Rebuilding Rob

I know I talked about it a little bit lately, but mother is sick. She’s in the hospital and she’s fighting off a few things that pretty much the exact same time.

She went in over the typical stuff, her lower oxygen, her increased heart rate. She also had a wet, rat, cough, that she had been dealing with for a few days.

Yesterday, or maybe us two days ago now, Phred finds out that mother had a urinary track infection again. I was at the hospital yesterday and I saw the receptacle that her catheter is putting her urine into you, and her urine is brown. This all coming on the heels of Fred overhearing one nurse to the other that she wanted to be sure that mother wasn’t going into sepsis.

I know the one pneumonia test she had the other day came back negative, but apparently her lung specialist seems to think that she does have it. Pneumonia or not, she does have COPD – not because she smoked; but because she was around my father when he smoked.

And the problem with all of these illnesses or health issues is that each of them are kind of hindering her progress with the others. The fact that she’s basically a mobile now and not moving, means that she’s not able to get up and move around and get some of that stuff in her lungs to start flowing a little bit more freely.

The urinary track infection is also affecting her dementia. She’ll say some random things, almost pulling out completely random memories out of thin air. So much so to the point that you have to wonder what part of that is the dimension and what part of that is a result of the memory issues that elderly people get with urinary track infections.

Last night at the hospital, mother told Phred that she was going to die tonight. Obviously, that wasn’t the case. And I know old people will pretty much tell you every day that this is probably going to be their last day. Also, there’s the fact that she does have dementia and it’s probably saying some things out of her rent right now. But with her health going the way, it is, the one really has to wonder.

A 50-year-old orphan

On the long, running 80s television series, The Golden Girls, there is an episode of early in the first season (it may have even been episode three) where Sophia, the oldest of the four roommates and Dorothy‘s mother, has a close brush with death. Incidentally, it would be the first of at least three near death experiences that Sophia has over the show seven year run.

There’s a scene where Sophia’s daughter Dorothy, is talking with Blanche. Dorothy is coming to terms with the fact that she may lose her mother and she jokingly says out loud “I’m going to be an orphan“.

With The Old Man, having passed 10 years ago this February, and Mother’s health deteriorating constantly, I’m coming to the revelation that I too will soon be an orphan.

I’m not trying to too and gloom this situation with mother. However, I am trying to be realistic about it. One of my biggest criticisms of the way my family handled things when my father passed was that I felt like for the four months, I never gotten much of the direct information as to what was really going on with him. Just once, I wish I would’ve asked a doctor “tell me point-blank, is my father dying?”

In some ways, I think I’m trying to already come to terms with my mother’s death, even before it happens. It’s almost like I’m trying to go through the grieving process before the initial shock and reality of it sets in.

As I write this, I am at the hospital right now, visiting mother. She seems to be doing better than she was yesterday. In fact, she has no recollection of either Phred or me having visited her yesterday.

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related posts

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• Life is What Happens: A Look Back at My Non-Existent 2025 Vision
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The article “The Fifty-Year-Old Orphan” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob