& Here We Are…

 … on the last day of January, staring at those blunt words on the paper: “unspecified dementia”. Somehow it hits a little different, seeing it in black & white - I had to take my mom back to the orthopedic doctor yesterday. Something about needing to take her out seems to bring down the deluge - we had tremendous thunderstorms Wednesday night w/3.5” of rain - luckily it had simmered down to heavy mist & fog by the time I had to pick her up Thursday morning. (Fortunately not as cold as it was 3 weeks ago, the last time I had to get her out)

The nurse gave me a folder with her current health care regimen for Dr. Moore to review, and as I said, seeing those stark words: unspecified dementia, mood disturbances - hit me like a bucket of ice water. I would’ve called her behavior more depressed than demented - I guess that shows how little I know! Once again, she was uncommunicative as I tried to chitchat with her about interesting cases at the clinic - see my previous references to Melissa’s Lab with the splenic tumor or Kristy’s Sphinx cat vs the dental floss. (Well, **I** found it interesting that it took Gollum 4 days to poop out the little red rubber plug with the last 16” of dental floss, but he is now right as rain!)

Kristy just hosted a small family birthday cake & ice cream gathering for Gunner’s 9th which was fun. I was joking with her that where else could you get a house call to check on a post surgical patient?

I’ll try to post some pictures later; I need some fond memories

Curiosity & Cats

 We all know that saying, don’t we??!!?? Friday was apparently a day of good deeds: my girl Melissa who is busy-busy raising her three young kids, but still comes in to fill in occasionally as needed - needed an exploratory surgery/splenectomy on her old Lab. The specialty clinic quoted her $10K, but we were able to do this for her for about 900 bucks… uncomplicated major surgery should’ve given me enough warm fuzzy feelings but then Friday night, Kristy’s Sphinx cat ate a spool of dental floss!

I don’t know what it is about cats and linear foreign bodies: string, yarn, ribbons, Christmas tinsel, dental floss, etc. - but they swallow these things and it is the worst of news because as the intestines try to pass this material, it bunches them up (“plication”) and saws them up like a tiny chainsaw. So I told Kristy it was Go Time, and Friday night I put him on my surgery table and got to practice a new technique which is using a section of a red rubber catheter like a shuttle to get the string or dental floss out. Pretty cool since you can get it out with a single intestinal incision instead of multiples: of course, every incision is an opportunity to leak, dehisce, or create adhesions in the future. So far so good for Mr Gollum.

But here we are with only a few days left in January, and I’ve got to decide what to do about my poor mother? I really think she needs to stay in skilled nursing at The Villages. I fear sending her back to Arabella is just like playing Russian roulette, waiting for her next fall because she will not “ask for assistance as needed”. At least with the limited dexterity of her right hand, she has not been able to pick at the splint on her left wrist so everything seems to be healing up OK. We return to the orthopedic doctor this Thursday.

Twoie continues to be a solid citizen in the couple more training rides we’ve been able to have…

https://youtu.be/kC5YJghpC54?si=uqZwN36dQe9M6BPQ

Back to the Future

 (Alternative title: “A New Hope” - like it or not, Star Wars has saturated every inch of our pop culture, even this die-hard Trekkie ain’t immune!)

I had confused my dear friend Bobbie by referring to Tony as my “padawan” (Jedi-in-training), but I ‘splained it all to her yesterday when I brought Tony along to our mini-trail ride. He was initially apprehensive when I told him we were meeting my friends because he "didn’t want to ride fast", but he relaxed when I told him not to worry, it’s just a slow trail ride. But it was the best possible re-introduction to work for TwoFace: a 2 hr amble, no significant obstacles, no crowds, zero excitement! I wasn’t satisfied with any of the headstalls I’d rigged up for him, so I wound up just clipping reins to his halter - he did great. I’ll put him in a sidepull for our next ride… “If it’s good enough for Quigley, Sahara, Baraq, and Moonie” - your control as a rider does not come merely from pulling on the mouth & head; it also flows from your seat & legs. “Let the Force flow through you” - I don’t feel so bad, quoting Sir Alec Guinness!

I had high hopes of riding again today, but the cold front is coming. Better not press my luck; got a little more storm prep to do: I bought small space heaters to put under the sinks at the clinic; have to stock up on a little bit of feed. Gotta take my mom’s little bit of laundry back to rehab and see if I can lift her spirits - yesterday she was pretty withdrawn & depressed. Hard for me to tell how much of this is physical and how much is psychological? The future is unclear.

I need a short-term goal to fixate on - for now it will be Twoie‘s reconditioning. He reminds me so much of dear Quigley, without all of the knotheadedness, thankfully! And of course Mr Silas was an angel for Tony. Too many horses, too little time!!!

                                                                Twoie led off most of the way

Me & Twoie, Tony & Silas, Amber & Aspen (it's refreshing to find a palomino not named Goldie or Sunny!)

Flowers for Val-gernon II

 (Usually, once an appropriate title** floats into my foggy lil’ head, I am off & typing - but this holiday scramble has me all messed up!)

My poor mom fell on the eve of Christmas Eve (Monday evening the 23rd) -  one of the aides called me to let me know, but she said mom seemed fine so I did not drop everything & run over there. However, on Tuesday when the home healthcare nurse came to check on her, it was obvious she had done damage to her left arm - so back to the ER! I am thankful that whoever examined her initially must’ve heard something so they did a chest X-ray & diagnosed not only a broken left wrist but lobar pneumonia.

This translated into five days in the hospital, back on IV antibiotics. I then arranged for mom to be moved to the rehab unit back at The Villages. This caused some confusion when the young lady came to do mom’s mental evaluation: she asked for her address, and Mom began reciting “515 E Ann Arbor Ave”which of course is where she used to live in her cottage. (Obviously she refuses to accept the fact that her new residence is at Arabella)

The orthopedic doctor will not be casting her arm until January 9th - I have half a mind to do it myself, but I guess I will play by the rules. Of course she is completely helpless now, with her weak right arm with the frozen shoulder & damaged wrist from last spring’s injury. Thankfully her appetite has come back with vigor once we got her pneumonia treated. I am getting over there to be sure she gets at least one solid meal per day. 

Also thankful that her little dog Abbie has settled in just fine with my rowdy crew - buddying up to the little ‘uns (Izzy  & Tina Fea)while ignoring my thundering horde of big dogs. I have no idea if mom will be able to return to Arabella or not after this standard 30-day rehab period.

I am coughing up a lung myself with what I presuppose is allergic bronchitis/sinus crud but I’m just trying to survive the holidays. It is a symptom of my low mental state that I didn’t miss being in horse camp last weekend when we had severe thunderstorms - nothing to prove!

** strange that I published this 11 months ago: https://endurovetssparkjourney.blogspot.com/2024/02/flowers-for-val-gernon.html

Photo dump:

                                      The closest thing to a Christmas postcard I'll send out

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