Ree’s musings

I don't know what to write. Did all my words go away again? There's so much to say and so few words to talk about it.

My aunt, the one in the wheelchair, has deteriorated beyond the point of assisted living care and has to enter a nursing home.

My grandmother is still on constant oxygen after her heart. She's home, stubbornly walking unassisted instead of using her walker like she's supposed to until her feet heal. She has a mass behind her eye, but the doctors at the hospital don't know what it is. They kept her awhile but no dice. Whatever it is, it gives her a splitting headache (she's actually on morphine, apparently just for this), and it's putting pressure on all the nerves that control her eye muscles, so her eyes can't focus. The mass is positioned near the pituitary gland, so even if it's cancer, it's inoperable.

Grandma was in the hospital Friday and I didn't even know until today, after she was home again. Once again, my dad knew but failed to let his kids know. I found out because my brother, mother, and I called ahead before going to visit grandma. Turns out two of her daughters were there already and some grandkids-and-mom dropped by while we were there, so it was family togetherness time yay.

I was not very happy about this, so instead of procrastinating, I phoned my dad on the spot and very, very politely said that I know he's busy, but could he please try to let me know these things? He sounded properly chastised (which was kinda fun, with the reversing the parent-child dynamic and all) and when I told his sister what I'd done, she laughed and told me well done for keeping him "in line."

I have an awesome family, that I do.

Grandma's memory is spotty. She couldn't remember which of her kids had been by today, or in which order, and she confused my (other) brother's location with one of my cousins'. It's probably the morphine. I hope it's the morphine. The doctors did an MRI and found no brain bleed, just the pressed nerves around her eye, but...

Oh, and I got my classes sorted, but it seems so very banal in the face of my family's health issues. By accident I'd got placed in a section I wasn't equipped for, but the nice registration folks got it all fixed for me. I'm caught up now (except for missing some discussion stuff, but there's only so much I can do about a Saturday deadline that I didn't find out about unti Saturday, and discussion is peanut points anyway. It barely matters at all).

I owe my dad a phone call, so I think I'll do that now. Should be interesting.