Just got home from taking my mother to a doctors appointment. All went well. Everything her blood test was looking for is stable and happy. Nice! We’ll get it checked again in three months. She was pretty confused about the whole experience. She kept saying that the appointment wasn’t for her, it was for someone else. Generally speaking she was able to follow what was going on. She answered as many questions as she could, and I filled in what she missed. I’ve taken her to this office three times now. She kept saying she had no memory of being there before. As good as the good news is, stuff like that is heartbreaking.
The office staff was in a state of discombobulation. They went live with a new medical record software today and nothing was working. Now I know that many of my company’s customers have similarly stressful live days but given that the system they were implementing is not the system I work on, I was able to be a snooty snob and laugh inside my heart. I whole heartedly apologize for being a douche, but it was kinda fun.
One final healthcare point. I had my second Covid booster yesterday. I can’t tell if I am feeling run down and achy because of the shot, or because I didn’t fall asleep until 1:00am today and I am just too exhausted to function. It’s a question for the ages. I don’t know if we’ll ever know the true answer.
On February 3rd, two months and one day ago, I was told to lose 5% of my weight in preparation for the weight loss surgery. I weighed myself this morning. I have 0.4 pounds to go. I would do the math to figure out what percentage I am at with 0.4 pounds to go but then you could use that to figure out exactly how much I weighed on that first day and I don’t want to let you do that.
I just drank my morning protein shake and had my morning vitamins and supplemented it all with a fist full of Tylenol because holy shit my back is killing me. I don’t know that my back has ever hurt as much as it does at this moment. Oh my shit, my back hurts.
Today’s plan involves going to my parents and picking up my mother and taking her to a doctors appointment. We’re going to get the results of her last blood test and see how her cancer numbers look. They’ve been pretty much perfect for the last year-plus and I am very optimistic that those results will continue.
After that I will come home and find some demo happening in the cellar. First on the list is the grid that until recently held the drop ceiling. After that it’s the rest of the ugly paneling on the walls. Most of the paneling came down during the flood clean up last year. You might recall me bitching about the paneling in the dining room recently. Suffice to say that the paneling in the cellar is 100 times uglier. Tomorrow the electrician is coming to replace the existing fluorescent lights that don’t really work anymore. There used to be six banks of lights with two tubes each. Only two of them still work, (it’s not the bulbs, I replaced the bulbs and the lights stayed dead) and one of those two only works some times. It’s been good the last week because it knows its end is coming and it wants to stay alive, but more often than not it doesn’t work when I flip the switch. Replace ’em all!
On top of that there is something going on at work that I am not going to be around for and I am feeling pretty shitty about that. I feel like I am dropping the ball. I don’t think anyone else feels that I’m dropping the ball, but I do so that’s that. Hopefully it will be quiet today. Fingers crossed.
Did I mention my back was hurting?
0.4 pounds to go. Oh yeah, and the surgery happens one month from today. Yikes!
On top of the stress of dealing with trying to navigate my mother through her constant aches and pains, which run the spectrum between “it’s annoying” and “oh my god I can’t stand it anymore please god help me”, there are fun little nuggets like this.
Me: Are you okay mum? Her: Why do you call me mum? Me: Because you’re my mother. Her: No I’m not. Me: Yes you are. Her: Did I give birth to you? Me: Yes, 50 years ago. Her: I don’t remember that. I guess it’s true because you’re named after your father. (she walks into the living room) Are there any pictures of you in here? Me: Yes. (points to a picture on the living room wall) Her: Oh yeah, there you are.
Isn’t that fun? Aren’t you jealous? And by jealous I mean aren’t you happy that this isn’t happening to you? And when I say this isn’t happening to you I mean it from both her and my perspectives.
That’s Chelsea, MA native Chick Corea to be clear.
I’ve always been ashamed of myself for never being enough of a jazz guy. I played sax and went to music school for crying out loud, I should have been more of a jazz guy. I guess rock and roll and blues were just too much fun for me to pull my attention away for too long.
I did have a thing for Fusion though. It’s hard to be a Prog Rock fan and not at least dip your toes into the Fusion world. As a guitar player, my connection to Chick Corea came via Al Di Meola. Al was a teenager when he joined Chick’s Fusion band, Return to Forever, and the handful of records they made together were spectacular. Chick played on some early Di Meola solo records too.
Ironically (maybe?) the first thing I think of when I think of Chick Corea is the title track from Return To Forever’s Romantic Warrior. Ironically because Fusion is meant to be an electric genre, but that song is acoustic and it is brilliant beyond measure.
I am honoring this legend’s memory right now by giving the Romantic Warrior album a spin. I suggest you do the same. If you like your music played at a level of virtuosity that makes mortal humans’ heads explode then this is the record for you. Chick’s playing on that record is the kind of thing where you can imagine The God of Keyboard Players listening to it and thinking, damn that guy is awesome.
Rest in Peace, Chick Corea. The music world has lost another hero, but we still have all of the music to listen back to when we want to remember just how good we had it when you were around.
