Getting Back to Normal?

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeYesterday I met a friend for coffee, and had a session with a counseling intern I am supervising at the KC Free Health Clinic. These were the first two "normal" things I have done since my mother went in the hospital, 11 days ago. This thing has really consumed my life. I have spent most of every day at the hospital; the nurses tell me, "You can leave, you don't have to stay here." And I do leave every day to get necessary stuff done, but when I come back I almost always find that something is going wrong, or going undone. For example, my mother is very dehydrated, and getting more so every day. Her doctors are asking the nursing staff to push fluids into her, but they just flat are not doing it. They do stick their head in her door several times every hour, and ask her if she needs anything; and they respond to her call buttons. But she isn't drinking more than very small sips of liquids, on her own, and nobody is reminding her to do that, except me. They have massive problems getting an IV into her, and don't want to transport her anywhere with an IV going.

Which brings us to the good news: there's a really good skilled nursing facility that has agreed to accept her, and she has actually agreed to go there (as of last night, anyhow). The idea is that if she can get some strength back, get some fluids in her, get some physical therapy, then maybe she can go home. I don't yet want to worry about what that might be like, if she's back in her own house again, refusing to let anyone come in and help her, or clean (anyone except me, that is), and calling me 10 or 20 times every day, demanding that I "get over here." Not yet.