Tuesday, August 28

Up at 6:30 again this morning, so I could get ready to take Mother to the medical clinic for a fasting lab blood test, and a visit with her doctor. Of course, I skipped my exercises this morning, since Mother's appointment was scheduled for 8:45 a.m.

Before I left the house, I checked my laptop to see if it was working. Last night, it suddenly just shut down...no power to it. The plug seemed to be firmly in the outlet, but no juice was arriving at the computer. This morning, though, everything seemed okay again. So I figured it was an adapter problem. If it happens again, I guess I'll be the market for a new adapter.

Around 8:15, I accompanied Mother to the van. Hubbie had put her wheelchair in the van earlier. It's always easier when someone is with me to help wrangle the wheelchair out of the back of the van, but I managed it on my own, anyway, today.

The times they are a'changing: at the clinic, Mother was not asked to sign a hard copy release of information this time...instead, she was asked to sign a small digital screen.

Her appointment reminder came both by e-mail, and by automated phone call yesterday. Today, I noticed posted fliers urging patients to register online to get test results and to make new appointments.

A recent article in our local newspaper related how doctors can now "visit" patients in some nursing homes via TV...blood pressure and other vitals are monitored by in-house nurses, and this information is relayed via TV to a doctor, and after interviewing the patient, the doctor can then prescribe medications.

Before proceeding to the exam room, Mother stepped on the scales...she's a mere 104 lbs. now, thanks to the miniscule amount she eats these days. In the exam room, the nurse found that her blood pressure was high at 176 over something (we weren't told what). I asked Mother if she'd taken her BP meds this morning, as I advised her to do last night. She said she had.

Otherwise, everything seems in order. The doctor did chide Mother for not exercising regularly, and she suggested several exercises she should do to keep her legs, pelvis, and hip areas strong. She warned that breaking a bone in a fall could spell disaster. Mother has heard this speech from me often enough, but it seems to fall on deaf ears.

Before we left the clinic, another nurse drew blood, the results of which should come in a few days, but I expect it to be normal.

Back home, while I prepared a toast and jelly breakfast for Mother, I asked Hubbie to go fetch her medications. I discovered that she had taken her thyroid pill this morning, but none of her blood pressure meds. No wonder her BP was so high.

The problem is that she's accustomed to taking the thyroid med at least 30 minutes before eating, and then the BP meds after breakfast. But I told her last night that even though she should not eat breakfast this morning, she should be sure and take her BP meds. I guess she forgot. Next time, I'll have to follow up and make SURE she takes the meds!

Any sort of outing exhausts Mother, so it wasn't long after she'd had breakfast, around 10:30 a.m., that her head was drooping, so I encouraged her to go to the couch early for a nap. I don't know how much sleep she got last night, since anticipation of a doctor visit always unnerves her.

She slept until around 2:30, but still acted kind of draggy after she got up, and kept nodding off. But she ate well later, when we had a supper of leftover spaghetti, with salad tomatoes topped with cottage cheese, and slices of garlic butter French bread.

Afterward, I accompanied Mother to her house, and then Hubbie and I watched TV, including a Lifetime Movie Network 2006 film called "Past Tense." A young girl has nightmares about being murdered. Her mother tries to convince her the dreams aren't real, but later they discover she has actually been murdered in a former life. They are forced to find the killer. Shocking secrets are revealed.