Day: May 3, 2005

Not good news today from Ann, my stepmom.  My dad has been put in the ICU at Lourdes.  In his two weeks at the nursing home, he has apparently suffered a heart attack without them being aware of it.  Ann had a verbal altercation with several staffers at the home, with mention of him not being able to stay awake or alert and with them not cleaning him or taking very good care of him.  I felt even worse now about how he was on Sunday, and wish I had called Ann right away – although Sunday is when she had her discussion with the staff there.  He has a few other things going on – including needing to be dialyzed, even though he was going three times a week at the nursing home.  I hope that they are able to get him stronger and back on the road to recovery at Lourdes.  He seemed to have been talking of being well and doing things again, and it would be so sad to have him get back into a deep depression over this recent setback.

And I feel so bad for Ann.  This is a huge burden for her – worrying about him all the time, trying to figure out what to do that would give him the best care.  I wish there was something I could do.  I want to find something nice for Mother’s Day that won’t break my recently tightened budget, but I don’t know what I can do that would be helpful to her. 

I stopped praying for my dad to be well again and pray now that whatever the plan is for him that he and Ann find the strength to get through things. 

Gracie and I both had doctors’ appointments today!   I had to go back for a blood pressure check at my ob/gyn’s office.  Marianne, the nurse practitioner that I see most often, had asked me to bring the baby next time, and she did the usual oohing and aahing over her – especially this head of hair!   My blood pressure was 120/80, so perfectly normal and that made her very happy.  She offered to check my incision, but Jim has been keeping an eye on it, and I don’t seem to be having too much trouble with it, so I passed, since I had Eilis in the room with me.  I did get verification that I cannot drive yet – at least until Saturday.  I will be out with Brighid that day to get shoes for her graduation pics next week, and probably an outfit for her to wear under her cap and gown. 

Grace had to go for an ultrasound of her spine.  She has a sacral dimple – which is a small indentention at the very tip of her spine.  Eilis has the same thing, and the doctor felt sure it was nothing, but just to be safe, they wanted the test done.  Apparently, children with spina bifida occulta all have a similar dimple, and while children who do NOT have spina bifida CAN have them, because of the link with spina bifida, they like to check out all the dimpled kids.  The test was easy enough, but we won’t have the results for 3 or 4 days – which seems like an eternity when they tell you something could be wrong with your child.

Grace is more alert lately.  She opens her eyes nice and wide, and she seems better able to focus now.  She also makes a lot of noise – cooing and such.  She is just so cute.

We took her to visit my dad in the nursing home on Sunday and I ended up leaving in tears.  He was completely out of it, covered with beard stubble, unable to carry on a conversation, and for the most part, seemed unaware that we were there with him.  This was the worst I have seen him, but kept trying to tell myself that being in that kind of setting, maybe his sleep gets interrupted often and it was really a day for him to get some rest.  I hope that was the case.