Time wasted...sort of

As some of you may remember (no pun intended), I was taking my mother for an Alzheimer's assessment at the hospital today. Took the day off work, so that I could be there for her, during this scary and confusing time for us both. My dad is basically house-bound, and not able to make the trip with us.

The appointment was at 9am, and we did arrive a few minutes early, what with me being unfamiliar with this side of the hospital. I learned something about my mother this morning...patience is not her strong suit. She was humming and hawing, and "how much longer do we have to wait"...OMG, Mother, it's been 5 minutes! Get a grip! Finally in we went with the pharmacist and a resident to begin answering questions. I tried to leave most of the answers up to Mom, although she did often look over to me for clarification and back-up. Then they took Mom off for a physical and the mental/memory tests. I was not invited. I sat in a room, by myself, with only two magazines for ALMOST TWO HOURS! Oy...I can probably tell you what page a specific perfume ad was on in the December Flare magazine, just in case you were wondering. Finally everyone reappeared, including the doctor that will be seeing Mom, although she was only there long enough to fill out the requisition forms and leave. Nice to meet you, by the way.

So, after all of this, we do not have an answer...we do not have a prescription...we do, however, have more running around to do. More blood work, and an EKG. Chest x-ray and a bone-density scan. Orders to quit smoking (Mom smokes 2-3 cigs a day, but that's still 2-3 too many), and to up her calcium and vitamin D. Appointment for a Pulmonary Function Test and a CAT scan has been ordered, but don't know when yet. Then, after all of that has been done and the results given, THEN we can all get together again and make a diagnosis. Okay...I am not a doctor...I fully admit to that. However, would it not have saved some time (and perhaps some precious brain matter for my mother) if at the time that all this referral business was going on, that they didn't say "oh, we also would like you to arrange for the following"...see, the pulmonary test isn't even till March, and God only knows when she's likely to get a CAT scan booked. It could be this time next year that we go back for the final diagnosis, and while I applaud the thoroughness, I would like to know what is wrong with my mother and how do we fix it! That was the whole point of this!!! Guess I learned my patience from my mother after all!!

Dropped Mom off at home, and after some puttering around there, I came back to my home. Had leftover lentils & sausage for lunch (I was STARVING - the kashi and almond milk at 7 was long gone), and then the strangest thing happened. I laid down on my couch and when I came to, it was 3:30! Oops!!!

Got up, changed and headed out for Boot Camp. TV said the temp was -13, and it was still snowing. It's been snowing off and on all day, so I knew we'd have a fresh blanket of the white stuff to play in tonight. It did not disappoint! Again, there were only 3 of us foolish enough to show up, so Josh put us through our paces. Started with a warm-up run (about 2km), and then right into the upper body work. Many, many, many shoulder presses and triceps work. I'll be lucky if I can get dressed by myself tomorrow! Stuck pretty much to the upper body, but did finish the hour with some good old fashioned core work - drop leg flies, hip bench presses, skull crusher toe touches (I love what Josh calls stuff!), and then moving on to V-sit shoulder presses (obviously didn't do nearly enough shoulder work), down to banana hold, leg presses and scissor kicks. He worked us hard!
On the drive home, I was trying to figure out what to make for supper, even thinking I'd stop at Safeway on the way home. But then I didn't want to get out of the car until I had too, so I thought "breakfast for supper"! And that's what I did...hash browns (frozen roasted potatoes with some chopped up red & green pepper, green onions), bacon (the REAL stuff), fried tomatoes (in the drained bacon 'drippings'), two dippy eggs (if they ain't dippy, they ain't worth eating) and Winnipeg rye toast. Two slices for dipping and two slices for 'dessert' - raspberry jam. Hit the spot nicely.

Was settling in for a night on the couch when the phone rang. It was H-woman, wondering if I wanted to go for a walk to Community Foods. So, changed again, and off we went. Turned out to be just under 4km for me (H-woman has another k or so to go to get to her house), and we managed to get all caught up on our weekends.

Okay, now I am settling back into the couch, and planning what to do with the rest of the week off.

Purging is high on that list.

Later,