Just the highlights in Just in Case

I’d love to say that many things have happened since I was able to write, but lol life it fairly simple. You’ve been saved some whining entries about the end of school. :)
It was a busy summer, I had some forced downtime, which helped me get rest. I feel guilty for not doing more - workwise, but I needed the downtime. I had dental surgery and wasn’t able to do a lot for a week and a half or so. Actually, the first couple of days I could only throw up. It was a rough couple of days, but eventually I was able to hold down food and had a few days of being piled in my chair and reading.
The more stressful part of summer, though, had to do with my parents’ medical issues. We’ve been pretty lucky and they haven’t had a lot of issues, but they hit at once. My mom has been dealing with back pain for years. A little over a year ago they started giving her shots in her back to help with the pain. They worked for a while, but not for long. So, she finally decided to have surgery. While we were preparing for that, my dad’s PA decided that he needed a pulmonary assessment after a year of COPD medicine. She told him he had Pulmonary Idiopathic Fibrosis. (A big word that means scarring of the lungs that they don’t know the cause of.) It was a month before he could get in the pulmonologist. Even though I asked him not to - he read far too much on the Internet on it and was convinced he was dying. He began to obsess over getting all the insurance, etc straight for Mama. One of the articles called it a fatal disease (or that’s how he read it - he’s still having issues with retinopathy). I talked to him about it being a condition that could be caused by a disease, but he was exposed to asbestos in the Navy, which could have caused it. He also smoked for 25 or so years. His appointment was 2 days before Mama’s surgery. The pulmonologist was great. He was clear that there was a fair amount of scarring, but without a 2nd test and CAT scan, there was no way to tell how fast it was accelerating. He also pointed out that the medication was treating the COPD and that for an 80 year old, Daddy was doing well. It made us all feel better.
Mama’s surgery went well (she had 3 discs fused) as far as treating her back. They said it would take about a year to fully recover, and I can see that. It’s slow going for her to build her stamina and strength back. It was a big surgery. I stayed several night with her in the hospital and it was hard. She and I both react badly to anesthesia. They also put her on a morphine pain pump which exacerbated the affects of the anesthesia. She was altered for several days. She didn’t really know us or what was going on, but she was sweet. At night, though, she would pick and pull on her IV or pull off the electrodes on her chest (not being combative, they itched). On the 4th day they had taken her off the pain pump and moved her to pain med, then cut that in half, and finally moved her to something just a little stronger than extra strength tylenol. They also gave her 2 pints of blood. It was amazing the difference all that made. That was Sunday, I came in Monday with ice cream for her and Daddy. (I knew she had said yes to it, but really she said yes to whatever we asked her. That was how we were able to make the med changes) I walked into her room and she was sitting in the chair talking to Daddy. I cried. (I cried a lot in the night on those first few nights. I thought she’d had a stroke.) She’s doing much better. She’s not using the walker any more to walk around the house. I took her for her first trip out of the house since her surgery this past Sunday. We took a 1/2 mile drive. :) She gets her sutures out Friday. We’re all anxious to see what the doctor thinks. (Her suture line is clean and healing well - it’s about 8 inches long.) The heroine in all of this is Cbaby. She says she wants to be a nurse, and she really got her practice in. For the first week that Mama was home, she was there all day, helping her shower, helping her change clothes, changing her bandage, etc. Just doing it all. I can’t thank her enough.
It was hard, but I feel so grateful that Mama is improving, and that the doctor doesn’t think this is as serious as it could be with Daddy.
To end on a better note. Today was my first day with my homeroom. It’s early to make decisions, but they seem like a good group. Ok, I’m off to start the process of catching up on y’all. It’s going to take a little while, but I’m looking forward to seeing what’s been happening in your lives!