Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

A Big Raspberry to Rogers (Again)
Part of the reason why I haven’t posted for the past few days is because my Rogers cable connection is down yet again. As far as I can tell, it’s been down since sometime Saturday afternoon, and it may well still be down as I write from work – when I checked for a connection first thing this morning at home, there was zip, nada, nothing.

Am thinking about buying a modem for backup. Also about finding a more reliant high-speed connection service...

Sunday
I got a reminder notice from my editor at The Computer Paper that articles were due early this month, so I needed to get my articles done. With my Web connection down, I was limited to what I could do. Thankfully I had printed out material from the Microsoft site about some of their CSS extensions, so I was able to make some headway with my usual Web Weaving article, and I made do as best I could doing articles that did not require Web access, such as my book reviews and my “Flash Forward” article. So I spent much of the day writing.

Erika took Vanessa and Annie along to her film Union’s Xmas party. Sounds like I missed out – this year it was held at Variety Village and it was a much more kid-centric affair than the previous year’s bash. They had inflatable bouncing slides and other things, in-door kiddie rides, plus food and other amusements. Vanessa had a blast, Annie was good throughout, looking at everything, and they stayed until things were being deflated, and arrived back home at about dinner-time.

Vanessa and Annie also got their first picture taken together with Santa. Previously I had asked Vanessa what she was planning on asking Santa, and she said: “a princess crown, a princess dress with flowers on it and a magic wand”. ;-)

Today was something of relief from the previous day. It was good to be doing something.

I did get a call in the morning from Aunt Edith, asking about the condition of my Mother. Apparently John & Wylda had tried calling her yesterday, but found that Mom could no longer carry a conversation. I filled her in with what I knew, and the fact that it is now highly likely that Mom needs to be put into a nursing home. Edith understood, and said that she would pass the news over to John & Wylda. She concluded by saying that “it’s terrible what happens to people near the end of their lives”. I found out later from Erika that Cec, her husband, was also in the hospital, this time with a diabetic complaint.

Saturday
I was dreading the trip to the hospital, but it was a trip I had to make. My “conversation” with Mom the previous day had pretty much confirmed what Morris has been saying: that Mom no longer seems to be “all there”. I wanted to go there to tell her this myself, and also to give her the news that her condition was not likely to get better.

My visit with her was short. She was not wearing her oxygen tubing and consequently was completely out of sorts. She looked very frail, the most frail I’ve ever seen her.

I gave her an early Xmas present of a framed picture of her Granddaughter Vanessa, which she liked. I tried talking to her, but realized that the conversation was essentially one-way. She talked back to me, but seemingly with little or no realization of what I was talking about. I told her as best I could about her condition, and while she “hmm”-ed in acknowledgement, since she started talking about going out the movies and wondering about the emergency medical people catching spiders, I very much doubt that she understood what I was talking about. I could see that she was tired, and after calling over her nurse to put the oxygen tubing back in her nose, I helped her to her bed where she rapidly fell fast asleep.

I sat down in the adjacent lounge with her nurse and asking her about Mom’s condition. The nurse – her name is Georgette – was very helpful, the most helpful person I’ve met at the hospital as yet. She brought over Mom’s chart and we talked candidly about Mom’s state. Essentially the doctors believe – and I have to agree – that Mom is not releasable in her current state to go home. Most people in her condition have to go to a nursing home to receive constant care. While Mom knows where she is and what month it is, her mind tends to wander, especially if she is off her oxygen and her blood oxygen levels dip below 90. Mom’s pulmonary fibrosis condition is chronic, and is not likely to get better, though ventilators can certainly help. None of the drugs she was taking would account for the change in mental state, and seems to be due solely to the lack of oxygen to her brain. I gather Mom will be going in for another scan soon, this time *I believe* to determine if there's any physical brain damage. More evidence of Mom's poor mental state was the fact that she was apparently found out of her bed and on the floor on Friday night. At first they thought that she had fallen out, but Georgette said that she thought that Mom couldn't get into her own bed and decided to lay on the floor instead. Georgette said that despite her mental state, Mom was still very sweat -- at one point following her nurse around and telling her not to pick up heavy things and offering to help -- clearly ridiculous given her frail condition, but still somehow sadly charming.

I asked Georgette about what can be done at this point. She is arranging for me to speak to an outpatient counselor early next week (Monday I hope) in conjunction with Dr. Roberts in order to better understand what needs to be done. I fully expect that I will have to get a power of attorney over my Mother’s estate, and seek to place Mom into a nursing home, most likely in the Keswick area since that is where all of her friends are. I will also have to close-up the house and most likely sell it in order to pay for Mom’s medical and housing expenses. I am pretty much convinced that this is the course I now I have to take on my Mom’s behalf. There’s still faint hope, but Mom seems to be deteriorating rapidly sad to say...

At the very least I’m going to have to head back to the house sometime in the near future and dig out her will. I believe she made “living will” arrangements, and I have to see if she had any wishes with regard to such things as being placed into a home, whether or not to resuscitate her and so on. Grim stuff, but it has to be done.

Was relieved to get home that evening. Both Vanessa and Annie were in good spirits, and Erika gave me a nice big hug when I got home, knowing that things weren’t good. All I can say is, thank the lord for my family, as they keep me grounded and remind me that life does go on...