Getting Out of The Hospital

We got Ms. J safely out of the hospital yesterday evening after the nurse practitioner deemed her healthy enough to return home. She is being as feisty as ever.

My father is home, and is attempting--sort of--to help with the caregiving. The whole reason I am here is because he has been gone on business. I swear, his fuse is getting shorter and shorter each time he returns. He seems to have no patience with his mother, whatsoever. It is seriously ulcer-inducing for those of us who have to listen to their squabbling. It stresses me out to hear them interact.

Hold on, must reposition her.

I don't know how much longer...hold on, need to get water.

Now I can't find the dang Thick-It. Sheez. I ought to just buy a case of the stuff.

Anyway, I can't remember what I was going to say. Something to do with getting Ms. J back from the hospital. Oh, they took her off most of the pain meds, thinking that was causing her to pass out on us. So, now the poor lady can't get comfortable and is cranky and irritated from breakthrough pain. I really don't know what the solution might be.

Too Much Poop To Tell

Ms. J still can't go home til we figure out what is going on with her blood pressure and whatnot. They haven't ruled out the narcotics as a reason for her episodes, though. I truly would not be surprised if her pain meds were the cause for some of these problems.

She had several more visitors today, one of whom brought us some homemade zucchini bread. Yum. I spent the afternoon cutting up a turkey and attempting a brine...I did it in quite a hurry and am not sure it will be successful. We will be having Thanksgiving up at the hospital, but I don't want to make too much food since only a few of us will be eating it. Ms. J's appetite is almost nonexistent, and what she does eat has to be pureed or very, very soft. So, I'm not entirely sure how this will all go down.

Saw a good friend from the past today...someone whom I haven't seen in years. He and I grew up together from the time we were born, really. It was nice to see him and his wife, though I wish he had met under better circumstances...his step-father is in an induced coma in ICU.

Ms. J was in some pain today, and was also very emotional. I can always tell when she's hurting-she starts to complain a lot and simply canNOT get comfortable. All day long she was like that. I suppose when you think about it, many of us act that way. When we are hurting, either physically or emotionally, we become negative and get upset over the tiniest thing. Poor Gram. If it wasn't one thing, it was another.

We finally got an abdominal X-Ray today, but the Doc couldn't tell if the Diverticulitis was acting up or not. To quote her specifically, "there's too much poop to tell." I find that funny. Oh, and Ms. J got her Laugh Of The Day when I tried to explain her bowel problems to the doctor, complete with wild gesticulations:

"We'd have nothing for days, then a HUUUGE blowout, nothing for days, then another HUUUUGE blowout..."

She laughed heartily at that. I suppose you really had to be there for the blowouts to understand how accurate of a description that really was. Well, Ms. J remembered, and thought it was pretty funny.