Mishigos!

Well, yesterday was a "mishigos" (Yiddish for crazy or all mixed up) day.  My mom was discharged first thing in the morning from the nursing home and was driven home by a friend.  When she came in the house, I noticed there was blood on her shorts on her side, so I had her lay down and I pulled her shorts down and saw that the incision where they did the hip replacement, was oozing pus and blood.  I sat there and didn't know what to do at first - it was a weird moment for me.  So I called the Home Health nurse that was supposed to come to the house the next day and she told me that my mom had to be seen right away.  We just got her home, and now I had to schlep her to the ER! 

So we get to the ER and of course it's slower than molasses.  Finally the doctor sees her, pokes the incision with a long q-tip and took a culture.  He squeezed the incision and puss and blood came drooling out - it was pretty disgusting.  The q-tip went in pretty far which is not good - she has an infection, and probably the same infection she had before - Mersa.  They keep telling me that it's hard to get rid of.  They put her on an antibiotic that took an hour and a half to administer, so I left and took my dad home.  He fell asleep in the waiting room with his legs jacked up on top of his walker - a tad-bit embarrassing, so I thought it best for him to stretch out at home rather than the waiting room of a hospital. 

I went back later to get my mom and now they are telling us that she has to be on this medicine for several days, possibly weeks, and she has to go to the hospital every day to have it administered there.  Otherwise Medicare won't pay for it.  Tomorrow, we have an appointment with the infectious disease doctor to find out if it is truly Mersa or another type of infection.  She will find out tomorrow how long she has to be on this antibiotic.  Hopefully it won't be long because it causes diarrhea and we've already had, um, an episode.  I guess I will just have to treat it like Kita (my dog) forgetting and going poopoo in the house.  Of course, I can't scold my mother.  My dad "came upon it" first and yelled, "Sharon, come in here!"  Notice he didn't say "Sis" or "Sweety."  This time he meant business and yelled it like, "Get in here now and clean this up!" although that wasn't what he said.  He just couldn't handle doing it, and frankly I'm not crazy about it either but then who would that leave? 

So the Home Health lady came today and changed the dressing and took mom's vitals and all that stuff.  They are arranging to have someone come in and bathe her and someone to do physical therapy.  Medicare pays for it for awhile, then I guess I'm on my own.  The shower scares me because there is a step but hopefully by the time they're gone, I can at least help her into the shower.  Man, it really sucks to get old like this.  It's also kind of funny too though.  My dad hobbles around with a walker, my mom scoots around in a wheelchair and I waddle around with a cane.  We keep bumping into one another and they keep calling for me, so I am up and down and up and down.  But that's okay.  That's why I'm here (I keep reminding myself).  I'm just glad mom is no longer in the nursing home.  Those places, no matter how nice they appear, are depressing.  For most of the people in there are just waiting to die. 

Well, we survived yesterday and today - so far, so good.  I've got to pack and do laundry and get everything in order for them because I leave for Madison on Wednesday.  This is not good timing, but there is plenty of food in the fridge, their clothes will be clean and they will have Home Health coming over every day.  Plus they have all their friends and relatives calling them and stopping by, so I think a week away will be just fine. 

Besides.... I need a vacation!!