Monday, December 21, 2009

Lessons

I suppose I'll never be too old to learn. For instance, this week, and the past few months, I've learned that blogging has taken a back seat. More than a back seat...it's being dragged by rope through the mud.

See, I like to take 45 minutes to write a post. I know...pick yourself up off the floor: it takes me that long to come up with this genius. But over the last few months, since moving to the new house and a host of other excuses, 45 quiet, uninterrupted minutes only occur at 3:00 in the morning, or during desperation clothes laundering.

So the painful lesson, people, is that I must learn to post a here-and-there update without waiting for the coveted 45 minutes. It's that...or the blog shall be no more (let me grab a Kleenex). I have to learn that in my mind I want to post rich content for the masses to print and post on their refrigerators and forward to all their friends. In my heart...meh...the desire to take from so many other areas of my life in order to make that happen just isn't there.

Lesson learned, I suppose. I just hope you'll stay with me for those posts that might offer you something useful.

Or maybe just a diversion from your everyday.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

One pesky test and Salt is Evil

Mom is doing much better and she will probably be going home today. We are waiting for the doctor to assess the results of one last blood test and then discharge her.

Today we have had a barrage of professionals telling my mom what she can and can't do when she leaves here. Mostly what she can't: can't lift anything heavy, can't exert herself in any way for at least a couple of weeks, and can't be friends with Salt anymore. Apparently salt is bad at letting the body rid itself of fluids. And extra fluid is a dangerous thing. And mom's heart is pumping out fluid at a rate of 35% when it should be in the range of 65%. (That is the watered-down version, no pun intended, of what's going on...but I'm not a medical professional so that'll have to do ya.)

The good thing is that mom is already sensitive to the amount of salt she eats: no shaking it on her food and she really limits processed foods and eating out. A lot of us would have been more than a little disappointed to learn that salt in our lives was virtually banned, but I think mom will handle it just fine.

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

That'll give her something to write about

Dear Mom,

I know I've been scarce around here. I know you are painfully unaware of the goings on in my life since I haven't posted in so long. I understand your disappointment each time you come here to see if I've awakened from my bloogging slumber to grace your screen with new (albeit mundane) material. I get it mom...and I'm sorry.,

Don't go having a heart attack or anything.

Seriously.

Wait, really, mom, surely there's a better way to coax me into posting.

But if you insist on using a heart attack to get me to surface out here, so be it.

And the post I write will seem like it's all about me, but trust me: it's not.

It's all about you...and you getting better so you can ask me when I'm going to post my nothingness again.

And it's about you getting better so you can boss your kids around during the Christmas festivities. We are ready to be bossed, believe me.

And it's about your health, and your well-being, and your determination to get out of the hospital so you can get back to the business of mothering, and grandmothering, and mother-in-lawing, etc. And doing all that in a way that causes your heart ZERO stress.

Yep, this post is all about you.

So get better, know that in the last 24 hours your family has been through shock, and fear, and anxiousness, and hope, and now relief. And we'd like to stay here please.

And I'd like to know that for a long, long time, you're going to look forward to my posts of nothingness...which are always something to you.

Love you mom...


(For those of you who didn't know, my mom had a heart attack yesterday morning, actually during the night. Her prognosis is good: no surgery but lots of rest and monitoring. She'll probably endure another three or so days in the hospital. After that she'll just have to deal with her family getting all in her stuff so she doesn't have to exert herself for a long time.)