy.  She said, "Then I feel bad for YOU because your life must be pretty boring if that's the most exciting thing you have to blog about.  AND if people actually read that, your friends must be pretty bored, too."

Hmph.

Wednesday Weigh-In

This week, I'm down 0.8 pounds!  I'm (again) surprised by this since I didn't a great deal of exercise, except for walking around the city on Thursday, Saturday, yesterday, and walking up and down the stairs a LOT yesterday doing laundry and taking a few loads of trash/recycling out.  But the walking wasn't a particularly cardio pace, but still - it's better than nothing, and it was pretty much all I felt up to after the arthrogram on Thursday (the procedure involving sticking a big-ass needle into my hip joint and then injecting loads of crap into my joint).

And, while I'm here, an update on my mom: As scheduled, she did come home Friday afternoon.  She's been feeling really tired since then, but she felt well enough yesterday to attend a luncheon she had committed herself to weeks ago.  It was her first "real" outing since coming home.  I want to thank everyone again for their thoughts, prayers, and concerns; it all meant a great deal to both of us.

Productive Saturday

This weekend, I'm cat-sitting for my friend's cat.  So I jaunted down to South Philly and visited Bella for about an hour.  We sat and talked for awhile, I petted her while I read a book, and then we played for a little bit.

On the way back to the city, I stopped at Borders because they are going out of business.  Everything is 60-80% off - even the bookshelves are for sale!  I got two magazines (80% off, sadly, all of the knitting magazines were gone), and a cookbook.

Then I walked to Trader Joe's to get a few things.

Meanwhile, I called to check on my mom.  She's doing well, but resting a lot.  She woke up, cooked breakfast and did a load of a laundry, then took a nap.  Then she woke up, took the laundry out, and was ready for another nap.  Poor thing; I feel bad for her.

She's planning on going to her Mom's house tomorrow for Mother's Day, and I hope she's up to it!

Wednesday Weigh-In

I'm down 0.2 pounds this week.  I'm happily take it since I did little to no exercise this week and I ate like a happy little pig (yay Angel Food delivery!  If you aren't familiar with Angel Food, I'll be blogging about it once the Mom-hospital saga is over; that was to be yesterday's blog entry before Mom decided SHE needed the spotlight).  The reason I didn't do much working out was because my hip/groin pain decided it needed to act up.  Yay.  Speaking of which, my MRI is tomorrow, complete with the lidocaine injection directly into the joint (is anyone else imagining a big-ass needle?).

The Mom Update: It ends up that the MRI today did NOT indicate that she has temporal arteritis.  However, the doctor is not ruling it out completely yet.   In the meantime, they have ruled out tumours, cancer, and stroke.  And they have relieved her pain (thank you, truck loads of morphine), so that's good.  In addition to the morphine, they've also had her on huge doses of IV steroids, and she can't go home until they titrate her down to a dose she can manage orally at home.  Until then, they are awaiting the results of some other labs they took to see if that gives them some answers as to what is going on.

Right now, it looks like she's be in hospital until Friday.

Thinking of My Mom

I had a blog topic for tonight, but that was pushed aside when my mom called me today and said she was waiting for Dale (her husband) to get home so she could go to the ER.  She's been having a really bad headache since Sunday night/early Monday morning.  On Monday, she went to the chiropractor and got minor relief.  This morning, she called her doctor, but the phone rang and rang and she never got through.  So she called the chiropractor again.  That provided little to no relief.  I told her to just go to the ER.  She said she would tomorrow if things weren't better, but for now it was on to Grandma's (her mom) for sewing day.  I told her I thought sewing was a Bad Idea, and she said she was just going to Sit and Visit (a good ol' Midwestern past-time).

I had a doctor's appointment of my own today, and when I got out, I hit Trader Joe's, then called Mom to see how she felt.  This is when she said she was sitting at the door waiting for Dale to take her to the ER.  I knew this was bad.  This is the person whose leg could fall off, and she would pick it up and keep trekking.  Okay, clearly, that's hyperbole, but you get my point.  If she's giving in and going to the ER, this isn't a good sign.  She had even already written down all her scripts, her doctor's info, and emptied her purse except for her insurance card and driver's license.  This was a woman on a mission.

A few hours later, I got a call from Dale.  Apparently, he's FINALLY learnt his lesson; he's learnt to call me and give updates when my mommy is in hospital.  This is a vast difference from the time my mom had been in hospital for TWO DAYS and he didn't bother to tell me.  I found out only when I finally called his daughter to find out where the hell everyone was and why I couldn't get ahold of anyone, and SHE tells me "Oh, your mom's been in [name of hospital] since [two days ago]."  Suffice to say, I went a bit postal.  This incident was repeated AGAIN a year later.  So I think he's finally caught on.

Anyway... my mom was originally scheduled for a biopsy on her ophthalmic blood vessel tomorrow, but she JUST called and said they changed it to an MRI.  The think she has temporal arteritis.  They caught it in time before the inflammatory response of the ophthalmic blood vessel cause any permanent vision changes/damage, so that's good news.  The other great news is that this is a completely curable condition.  She'll have about a year of oral prednisone treatment, and that is stuff that her current rheumatologist can oversee.  After that, there will be no lasting effects.

For now, she's loaded on morphine because the swelling of the blood vessel has caused her some pretty major pain.  She seems to be in good hands.  The treating neurologist is a visiting doctor from Loyola (in Chicago), because the neuro team who regularly staff that hospital are all on maternity leave (they must have had one hell of a party nine months ago).  Despite all of the things I've heard about the "new" hospital in the city, Mom has had no complaints thus far (except that she thought the garlic mashed potatoes came WITH the strip streak for supper and they did not).

And, as always, it's difficult to be half a country away from someone I care about who is going through a scary time.

Burlesque (or: Phone Calls with My Mom)

I called my mom tonight, and she informed me that she was just sitting down to watch "Burlesque."  I reminded her that I had also wanted to see it.  Knowing that she and her husband rarely rent movies just for the two of them, I suspicious asked "Is Laura there?" (Laura is Dale's daughter.)

Mom: Yep.
Me: So you're watching a movie I wanted to see, but with Laura?
Mom: Pretty much.
Me: You're showing favouritism!  That's not nice!
Mom: I think my daughter has told me that before.
Me: Well... I want to watch the movie.
Mom: I can turn it up and hold the phone up and you can hear it.
Me: Hmmm.  Okay.  That'll work.
Mom: If I had a webcam, you could watch it.
Me: I have a webcam!
Mom: Okay, aim it at Missouri and see if that works.
Me: Why are you watching the movie without me?
Mom: Because I want to see Cher.
Me: Then just fast-forward to her part.  Don't watch the rest.
Mom: I can call you when it's over.  Will that help?
Me: No!  I don't want to just see the end!
Mom: Oh.
Me: Next time, can you just watch movies that I DON'T want to see?  I can send you a list.  It's a big one.  You'll have plenty to choose from.
Mom (laughing): Okay, honey.  That sounds good.

Mom's Vacation

My mom has been visiting her friend in Colorado for the past several days.  Some of you who have heard my travel stories know that we never really have an agenda.  We just kind of drive until we get tired, and then we look for a motel.

When I called Mom called tonight, she and Dale were just pulling over to find a motel.

Me: Where are you?
Mom: Burlington, Kansas.  No, Oklahoma.  Oh, wait, Colorado.  I used to think it was in Missouri.
Me: Okay, so you're either in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, or Colorado?
Mom: Yep!  That's where we are!
Me: Good to know.