woohoo!! we got the floor down & it looks great! Tom got the new toilet installed this morning too. This afternoon we put in the new cabinets, sink & counter. The other cabinet & counter will be put in another day. Tom has a Bible study to get ready for. While he's doing that, I've given the main door & both door frames a 2nd coat of paint. It should be dry enough later tonight to put that door up. I'll paint the linen closet door tomorrow if I get the chance, but I have to get ready for small group tomorrow night & I'll be down at the hospital in the morning.

I've been telling everyone that Mom is scheduled to come home on Friday the 30th. Silly me.. the 30th is Thursday! Yippee!!! Thursday works out much better for me because I have my tole class in the morning & it's also payday/shopping day on Friday.

Today I started painting in the bathroom. Got 2 coats done on the linen closet & I can tell you now it will NEVER be painted by me again! Picture this... the linen closet doorway is very small.. I'm not.. The step stool had to be folded up & put in side-ways, then set up, then I had to try to get in side-ways & at the same time step up on the stool while holding a small tray of paint. Because my knees are so bad, I have to hold on to get up the stepstool too. oh brother! While on up on the stepstool, I have to try to turn to paint the walls (including behind me) keep the tray level, & not touch any walls. ... hmmmmm OOOPS!!! tipped the tray & there's a small puddle of paint on the floor.... level the tray again... start painting again... UH OH!! there's paint running down my leg & there's a much larger puddle on the floor! Oh well... there's that much less paint in the tray now so it doesn't tip so much hehehe.. geesh! what a time.

I did manage to get 2 coats on all the walls with a lot less spillage. Even the window frame got a fresh coat of paint. It's all white right now, but we wanted a good base under any paper we put up. Also we had some forest green to cover. It sure makes the doors & door frames look greyish though. Another paint job coming up!

Just to let everyone know... my mom is totally off the Sinemet now. She has some tremors in her left hand & head, but other than that, nothing. I believe the doctor thinks the tremors are due to the stroke she had (that we didn't know about) The stroke could have happened years ago & no one knew nor checked to see if the tremors were due to anything other than Parkinson's. Although the doctor hasn't come right out & said mom does not have Parkinson's yet, I'm going to trust that our prayers have been answered.

I forgot to tell everyone... I saw a robin on Friday!! Spring must be here!

So how come it snowed yesterday & is so cold again today?

Oh for warm weather!!

SURPRISE!!


Today we celebrated Sarah's birthday. We went to the Open Kitchen for lunch, which was what Sarah wanted. Twelve of us were there to celebrate with her, but we missed Nana & Poppa being with us.

After lunch we all came back here & Sarah opened her presents. Since Sarah had already had 2 birthday cakes, one on her birthday with Zachary, Jenn & Don & another one in Collingwood with her Aunt & her family, we didn't have another one. Instead we had Tim's donuts & ice cream. I put 5 candles & a little "happy birthday" sign on the one Sarah picked out. It was noisy but fun.




























Just after finishing the dessert, the doorbell rang. I thought it might be my dad popping in after visiting mom... but we were all in for a wonderful surprise. It was dad at the door but he had mom with him. She was given a pass for the rest of the day!! Needless to say everyone stayed around longer than they would have. We all chipped in & made supper & had a great time.

Then it was time for mom to go back to the hospital & everyone else to get home to put the kiddies to bed.

Last night we started on our bathroom project. We had put up that dry-strippable wallpaper years ago & off it came. Actually the wallpaper came off surprisingly easy. The backing was a different matter. Tom & I spent most of last night & this morning trying to get that &#%^$ stuff off! A note to everyone... do NOT wallpaper behind a toilet. It's hard enough to get it on but try getting it off... We had to take the tank off before we could get the paper off!

Tom put valves on the taps so we don't have to turn the water off to the whole house if we want to change anything at the sink. He put the new light over the vanity & moved the wiring etc. and installed the new lights over where the sink will be. The new counter is not as long as the old one which is why the wiring had to be moved unless we wanted it off centre....NOT!

Part of the new cabinets have been built too. We briefly thought about trying to put the new flooring & the new toilet in today but decided to do some of the other things first. Especially the plastering & painting.

I forgot to take "before" pictures, but I know I have at least one picture somewhere. I did take some when things were cleaned out though.

We have about 15 bundles of insulation on our back deck too, waiting to go up into the attic. That's another big job that needs to get done before we get the new carpeting installed May 1.

