More episodes

or spells, or whatever you want to call them. Mother had another little episode today. It's her right side & her hand & foot goes numb. And she just gets weak.

Then a breathing spell. I had spent the afternoon with her. We watched a movie from Netflix. A Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, "Homecoming" with Anne Bancroft. The movie is based on the novel "Homecoming" by Cynthia Voigt. One of my favorite books.

I went to the grocery store & did some shopping for her, went back, fixed supper & she ate that. I left & I only got a couple of blocks. The wind was gusting & the dust was bad, lightning was flashing. I decided to go back & roll up the window's on Nan's Am (Don-Mike's 1980 Trans Am) & help Mother with her open windows. I got back, rolled up the windows on the car, went in the house & couldn't find Mother. She was in Don-Mike's room struggling with the windows. She could barely breathe.

Puttering she was not. She was downright working. I had put Don-Mike's work uniforms in the washer & told her they were there. She had got the clothes out of the dryer, hung them up, & put the uniforms in the dryer when the wind came up. So she was hurrying around, closing the windows & was ready to collapse. I sat with her, helped her with her inhaler & she finally caught her breath. She'd been too long without oxygen, too.

The fine art of puttering

Mother had a checkup with her new primary care physician, Dr. Beckstead. He again reviewed her meds with her. He reviewed why she was in the hospital, congestive heart failure. He wants her to continue to take the 80 mg of lasix & not to work, but to putter. So, I asked him to define puttering, LOL.

He said puttering is a fine art. You have to work at it. He doesn't want her working. She's worked hard all her life, now it's time to putter. She can get up & walk out into the kitchen & get herself a Pepsi. Then he laughed & said maybe he shouldn't have said Pepsi. I said it was ok, Mt. Dew is Mother's drink of choice. OK, she can get up & go get her a Mt. Dew. She can walk around out side & sit in the swing for 15 minutes. But while she is wandering around outside, she is not to grab that hose she sees laying there & drag it around. If she sees the vacuum sitting out because someone forgot to put it away. Leave it there. That is a job for the boys.

He doesn't want her to do anything to make her breathe hard. Just putter. He was pleased that her ankles are down. They are not as swollen as they have been. He wants her to continue taking the 80 mg of lasix & see him in a month.