January came in like a LION!

WOW!  After a nice, and fairly uneventful Christmas (but my camera was misplaced, so no photos BOO!)  January came down on us like a ton of bricks.  I was actually sick with a stomach bug right before Christmas, it lasted 4 miserable days.  Ellen got it right after, and had it for almost a week, then Tim got it!  It lingered with him for just over a week.  I think they had trouble kicking it because they were trying to eat or at least nibble a bit.  I didn't get better until I gave up and went to fluids only for the day - then I was better in the morning.  Same for Ellen, finally.  Tim never did take the step of fluids only and I'm sure that's why it was so hard to get over it.

Christmas was really nice.  Marci asked for luggage from Santa, almost as odd as crutches, yes?  Max wanted new work shoes.  He needed them, and so we picked them out together at Kohl's.  We were there together so I could help him shop for Marci.  He had a great gift for Ellen, but was stumped on Marci.  He ended up getting her a pretty scarf there and a tote for her hair curlers & straighteners when she travels.  She loved them so it was great!  Ellen got a gift certificate for Kohl's to pick out some clothes.  She has fallen in love with sweaters, and Santa could have picked some out and given her that, but "he" thought she'd enjoy picking out her own (and lower prices at after Christmas sales would stretch "his" budget.)

But then January came and life changed.  Tim's mom went into the hospital on the 8th and they determined she'd had some small strokes.  They can't say how many exactly, but two areas of her brain were affected, and the areas were larger than the doctor's expected when they looked at the MRI.  She was really lucky though - not much damage is evident. She is slightly weaker on her left side (10% in her hand grip) and has to think a bit longer to answer questions or participate in conversations - I'd say she will walk away with about a 5% reduction in thinking and in using her left side -- to too darn bad, and probably not noticable except by those who are around her all the time.  She is still in the hospital, but got to move up to the rehab floor on the 10th.  There was a setback on Sunday.  I was there and stayed through the night.  She had us pretty worried!  She was unrepsonsive, hard to wake up & running a fever of 101.5.  They did a chest xray, it was clean, and then a CAT scan and it was clean too.  Thought it might be a urinary tract infection and began antibiotics.  She was also very dehydrated - they could barely get the IV started.  It took three nurses, one of them the nursing supervisor for the hospital!  The next morning, the Doctor thought it was probably asperative pnuemonia and added another antibiotic.  That seemed to get her doing better.  She actually did her therapies on Monday, which amazed the previous night's nurses and aids!!  We would never have believed we were even going to get her out of bed, much less walking and talking!

Of course this means I've been having lots of interaction with Tim's sister & husband.  Never fun and usually pretty frustrating.  But, I've been working hard to take a step back and let them take the lead, let them answer the Dr.'s questions, let them monopolize conversations, etc.  It's hard, I'm not sure all my toungue is still intact after biting it so much LOL.  But it's been good for me.  It's paying off at home too, I'm interrupting less and listening more.  The sister & BIL plan to move into Tootie's house and live there.  They are hoping their daughter and soon-to-be SIL will move into their house to keep it lived in.  Tim thinks SIL is not on board with that plan, and if he has enough gumption, they'll say no and stay put.  The back up plan then is that sis & BIL will still move into Tootie's house, but their son (20) will stay back at their house and a friend/cousin (not sure :/) will move in with him and those two will keep up the house (LOL!!)  I see a whole road of disasters ahead with both of the plans, but I'm practicing my "butt out" ability.  Actually, the mantra I've been using is "Just because I know the answer/information, doesn't mean they want/need to hear it from me" - that will shut you up in a jiffy ;)

So, we're taking it little by little, and crossing bridges as we get there.  So far it's going well enough.  Stay tuned.