Have you missed me?

Hello...I'm back, sort of. I'm going to try to get back into a regular routine of blogging again. For some this may be a relief. For others, a curse but too damn bad.


So, to catch everybody up on what's been going on, I'll summarize. Early in October, my mom injured her leg but didn't quite know what she did to it. For two weeks she hobbled around on a walker, thinking it was a pulled muscle. Finally the pain was unbearable and I had to take her to the hospital. Turns out she broke the head off of her femur. The femur is the bone that connects to the hip socket. She had surgery to repair the break and was hospitalized from 10/19 to 11/3. She's home now, and able to get around the house with a walker. For at least the next month, she'll have a nurse and a physical therapist visiting twice a week. Her goal that she has set for herself is to be without the walker by her birthday, 12/11. It's an ambitious goal but a good one to set for herself.

Meanwhile most of my time has been spent going to work, then going to the hospital, then going home to cook or clean or just try to have a bit of quiet time. It has been a lot to try to process. I let my workout routine go, and my eating habits changed. My big meal for the day was lunch at work, Dinner was usually something small since I was geting home at around 8 each evening.

Not that there hasn't been some play time. I did enjoy the fact that I was alone, something I don't often get to experience. Mind you, for the most part I was too busy to care about entertaining. Still, it was nice knowing that I could.


For Halloween weekend, I spent the afternoon and evening at Dan and Luis' house. However, they weren't home. Our friend Tina was house sitting and taking care of Ozzie, the bulldog. Last year for Halloween, we learned that their block is very into the holiday so to get into the spirit (no pun intended) we all dressed as pirates. This year, since they weren't going to be home, they left it up to Tina, Denise and I to protect their reputation (and their home from eggs and toilet paper). Tina and Denise chose a witch theme, I was a warlock. Two of Tina's Valpo gal pals joined us and we had a good time handing out candy to kids, althugh I'm still a bit miffed that they wouldn't follow my suggestion and hand out broccoli and tomatoes to kids without costumes or ones that didn't say "trick or treat." Oh well... Over the course of 4 hours, I believe we handed out about 900 pieces of candy.



Two of the Valpo Girls (it pains me to say that I can't remember their names because they are super-sweet and so much fun!), Denise and I. Three Witches and a Warlock, or three Witches and the lead singer of The Killers. You decide. Tina managed to not be in this picture she took it.

On Thursday 11/5, Reeling - The Lesbian and Gay International Film Festival began. Over the course of 10 days, a bunch of theatres in Chicago will host screenings of gay and lesbian themed films from around the world. I attended opening night and saw "The Big Gay Musical" with my friends Steve, Vahona and Anthony. In the audience was Jane Wiedlin, who was in town for the Chicago premiere of her film "Stuck!". Afterwards there was a fun party at Architectural Artifacts with a performance by The Joans, a Joan Crawford tribute band. Visit their website here!



Friday 11/6 I attended the Chicago premiere of "Stuck!", a women in prison movie shot in black and white. As mentioned above, one of it's stars is my friend Jane Wiedlin. She invited us to attend the film and the after-party. Vahona, Anthony and my friend John were along for the festivities. The movie was really good (and I'm not just saying so because Jane's in it, I swear). Afterwards, the party was held as a club named Circuit, which on Fridays hosts a lesbian themed party. this one was billed as as "lesbian lockdown," so we didn't know what to expect. When we got there, it was nothing I hadn't seen before. It was actually a lot of fun. Jane came over and talked with us for a while. We did shots and took pictures. She thanked us for being there for her. Honestly, I would not have missed it.


Pictured left to right is Vahona, John, Anthony, Jane, and me. We're about to down a round of delicious lemon drops. Photo courtesy of Anthony Meade/Bear Lens Photography


Open enrollment for benefits began at work today. I held my first three meetings today. I fared better than last year, when I had to hold meetings on the same day I had to present benefits at orientation and participate on a conference call. I lost my voice that day. Not to say that it won't happen at some point, it usually does.

Did you miss me??

Quick Mom Update

Hi. Just haven't had a lot of time to blog lately, not that there's much going on in my life other than work and hospital visits and sleep.

Mom's doing well! She has been working her little butt off in therapy all week. She walks daily and yesterday the occupational therapist had her walking stairs. She got up and down three of them. Progress is being made.

There's a kitchen set up in the occupational therapy "apartment." She decided that it's too tidy so she talked her therapist into letting her bake cookies. That's going to be her Monday project. I've been assigned the task of bringing her hand mixer. I think she was tempted to ask me to bring in her Kitchen Aid but she knew better. LOL

Hopefully things will be a bit more "normal" in a week or so, and I can return with some fun stories instead of blabbing on about my Mom. Thanks to all who have sent well wishes and good thoughts. We both appreciate them very much.