I'm sure it wasn't this hard to do this kind of thing 10 years ago. They must be making things harder to do nowadays!! Thank goodness we have a day off tomorrow. We will be celebrating Sarah's birthday after church.
Happy Birthday Sarah (even if it was last week!)

Mom is doing well with her physio. The part they are concentrating on the most is her balance. She won't be able to gain back what she used to have but what she does have they want to help her to improve.

When she first went into hospital, she was taking 7 Sinemets/day and I'm not sure how many Amantadine. The Amantadine was supposed to boost the Sinemet. She was taken off the Amantadine a couple of weeks ago & the tremors in her hands almost disappeared completely. Since being in the Henderson hospital, they have been gradually lessening the dose of Sinemet she gets. As of Friday, she was down to 2 a day with no discernable changes.

She has an estimated discharge date of March 30. WOOHOO!!

Today Mom had another doctor. He was really nice too. I'm not sure if he's one of the senior staff, but he sure gave Mom a work-out. He tested her balance, he had her walk away from & back to him while he watched how she walked... he checked her feet, legs, arms, hands, eyes etc... He wanted to know how those who first told Mom she had Parkinson's knew it was Parkinson's.. of course Mom didn't know that. None of us do. He's almost positive that the way she walks, the loss of balance & the weaker left leg is due to the stroke. They have been gradually reducing the Sinemet she takes. The doctor said they don't want to do it suddenly because if she does have Parkinson's it would cause problems, so reducing it little by little & watching to see if her symptoms return has been the best bet... so far none of the tremors (except her head which has never gone away) has returned. I sure am hoping & praying that what they suspect is true & that she does not have Parkinson's.

I think I had forgotten to mention about some things that have been found out while mom was in the General. The main thing is that they took her off one of her Parkinson's medications, Amantadine. The doctor came in & told us that, then asked Mom if she had noticed any difference. Right away I said that the tremors in her hands have not been as bad & we wondered why that was. The Amantadine is supposed to be a boost to the Levadopa.

After moving to the Henderson for rehab, one of the doctors was questioning about Mom having Parkinson's because the removal of the Amantadine usually makes the tremors worse not better. However that is still unclear. She had Mom walk for her. She watched very closely how Mom moved her feet. The way she walks is definitely the way someone who has lost sensations in feet and/or legs would walk. Mom has lost sensation in her feet due to the diabetes. However, her left foot & leg is a lot weaker & her left foot turns in & does not lift the way it should. I'm pretty sure they think this is due to the stroke she has had... & it does make sense.

I'm really impressed with the way these 2 doctors have been with Mom. Also the nurses seem to be more attentive than most of the nurses she had at the General. When a call button is pushed they answer almost immediately & they also come right away. I can't say it's because they have fewer "sick" patients because a lot of times the nurses at the General were just sitting around talking anyway. I know because I'd go looking for a nurse for the ladies in the room when it seemed more urgent. Nothing like telling a lady to poop in the diaper simply because they were too busy talking to get her a bedpan.. then leaving her in it for over an hour with the resulting rash or leave an 89 yr old patient with a broken pelvis sitting on a bedpan for over an hour, in pain, with no way of calling a nurse to help her get off it!

There were a few (very few) nurses who were really caring of their patients & I really appreciate their care & concern for Mom.

Gee... do I sound angry??

OK.. better get off my soap box for now!

Anyone want to help me write a complaint letter to the hospital mom was in? Believe it or not, I had to transfer her to the Henderson & NO ONE helped us out of the General. Mom was exhausted by the time we got to the main entrance where I had to leave her while I went to get the car. I was given directions to the Henderson & we had to go to the main entrance for information to where she was going. There was a lot of walking involved to get there too. No one offered to help with a wheelchair or anything, nor was there anyone around to ask for help. We didn't realize it was going to be such a long way. When we got upstairs, they thought we had been transferred by Patient Transfer, until I said that mom needed to sit down after such a long walk. They were furious that the General hadn't transferred her in an ambulance as they SHOULD have done. The hospital was still responsible for Mom's care during the transfer too.
From what I've been told, this is not the first time that ward has done the same thing. They should know better than to practically insist that a patient's family transfer a patient to rehab. If I had not taken her, they would have called Dad & I know he would have gone to get her then both of them would have been having problems! Imagine forcing an 83 yr old woman who was in hospital for 3 weeks with 2 fractured vertebrae to walk what probably amounts to close to 3 city blocks after she has been up for less than a week! grrrrrrrrrrr I am so mad I could spit!

