Slacker

That's me, a blogging slacker. I haven't gotten much sewing accomplished in the past few months. We're still dealing with my mother's issues. The fall that broke her arm was back on July 24 and she has had 3 surgeries since. There was a surgery to insert pins in the broken arm/shoulder but that surgery was unsuccessful so they did another surgery to remove the pins.

After being in a rehab facility for a while she had to return to the hospital for a 3rd surgery to insert 13 screws in her arm. A few days before that 3rd surgery she started having troubles with her back and has been diagnosed with a fracture at the L2. Tuesday they'll be doing a surgical procedure to stabilize that fracture. That's 4 surgeries in the space of 8 weeks. For a frail 85 year old it is becoming a bit much.

I leave in the morning to drive back to Detroit for this latest surgery. Jerry can't join me as he is now a gainfully employed individual and the company kind of expects employees to actually attend work in order to get a paycheck!

20 years ago...

The big news in Charleston, SC today is the 20 year anniversary of Hurricane Hugo. At the time Hugo was the most destructive storm in history. It has, of course, since been surpassed by Hurricanes Andrew and Katrina.




What an experience that long night was. We (Jerry, Craig & I) hunkered down in our family room to ride out the storm. We lived in the Charleston suburb of Goose Creek at the time and we saw no need to evacuate since we were not close to the ocean. We lost electricity at about 8pm and turned to our portable radios. Once the local radio stations were knocked off the air we tuned into a strong signal station in Jacksonville, FL. Many other Charlestonians also found that station and soon the DJ was fielding calls from Charleston and we followed the progress of the storm from those calls. Amazingly we never lost telephone service.

When the eye of the storm passed over everything became eerily silent. Everyone in the neighborhood ventured out during the eye to see what had happened. Jerry actually climbed up on our roof to try to fix one of our roof turbines. Then the 2nd wave came and it was even more intense than the first.



We were incredibly lucky and had minor damage to our house. A few holes in the roof and trees down on our fence were about the extent of it. In fact, our insurance company settled our claim over the phone and sent us a check without question.



We also were lucky that our water and electricity were restored earlier than most although I will admit that about 2 days after the storm Jerry and I did resort to stripping down and showering in a downpour on our back patio. We grabbed a bar of soap and a sheet to protect from the neighbors' prying eyes and took turns washing the grime and tree sap off. It still ranks as the best shower I've ever had!

Needless to saw we take Hurricane season seriously around here!

Ch..ch..ch..changes

After spending 4 years in retirement, Jerry decided he'd be happier if he went back to work. (How is that even possible?? I'm LOVING being retired!)

Anyway, yesterday he started a new job at the same company as our son Craig. We had to dig out business clothes for him and he had to buy some new stuff. It has been kind of getting ready for the first day of school!

The deal we made when we retired was that Jerry would cook dinner every night. Now that he's back to work I guess I am too...back to the stove every night. I was so enjoying just waiting to be called to dinner and will miss that!

Back home

My mother's surgery finally took place late on Wednesday. They ended up inserting a plate and 13 screws. The doctor shared an x-ray. (click for larger view)



Jerry and I left Detroit Friday morning and arrived home this afternoon. My mother was moved out of the hospital today and is now in a rehab facility. Unfortunately, she has another issue that was just diagnosed - a fracture to the L2 vertebrae. The back is actually more painful for her than that arm. We're not sure yet what the course of treatment on the back will be.

A reminder to everyone out there - make sure you're taking your calcium and getting those bone density tests.

Things don't always go as planned

I'm currently in Detroit because my mother has surgery scheduled. Back in late July she fell and broke her humerus bone high up in her left arm - almost to the shoulder(she's left handed.) Surgery was performed to insert 4 pins. Unfortunately the surgery was not successful and they are going to go back in and try to insert screws and a plate. They will know during that surgery whether the screws are successful. If they are not, they will go ahead and do a partial shoulder replacement.

Surgery was originally scheduled for Friday morning. During the preop tests they discovered her blood sodium levels were too low and her potassium levels too high. Both can cause heart arrhythmia issues which is not something you want during surgery. She was admitted to a ward on Friday in order to stabilize her levels which takes a couple of days. It now looks like surgery will take place on Tuesday.

It has been a long haul for an 85 year old woman and there is still a great deal ahead of her. She is getting frustrated so we're hoping that everything goes off without a hitch on Tuesday and she can start on the road to recovery.