Decisions on Monday, the Second Day of the Week

Then, the Beginning

Now, Monday, April 28, 2008 turns out to be a significant day of The Week, the turning point for the rest of our lives.

Early in the day, Dixie Health Care calls to inform all concerned that the hospital bed will be delivered about 2:00 to 2:30 p.m. this afternoon. That makes a *happening now* sound to me, whereas before it has been a futuristic sound without clear boundaries of starting or stopping.

Now, this is the beginning for the bed; like everything else, the end is open. Well, we can draw it in a little bit because of the month's rental on it. Son-in-law Mark, with Debbie in the picture below, was there to accept delivery of the bed, so I guess that means he is also accepting his mother-in-law moving in with them beginning Wednesday, but with an open-ended stay. That sounds like a brave man to me! I text him and ask him to take a picture of the bed for me, and just look at the mess he made of that. Wonder if he was trying to send me a message? Awww. I cannot do that to Mark. He is too good a son-in-law. I have to take responsibility for messing with the picture.

I have my sister Brenda to thank for the bed. Nothing could be much more appreciated. She and I are many miles apart with so much going on in both of our lives. She is finished with her chemo and is doing radiation now for her Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer.

Monday has also been a really bad day for me. The surgical area of the insertion of the port has been very painful. I talked to Donnie, nurse daughter-in-law to see what she thought; she wasn't sure. It has been one week today since the surgery, and I expected it to be a non-entity by now.

The IVIG side effect headaches have also shot out all of a sudden. Those ole scalawags! Cannons exploding, blowing my head into another world.

Never once, until today, did I ever think of the surgery affecting *My* Myasthenia Gravis. That, plus the pain, has caused me to sleep frequently most of today. Yeah. Just when I don't have the time for it the most! When there is much to be done. That's okay. I'm not going far - one block down the street, and there is no set time like going to doctor appointments. I can always come back later for anything that I miss.

But . . . what position will this put me in come Wednesday? Something that needs thinking about. Seriously.

I got word that son Jim got a call about 6:30 this morning on his house phone that came from my cell phone. I text him and asked him what kind of message it was that he got. He called me to explain it to me. In talking, he told me that if I decided not to try to go to the hospital Wednesday for Dad's surgery, that he would be there for me to text or call as much and as often as I needed. He told me he would repeat things for me as much as I needed him to do. Is that not a blessing to know!! He wanted me to be sure that I did not think he was saying anything about what he thought I ought to do, just that *if* I did decide to stay home, *he* would be there for me at the hospital. he reiterated it over and over, even saying he could not say it enough. I could really sense that he could understand where I would be coming from during the hospital and surgery time down there, and if I were here, and he was trying to put me at ease. It was just about all a son could do for a mother if not physically with her. If I did not express it clearly, that's okay because I understand it inside of me where it is important, really important.

The grammar books probably sprouted wings and flew out the window with that, but that is the way it came from within me, and that is more important than being grammatically correct.

We continued to talk, and as we did, he put me at such comfort, such ease, that it was easy for me to decide what I needed to do Wednesday, one of the days of This Week, this turning point week.

Thanks to my son, and to our conversation, I was able to know while we were still talking, what was the best thing for me to do Wednesday.

I am staying here.

As much as I want to be there where Jim is - and this does keep slipping back up - I feel it is best for me all the way around to stay here with, as I put it to him, his sister Debbie hanging on to my coattail, taking care of me.

Like surround sound, there could be nothing better surrounding me now than where my children have placed me.

See you tomorrow!

Toodles
Striving for a world without Myasthenia Gravis