DWTS - Season 9, week whatever

Again, no official recap this week. Just don't have time to do them right now. Tonight, I watched, with my mom, at the hospital. Yesterday she was moved to a rehab unit (which is 5 doors down from the room to which she was originally admitted. She began major therapy today, lots of walking, sitting, practicing body mechanics. She said she's proud of herself for managing all she did today. She knows there's work ahead of her, but she knows too that she's not getting out of there as fast as she had thought. She's comfortable with the idea of being there for another week. Granted, she wishes she could be left alone, she's tired of them checking her vitals every 2 - 3 hours and she wants to be in her own bed, but she's less anxious about it. She wants to get as much out of rehab as possible.

Anyway, I thought Mya did great tonight, Louie wasn't bad, and Joanna did a good job. Apparently Donny didn't have a great week, nor did Kelly Osbourne. The Mambo (or was it a Rumba) side-by-side competition was fun to watch. I think it's time for Michael Irvin to go home, but if it's not him, it will probably be Louie or Aaron.

Bathtub of Spaghetti

So I made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner because that's all the energy and creativity I had in me. it tasted good. I watched some TV then took a Xanax and went to bed.

At about 10:50, the phone rang. It was the hospital. I was petrified to answer it but when I did, my mom was on the other end. She had awakened from a nightmare. It involved her, at home, trapped in the bathtub which was filled with spaghetti. She was tangled in it and couldn't get out. I was home, my sister was home. Then she felt like someone was holding her legs down. I asked her if she wanted me to come there, she said yes. So I got dressed and made it to the hospital in 9 minutes. The evening nurse was still there, finishing up her report for the night shift. I went in and Mom was laying there quietly. She was unhappy with the thing that was squeezing her leg. It's an apparatus that keeps her circulation going. The nurse decided they could shut it off for a few hours. I talked to mom and convinced her that she was having bad dreams because of the morphine. She said "oh yeah!" Then I told her that if I could, I would trade places with her, that I hated to see her like that. But I told her that she had to be patient because she was going to begin to improve immediately and that tomorrow would be better. She fell asleep as I told her that. I sat with her for about 45 minutes then went and found the nurse to ask her to have people look in periodically. When i went back, mom was opening her eyes, so I talked to her some more and then told her that I was going home to get a good night's sleep and that she should try to do the same, but to call me if she needed me. I told her that I would see her tomorrow and I'd be bringing her a present, her new robe.

One last stop at the desk and the staff assured me that they would look in on her.

Now...back to bed.

Mom Update

Surgery was today. I don't know the exact nature of the surgery, but it sounds like they replaced the ball that is at the top of the bone (femur) that goes into the hip socket. Surgery didn't take very long but she was in recovery for a long time. When they finally brought her back, she was disoriented and upset and in a lot of pain. My sister and I did our best to reorient her to her room, she began to recognize her things but kept asking if she was in the hall. Her doctor came in and talked to her and she was a little more lucid and was happy when he showed her the pain button, the magic trigger that delivers a dose of morphine. She hit the button and then fell asleep for a bit. We got her some water and then some ginger ale and she then said she just wanted to sleep.

I left to go and find her a robe. I'm not thrilled with what I bought but at least she has something to wear when they get her out of bed and start walking.

Dancing With The Stars

No recap this week. I'm sorry. I watched but didn't feel up to the task of doing a proper recap. Maybe next week.

Mom Update

Mom broke her hip. She's hospitalized and will undergo surgery on Wednesday.

Today has been surreal. We got to the hospital at about 10:30. One of the paramadics was the husband of someone that we've known for a long time but haven't seen in about 20 years. Bill, the paramedic recognized me, then when we made the connection, he and my mom were old pals and talked football on the ride to the hospital. The two paramedics took great care of her. I followed along (well not really because the lights were flashing and they were driving really fast).

The xray showed a break that the ER doctor said was her leg. Right away she said that surgery would be necessary. Eventually we got mom to a patient room and got her situated.

The orthopedic surgeon came in and explained the surgery, which was a hip replacement surgery. I asked him if we were talking about the same case since the ER doctor had described it as a broken leg. He said that it was a broken leg but the placement of the break required that the hip be replaced. So, that's what will happen on Wednesday. He's confident that it will be fine and that he'll have her feeling great in no time. There will be rehab, she'll be in the hospital for about 10 days.

By 5, she was scared, tired and very hungry. She only had a bowl of cereal at 7:30. When dinner arrived she ate more than I've seen her eat in a long time. She sent me home at 6.

I've been on the phone all evening with relatives, just cluing them in on the situation. She's a private person, doesn't like a lot of fuss to be made over her and will be upset that I told her brother and sisters. But, they deserve to know.

I'm exhausted. Part of me wants to cry my eyes out, part of me wants to just enjoy the silence here at home. Then there are times when I just feel numb. I'm not ready for all of this.