Wednesday, June 26

I was up at 7 a.m. this morning, but skipped my exercises so I could get ready to take Mother to the hospital for a venous Doppler exam, scheduled for 9 a.m. Around 8:15, I went to Mother's house and helped her get to the van. Since we'd be using her wheelchair at the hospital, we left her walker in the yard.

At the hospital, we lucked out in finding a handicap space close to the building. Usually, I end up having to park at the other end of the lot and push Mother uphill to the hospital.

Inside, we visited the reception desk to get signed in. Discovered then that Mother failed to bring here Social Security card along. She's not sure where it is, so we'll have to put the hunt on for it at her house. As it happened, her name is already in the hospital system, so they already have her Social Security information.

We waited fifteen or twenty minutes before we were called back. In the exam room, it was necessary for Mother to remove her shoes and jean and climb up on an exam table. Fortunately, there was a step stool to help boost her up.

The exam was a bit uncomfortable for Mother, since her swollen leg is sensitive, so the tech moving the handheld instrument over it caused her to flinch. Of course, Mother is very sensitive to any sort of touch, anyway.

Happily, though, the tech reported that there is no sign of blood clots in Mother's leg. She will send a report to our family doctor, and then we'll wait to see if the doctor has any other suggestions for dealing with that leg.

Mother tends to get woozy when she sits up from a prone position, and today was no exception. It took several minutes for the room to stop spinning for her. She says this happens every morning when she gets up, so she sits on the side of the bed until she can get her sea legs. But I worry about her being over there by herself, if this is going on. I fear that she might fall.

We were back home around 10 a.m. Mother complained of a headache, so I got her a cup of coffee, and located a neck pad to heat in the microwave for her. She had trouble getting any relief today. I asked her if she'd tried the neck exercises the doctor suggested, but she said she gets dizzy when she does them.

When she felt better, she insisted on helping me make a pot of potato soup. Hubbie peeled the potatoes, and then sliced them in the food processor, and Mother diced onions, celery, and carrots. I did the rest, and the soup was ready before noon.

I gave Mother the choice of the potato soup, or her usual Ramen noodle, and she chose Ramen noodle for lunch. Hubbie and I sampled the potato, even though I planned to serve it for supper as well.

After lunch, Mother and I made a batch of strawberry jam. I might have decided to postpone making the jam, after Mother developed her problems, except I'd already thawed two quarts of berries, so they needed to be worked up. We got eight half pints from the recipe.

Once the jam was done, Mother went to her jigsaw puzzle, Hubbie ran errands, and I goofed off reading newspapers and playing on my e-tablet.

None of us was in a mood to do much of anything productive for the afternoon, so we didn't. Our potato soup supper, served with cold meatloaf sandwiches, followed by ice cream topped with strawberries, was very satisfying.

Hubbie accompanied Mother home afterward, and then we watched TV, including a DVD borrowed from the library...a Dorothy L. Sayers mystery, set in the 1920s. We enjoy these British mysteries, especially the period ones.