contemplation

Things --as things always do--change from hour to hour.
Mother was taken from rehab to the nearby hospital at Ocean Springs around midnight last night. (Previously she was in the hospital at Pascagoula, prior to going to rehab)

Whatever they did, she had had two good BM's by noon today and was feeling better than she had since the surgery.
Later on today they ran the scope down her; found a tear in her esophagus. I think Judy said they fixed it? Not sure if they are fixable--I get this information when I have customers milling around and I simply can't concentrate enough to totally remember everything.
Mother is hoping they will go up from the read tomorrow and try to discover the problem with the bowels--BUT; as Rita says, and as I've already pondered; with paralysis this could be an ongoing problem.

My brain can't wrap totally around how-if one can't move anything below the waist, then how does one relieve themselves; or does one who is permanently in this shape have to have catheters and colostomies?
Does the need to bags depend on what nerves are affected in the paralysis?

Stacie is planning to keep the girls out of school Friday since it's her only day off this week other than tomorrow and drive down to visit with Mother. She would go tomorrow, but she will need to go with Brenda to pick up her car so she can drive Brenda's truck back down here. She says she could have sold it last night. when we asked her why she didn't she replied that with the car the way it is, she needs the truck to fall back on.

My sunburned feet kept waking me up last night. Every two hours I'd wake with a start because the aloe vera I had rubbed on them had worn off. I'd get up, drink some tea and rub them down again. I made sure those babies were not exposed to any sun today and at least they only burn when I forget and rub the tops. The knuckles only bother me when I rub them hard against something.


I very well know the importance of having some free time from the responsibilities piled on us. When I had the girls and Stacie was not allowed to have them at her house, Beth would come get them for the weekend from time to time. It really gave me time to recoup and helped keep me from burning out.

Looking back over the years and especially the past 5 or 6 when the girls have been more a part of my life than usual for most grandma's--it was always Beth who stepped up and did something nice, considerate and thoughtful toward helping me out.
Brenda stayed with Terry a couple of different times to help out with them so I could go to alanon assembly and she was always helpful when she came for the weekend.
Judy, on the other hand, always treated the girls as though they were inconveniences.

Once when they were all up for the weekend, as is their habit, on saturday evening the sisters and mother would pile up and go shopping. Ana, of course always wanted to go with them. I usually had the nursery because terry and Robert would be doing something around the place. Judy would never let Ana go. Ana would cry and I hated that.
A couple of times of this happening and I told Terry that from then on when they came up, if shopping was on the agenda, I was going and I was taking Ana and Shandi if she wanted to go. And that I did. I could tell that Judy didn't like it. She would always be short with the girls. I never could understand why though because neither of the girls are the type of kids who whine and cry for toys or anything. They enjoy looking and they will ask if they can have something; but if I say no, they accept no. They don't run and act out in the stores, they always behave so I couldn't understand her dislike of their going shopping.
Funny thing--after I went along with the girls a couple of times, she no longer HAS to go shopping when she's up here. Imagine that! :D

She-Judy will let Ana play cards with them, something else she didn't want Ana doing for a long time even though Ana plays well. So maybe she's mellowing out a bit. Judy has grands of her own, so it isn't like she doesn't know what being a grandma is like.

Oh well, I rambled on about that didn't I?

It's just that when crisis hits, I always get --what's my word here besides emotional? *grins*....I look back and contemplate--contemplative. I know with situations such as this one I'm reminded yet again at fragile life is, how the status quo can change in a heart beat and how living life to the fullest, one moment at a time is so important.