It feels a little like Neil Peart, doesn’t it? I mean, no offense to Mr Boseman, his memory, his fans, his family, his friends, but this isn’t devastating to me the way Neil Peart was, but it probably is to more people. I just mean, one day he’s there and the next day he’s not, and not only do you learn he’s gone, but you learn he’d been suffering for years and none of us knew.
We’re going to watch Black Panther today. I think we should watch Civil War and Infinity War and Endgame too. The only non-Marvel movie I’ve seen him in is 42. We should watch that one too.
I left the house today! WOOHOO! Suck it, Coronavirus!
I went to my parents house today for something that was not an emergency. What a nice feeling that was, let me tell you. They are having a bit of an issue with vines and invasive plant over growth. They are kinda taking over. I took a trusty, heavy duty hedge clipper over there and went at it. They can now get through the front door without anything pulling any Little Shop of Horror shit on them.
The downside. Thorns. I didn’t realize it. They didn’t realize it. Some of those vines had the biggest, ugliest, razor sharpiest thorns I’ve ever seen. My father chucked a pair of heavy gloves out the door for me, which helped, but I half expected my second favorite Bruins t-shirt was going to go home in rags. Luckily I avoided that.
I stayed until my back pain convinced me that it was time to go. I got to talk to my parents through the door for a few minutes. Mom had a bad day yesterday, pain wise. Today seems a little better. She’s definitely a little more together cognitively, which is great. She had blood work yesterday, and a nurse visit the day before (I think?) and a chemo treatment this coming Monday. It’s not going to get easier for a long time.
On the way home I had to do something that I hadn’t done in months. I had to put gas in the Mazda. I’ve written about it before, but I haven’t put gas in that car since early March. Five months. If there’s a plus side to lock down, it’s the huge reduction in carbon emissions coming from our family. I’ve now put gas into each car once since the lock down started.
Unfortunately, the visit to the gas station was a clear demonstration of why our country has gone to shit. There were four customers. Me, a driver on the island next to mine, and a couple on a motor cycle on the next island over. There was also a youngish guy putting air in his tires. Of the five people, there was one mask. Mine. I had latex gloves on too. The rest of the group? Nothing. My skin didn’t touch anything that isn’t a part of the bubble we live in. Inside the car? Yes. Outside the car? No. I kept waiting for some smart ass nazi-friendly remark from one of the other customers. It never came. Good. Screw them.
My Flickr photo-a-day thing is up to day 343 today. Just a few more weeks to go. I tried to take a picture out the car window while stopped at a stop light. There’s a farm on the State Hospital grounds (technically I don’t think it’s on the grounds anymore, I think the land changed hands? Something like that? It used to be State Hospital property, but who knows, whatever) and I tried to get a picture of some corn.
That was my second attempt. The first attempt also caught the control box for the traffic signal. I didn’t want that though, so I took another.
When I got home I noticed the image on the box. I thought it was a reflection of one of the State Hospital buildings, but the angle is all wrong. I zoomed in and saw it’s a painting! How cool is that? A little cropping and now this photo 343/365:
Today was another long day. My mother is still in the hospital and she’s still not handling it well, but she was much better than yesterday. They are trying to figure out her back pain. They found the UTI that was the source of most of her current problems. The also found bursitis in her hip. She had an MRI on her back tonight. No word on the results yet.
Still no word on when she can leave. We were hoping for today but no dice. At least one more day.
10 years ago (approximately) when my mother was first diagnosed with cancer we learned about a new thing: Sundowning. It seems for some patients, their behavior changes drastically right around the time the sun goes down. My mother went from strong and confident to mean and whimpering and pretty much impossible to reason with.
It happened again today. Due to Covid-19, she is only allowed one visitor for the duration of her stay. It’s my sister. She gets to the hospital when visiting hours start and leaves when it ends. My father wanted to do it but he can’t handle sitting in those uncomfortable chairs for 12 hours. If he tried we’d be checking him into the hospital too.
So my sister had to take the full brunt of the sundowning. Both barrels, BLAMMO! It was awful. My mother waffled from inconsolable to telling my sister right off. She called my father once and told him that if he doesn’t come and bring her home he must not love her. So yeah, dad took both barrels too.
We know that by morning she’ll be back to her normal self again, but for the night time? It’s just awful.
My mother was admitted to the hospital because of confusion and memory issues that were caused by a combination of a UTI and dehydration.
While in her room, she complained about pain in her hip. She always has pain in her hip, her back, her legs… everything. A doctor came in to examine her hip and said she has bursitis.
So… are they clear to treat the bursitis even though that’s not what she was admitted for? I mean, yes they are, but from a legal standpoint, are there problems with that?
My mother is still in the hospital. She’s starting to have trouble again. She keeps pleading to go home, but they are looking into where her constant hip pain is coming from. The nurse speculated that she’s going to need another day. This is going to be a bad day. My sister is with her. My brother is with my father. I’m not with anyone. I don’t like feeling useless, but I’m getting pretty good at it.
It’s just a UTI, it’s not the cancer, and it’s not a recurrence of the old cancer. Keep thinking positive. Its bad but it’s not as bad as it could be.
Inside the Red Head's Head 