Poor Carolynn... she was so excited about getting her new computer & now it has crashed. Although it has been replaced, she lost some of her pictures of the girls & any other work that she had on there.

Good news. Mom was moved to the rehab centre at the Henderson Hospital. The doctor said she might only be there a week, but it would be up to the physio-therapists.

nothing new to report today.


I did edit & add post back to last Wed. though lol.. so now you'll have to go back & see what has changed!!

We went to visit mom today after church. She looks so good. She's been getting a much needed rest I think. Dad was already there, but Terry wasn't. I had expected Terry & Wendy would have beat us there. Dad said Terry was going to pick him up but on the way he got very ill. I guess he got what the others had, poor guy. Sure hope he feels better soon.

No further news on either the convalescent care or rehab. Still no room at the inn!

ahhhh the weekend! Tom spent the morning trying to clean up the garage or should I say junk collection room. Things have been dumped in there to the point we could hardly walk through. We had to get it cleaned up enough before our new bathroom cupboards, countertops & flooring arrives. We are also putting more insulation in the attic (anyone want to help? lol) & that will take up a fair bit of room until it's put up there. fun fun fun

We went to visit mom this afternoon. I was surprised Terry wasn't there but mom said that he was coming down tomorrow. There has been some bug going around Terry's place. I'm not sure who all has had it, I just hope it's over with now & everyone is back to good health.

Mom is still doing well. The physio-therapist comes in every morning & takes her for a walk around the "block". She's walking very well now (with her walker) & is allowed to get up anytime to go to the bathroom or just to get out of bed. She can go for a walk as long as someone is with her.

We are still waiting for a spot in convalescent care or the rehab place.

Judy went home this morning & another lady has arrived. She seems quite nice too. She also has pneumonia. The lady in the bed next to mom, Evelyn, has not been well. Poor dear keeps having tests & can't have anything to eat, then they cancel the test or it's delayed & she ends up getting hardly anything at all. Mom has been talking with her too. The lady in the bed opposite Evelyn is a real pill! She complains & whines all the time. Don't know what she has to complain about, she sleeps almost all the time. The real whining starts when the staff want her to sit up to eat or go to the bathroom etc. She has even complained that she's always the last to be seen to... which isn't true, she's usually first. (probably cause she whines so much lol) Oh well.. she does give us something to chuckle about sometimes.

Mom is still doing well. She's in good spirits & keeps saying she's enjoying not having to cook or clean. I think she'd like to get out of the hospital though... who wouldn't?

Not much has changed since yesterday. Judy.. in the bed across from mom, is going home tomorrow. That's too bad cause Judy & mom have got on famously. Mom is worried about Judy because she doesn't seem well enough to be going home & Judy's son is there & he's sick with strep throat.

Tom & I went up to the Flooring Warehouse to pick out the flooring we want in the bathroom. We ordered enough to do the downstairs powder room & the mud room too.

Mom seemed to be doing pretty good today. She even got to take a walk around the block. Not a large block but she did well & now I can take her out of the room anytime I want to.

She's 6th on the list for rehab now. Hopefully it won't be long before she can go. I'm not quite sure what the rehab is for since she's walking ok (with her walker of course).

Just as I got off the elevator to go home, I met Dad. He was a little breathless but nothing unusual for him & he seems to be doing fine now.

The internist who first saw mom in emergency came in today too. She's been in a few times. She is on a different rotation starting tomorrow. She was telling us that the team has taken mom off one of her parkinson's medications. It was the one that boosts the sinimet. She said that sometimes that particular medication, although good, does some funny things sometimes. She told us what but I don't remember exactly now. She asked if we noticed any changes & I said YES!! Mom does not shake as much as she did before. I had thought it was the advancing parkindson's but it seems it could have been that medication. Her loss of balance could also be a result of that medication. The odd thing is, that booster was given because mom was beginning to loss her balance at times. It just got worse & worse as time went on. ODD!

I am getting excited about our bathroom make-over. We have the new toilet, sink & tub liner ordered as well as the countertops & cabinets. The tub liner should be here around mid April & the rest of it will be here in a couple of weeks. Goodbye to the ugly gold colour!! hooray!! Tomorrow night we are going to order the new flooring. We're going to be busy between now & then to get things ready.. the main thing being to make room in the garage to hold everything until we are ready to install them.

I'll have before & after pictures I hope.