I try and visit mom at least once a week, but I do call her every night. She is 81 and has been alone now for over 2 years, and I’m afraid she might fall or get too weak from not eating enough and not be able to get to the phone. Last week I panicked, after trying to call her on the phone and her cell well after 10 PM. So, we dashed over to her house, some twenty minutes away, and got no response at the door. I used my spare keys and went inside. 
The house was dark, and I so afraid to go into her bedroom. In my mind, I could see her lying on the floor or crumpled in the shower, and as Judy held her breath I flicked on my flashlight and walked through the house. She was not there! I was about to call her neighbors when I decided to try her cellphone once more. “Hello?”
“Where in the hell are you?”
“Well, I’m just about home, where are you?”
“I’m standing in your living room!”
“I was afraid of that. I went to the concert at
“That’s okay…you’re alive! We’ll be here when you arrive.”
It all worked out well, but reinforced the idea of an alert device for her, so that if she falls “…and can’t get up…” at least she will have a way to summon help. This happened to Ron Southern a couple of weeks ago, so I’m going to lobby hard for the purchase.
I am about to go over now and check a leaking toilet for her (update – fixed). I know we’ll end up out in the yard looking at her prize flowers, like her fringe tree and irises. She still piddles in the yard, cooks, cleans her own house, shops,
and sometimes drives to
Mom is having cataract surgery the 6th and there have been at least 3 preliminary post-op visits that I’ve taken her since they dilate her eyes. But most of the time she makes it to all her appointments without any help or concern.
I’m having the last of a series of dental visits around the same time. It seems that she and I both require a lot of maintenance these days!
about how I seem to always have my camera…well, it’s true…I miss little! I’ve learned that there is a lot out there to blog about, and I’ve also learned that you can’t document your life enough. Judy has asked me a couple of times this week about something we’ve done and it’s just not there! Old-timers? Hmmm…could be…but I rarely forget anything I’ve taken a photo of…like these I took at the dentist yesterday while I was waiting!
I am amazed at the new technology this new guy has going on! His cute little help took x-rays of my teeth, but instead of film, they pop up
on a computer screen right in front of you! Very cool...I couldn't resist sneaking these shots!
19 comments:
Hey just wanted to say hello, stop by and vote for you, and thank you for your comments on my post on Bear Grylls. if you're in Knoxville, you're only about 1.5 hours from me at the Nantahala Outdoor Center. If you ever come down this way, make sure you drop me an email and let me know you're coming.
Cheers!
Cool...I've been there before...probably again sometime soon.
thanks
Ok, ok, now you've totally lost it. I thought taking the camera with you when you ate out was bad enough, but TO THE DENTIST?! I sincerely hope you don't have a colonoscopy planned anytime soon...LOL!
I totally had to laugh about you home worrying about Mom when she was out having a good time. Come full circle, have we? ;)
Did your dentist tell you those nice "composite" fillings only last about five or six years? Sure mercury sucks, but I've had some of my fillings since I was ten.
Well, I figure maybe one change out and I'll be done with them anyway!
I went through similar events with my mom. Luckily she found the irony amusing. Well, maybe not over that first date she went on after being widowed for 15 years.
I'm so glad you still have your mom and that she is holding her own as well as she is - that's pretty darned neat.
Go, Goddess - that was a GREAT zinger you got in!
Rox, thanks for all the support!
Mushy, me too!
Ken, you crack me up. I'd probably have to answer in the absolute affirmative!
Henson, I think it's pretty gross just eating a snake. Last night on the show Bear ate some huge mother grubs, and when he was eating a big juicy one, all the guts spilled out in a string down his face and halfway down his chest. GROSS!
Definitely check out recaps and youtube and videos at Bear Grylls' Website. But the show airs on the Discovery Channel every Friday night at 9pm, and normally reruns quite often throughout the week.
Rox, I wouldn't exactly say that Henson Ray is the half-naked guy you refer to cause it's a pic of just his head, but his blog is f*cking hilarious. I found him through EntreCard, I've favorited him, and I make it a point to read his stuff every day. Definitely a blog to keep an eye on if you enjoy using your facial muscles to contort your skin into a grin.
Cheers all, and thanks for commenting!
Yer mom looks great, but I understand the feelings you're having. I'm there too. Mom's 80 and still gettin' around but needs a new hip. Won't do it though. Thinks why put up with the pain of the surgery till the pain of the hip gets unbearable. You'd understand that, with your shoulder experience.
And I've gotten to where I take my camera everywhere too. Denise is always tellin' me to put the damn thing away.
And many of my old fillings from the 60s and early 70s have been ground down now to the point where I'm getting crowns. I loose a cuspid now and then and just head in to my cousin, the dentist, and then he gets to do on another cruise, on me.
Why the hell didn't I become a dentist?
Oh, and I watched thast survival guy last night, eatin' the grubs. It did pop and spew when he bit into it. That dude's nuts.
I'm just amazed and mystified at all the technology my dentist is deploying. There's some really cool stuff out there now.
What a terrible scare. Your mom must be some great lady. Some folks her age would be sitting at home talking their pulse, but she's out at a concert. Good for her.
Debbie Hamilton
Right Truth
Mushy,
About ten years ago, when Mom and Dad were in their early 80s, I could never find them home on a Sunday. They were always galavanting off somewhere to visit.
You're a good son.
Gotta echo Jerry... you are a good son.
My ma's taken a couple of tumbles, and it's already got me fretting, being 'cross country. I've got three siblings, all in the area, so that kinda alleviates the worry, but not a whole lot.
As for the pics, I say to myself that I'll start carrying a camera all of the time, and I rarely do. I've missed some excellent shots, too.
I lost two ,molars from "cracking" of fillings. They were cracked and I bit into a rock or something, and split both of them in half.
Now, I sick my tongue in the holes and think, maybe, someday, I'll get implants to replace them...
I hope I'm as spry as your mom when I'm her age! Don't worry about composite fillings...they are the "norm" nowadays! I enjoyed reading this post Mushy, thanks!
You ARE a good son. I hope my boys care for me when I can't like you do for your mum.
Had to laugh at the "she still piddles in the yard" - do you mean piddles as in pees? That's a piddle to us here in England (certainly in the North) or did you mean as in "piddling about" - pottering about? Somehow I think that must be it...
Cath - the latter of course, although she's not above it!
Ice and corn nuts? Ag, you'll make my head explode!!!
Dental work is always a bitch, but that's great that the work isn't going to affect what you can eat. I had a crown put in last Fall from a cracked tooth and now I'm super sensitive to anything cold. So annoying.
Glad that your mom's okay. My mom would disappear for long periods of time just after my step-dad died and we were so afraid that she was going to hurt herself b/c she was so distraught so there were a couple of times I had to drive down there just to make sure all was okay.
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