I slept 45 minutes past my alarm today, woke up and rushed to get out of the house. Halfway to work, the van stalled, and then when I got to work it stalled four times just trying to back into a parking spot. "Oh shit!" I thought, as last time the van was in for service Dad was told it is not going to last much longer. I was getting low on gas, but decided not to fill up in case this was a sign of the van dying. I had no breakfast in me and had to grab a bagel from Tim's to eat while making waffles. I found the waffle area a mess again and the building was already hot and muggy, and very uncomfortable. When Vijay came in, he asked me how I was doing and when I described Dad's condition and then about the car, I suddenly burst into tears. He asked if I wanted to go home, and I said yes, but I need the money so I couldn't just skip work. I asked if I could make the waffles and then go, and he agreed. I also asked him to tell Trisha not to harass me for not helping her with customers. He must have spoken to her, because she barely even looked at me in the four hours I was there.
Anwyay, the waffles took me until nearly 2PM, and in the meantime I called the mechanic to ask about getting the car looked at. I was told they could look after it tomorrow, so I decided to drop the van off right after work rather than risk not being able to get home and back with the car. Mom picked me up at the shop and said she wanted to go grocery shopping, and upon questioning she said she hadn't had lunch. Neither had I, an I wasn't going to take her shopping on an empty stomach or she'd buy out the whole bakery department. We had lunch at Cora's, which she'd never tried before, and enjoyed it very much. When we went shopping, she picked out a lot of produce but still had to be told no for a lot of things. At one point I went to the washroom, and while I was away she put a bag of raisins in the cart. She likes to eat cereal with a HUGE mound of raisins on top, which gives her the runs and is far too high in sugar. Anyway, I found it when I went to check out, but she had run off to the deli to get mock chicken loaf (something I had repeatedly said no to) so I tossed the raisins out of the cart and checked out. I don't know what took her so long at the deli, but I was almost out the door when she showed up with the mock chicken. She called after me that she needed $5, and I said I didn't have it, I paid with a credit card. She paid for it with her own credit card, and never asked me for the money. Really, I had just spent $87 on groceries and conceded to a number of things she wanted but didn't need, and I had also spent $35 on lunch. She can be responsible for $5 in crappy cold cuts if she wants them badly enough.
We finally got home and the house was covered in clothes. Some were on hangers and hanging from doors, other were draped across furniture in the living room and bedrooms, and others were stuffed into garbage bags and placed randomly throughout the house. She says they'll be out of here tomorrow, so we'll see if that happens. I managed to stumble around the clothing and put away the groceries, and then I FINALLY got a cool shower and a nap.
I slept for an hour and went to visit Dad. I took him a bowl of melon chunks, which he looked interested in but he'd just eaten the hospital meat loaf and he was too full to have any. He was a bit confused to see me enter with two cans of diet Sprite, and a few minutes later he could only see one. He giggled a it when I showed him the other can was in a giant cup of ice I'd brought in for him. Methinks he is slightly out of it! He seems mostly with it though. A nurse came in to take his vital stats, and asked if he knew where he was, what the name of the building was. He looked at me, looking a bit scared as he obviously knew where he was but couldn't remember the name of the hospital as it changed a couple of years ago and we always refer to it by the old name. Anyway, he managed to indicate that he knew where he was by saying "I can't remember, this hospital has a stupid name now." She accepted that answer. LOL
Gilly called while I was there, and Dad really smiled when he was talking to her. After a minute or two he passed the phone to me, and I just said hello and said we'd talk later. I filled Dad in on Mom's antics at the grocery store, and he was amused. Then the announcement that visiting hours were over was broadcast. i asked if he wanted a drink or a pee or anything before I left, and he thought about it for a few seconds before deciding to take me up on the offer. He got up without too much difficulty, but when he lay back down he had the bed too low and he fell backward, hitting his head on the railing on the other side. I managed to get him straightened around, got him back into a comfortable position in bed, and then said good night.
He had a CAT scan and chest x-ray today, one right after the other. He said they're also doing blood cultures to see if he has some kind of infection. His belly is huge but he's not in discomfort from it, and the doctor said he won't drain the fluid right now because every time he does it takes all the protein out of Dad's body and weakens him again. At this point Dad is so weak, it would do him more harm than good to drain his belly. I'm hoping they find the cause of the problem really soon so they can do something about it. Dad is getting more and more discouraged, and he needs something to give him hope if he has any chance of recovery.
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