Oh, what a week...

Sorry I have been away. It's just been a little crazed in my life.

It all started Friday morning. As I was heading out the door, my sister-in-law called -- my mother was being taken to the hospital by ambulance because she was weak, dizzy, and had numbness in her hands and fingers. And wait -- there's more.

The day before, she "saw" a woman in her bedroom -- the woman told her that my father was not eating. Something happened and my mother walked to my brother's house -- somehow managed to get there -- and was sitting out on his porch at 9 a.m.

Evidently my mother decided to stop taking her "memory pill" (for dementia) a month ago. Thursday night, my sister-in-law urged my mother to take the pill again.

So -- back to Friday. My sister-in-law spent the day at the hospital. I was spending time making long distance phone calls trying to reach my mother's doctor. He's out and will be out through the 18th. So I pieced together what I could and faxed my mother's doctor with the details. In the meantime, my mother is having all sorts of tests -- all come back negative. But my mother is still exhausted and feels like she has been run over by a truck. Maybe there is a medication reaction with the memory pill? The hospital staff says no. Mom tries to stand up and she is very woozy.

They keep her there overnight to get her rehydrated. She is discharged Saturday morning. Yet she is still woozy.

So my father is running ragged trying to care for her. They had talked with a nutritionist before discharge so they both knew how much she needed to eat. So Dad is off to the grocery store to get food but he is afraid to leave Mom alone. Neighbors sit with her while he is gone. She eats very well on Saturday.

Sunday morning she is still very sleepy and now has ringing in her ears.

Dad is going to stop the memory pill again. He wants to go to the neighborhood pharmacy to ask about side effects. I convince him to call the doctor-on-call at the medical place my Mom's doctor is at. He gets a call back -- the memory pill is the cause and don't take anymore of them.

So why didn't the hospital say that?

She eats well on Sunday. Plan is to call Monday morning and get into see the nurse practitioner or the physician's assistant as soon as possible.

Monday morning, she is still pretty woozy. She has a 2:15 PM appointment with Minnie, the P.A. that she really likes. She went with both Dad and my sister-in-law. Minnie says, "You look really tired" and Mom says she is. Minnie puts her on Aricept. My sister-in-law is trying to get a visiting nurse or a home health aide in to check Mom's blood pressure and to help her get bathed and such. I found an attorney who happens to be a friend of my sister-in-law's to help my Dad through the health care proxy issues he faces.

I tell you, it is hard to be so far away and also help out in some form.