What a difference a week makes.

We lost Aunt Marge last week. She had fallen and hit her head, causing a subdural hemotoma. Initially she showed progress but then had to have surgery. I'm sorry to say that despite all best efforts and family by her side, she simply never woke up after surgery. She passed without pain just napping away. A very peaceful passing. Rest in Peace Aunt Marge, we all miss you but are pretty sure that they just needed a warmhearted teaching nurse with a side order of silliness up there.
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Aunt Marge and the long wonderful life of the Eepie Chooie Oowie Wow Kid

I've been looking through pictures from family gatherings and looking for pics of Aunt Marge, and the one thing that keeps striking me is how many of the pics are not of her smiling as much as of her "questioning" with a curious, puzzled look on her face.  There are pics of her smiling, don't get me wrong, but our family is a bunch of tough nuts to crack when it's photo time. 

For a person with so much inquisitiveness, the fact that she remained so gentle is amazing. Many, maybe most people who question much of the world turn out to be not only skeptical, but cynical.  Her questioning was always just a desire to understand more, with no strings attached. The cynicism never happened with Marge. I can't remember her ever having a cross word for anyone, whether they deserved it or not. 

We would talk about our shared frustration with the care of mom, and while being on the same page with me in so many areas, she always came back to what can we do to positively move the situation forward.

My ability to remain sane in the face of continued adversity was helped over and over by our talks in person and on the phone. Her insights will be sorely missed. Her warmth is irreplaceable.

Speaking with her littlest brother the other night he wondered if her mom would be waiting for her up there. I say no doubt. Marge will have a first class ticket straight up simply based on her kind soul. We all have experienced the incredible kindness of the nurses, doctors, staff at care centers, from hospitals, SNF's, and nursing homes. They already have their reservations and first class tickets, and apparently they needed a nice teaching nurse named Marjorie Ruth up there as well.  God Speed Marge B, God Speed.

Went over to see mom today and I spoke to the Speech Therapist Lydia. Nice girl and very caring. She is in the process of moving mom through the "mechanical soft" aspect of her diet and into the "real food" area. She has to do a couple more evaluations and then she can sign off.
Mom has not been too impressed with the menu but truthfully she never is. Not at the Towers, Not at the Coventry, not here. Unless she's going out to eat at the Olive Garden or Osteria or House of Prime Rib, she's not going to like the food. The chopped texture of her medically required diet is not very appealing. Once we get the okay for regular food, we can bring her "outside" food. KFC chicken is top of the list, a burger from Cable Car Diner, a turkey sandwich from Arguello Supermarket.

Today she had a visit from the Lupine Gang. Victor, Jan, and Douwa! Jan brought her a nice rose for Valentines Day and the Gazette to read.

Biggest complaint (among many) is that she's lonely there. So any visits from loyal readers are MUCH appreciated. 2707 Pine 502B


That's all for now.

Quick Sunday Morning MomMarMupdate.

Mom is status steady. Barbies went on a road trip.


More later as more info is available.

MUPDATE! 

That's a Mom update.  So I visited yesterday and met Quinn also coming for  visit. Mom was with the Occupational therapist and they were practicing walking with the walker.

This is good. Mom's ribs (from all appearances) are healing. She has lost some weight since arriving, doesn't like the food. DUH!

However she has progressed from primarily pureed food to the next step which is called "mechanical soft" Basically chopped rather than pureed. Heading in the right direction. Last nights dinner was a Hamburger and Tater tots. The hamburger itself was chopped and was less than ideally appetizing though the tater tots were fine. I convinced her to eat about half of the burger and all of the tater tots.

I took that occasion to track down the speech therapist and had a long talk with her. She is the person that gives the okay to move from pureed to mechanical soft to steak and eggs. She agreed that she will work with the insurance/medicare to reinstate the third discipline so that she can work with mom again and get her heading towards solid foods. At that point we could actually bring her a real burger, or some of the Colonels best chicken. YAY!   

BTW the perverse health care system medicare decided that once mom had "plateaued" they would reduce therapy to only two disciplines of the three (PT, OT, ST) so they abruptly cancelled speech therapy. The mental mediocracy of the insurance providers rears it's ugly head again. So the Speech therapist and I discussed having OT pull back (since they overlap with PT) to allow ST to get back in the game. The people who make these decisions at Hill/medicare/HealthNet are condemned to a lifetime in the ninth circle of Hell!

 

That's my two cents.And I have A LOT of experience with this.

On a Second Front.....     Aunt Marge had a fall the other night and hit her head.  She is staying at Che St. Francis for a little more observation, she's a bit weak so they may send her to a SNF for a little rehab before letting her go back home on her own.

I saw her today and she was much better and in pretty darn good spirits. Strong chance for a full recovery!!  YAY


All for now, more later as news happens.