They admitted her to the hospital with acute congestive heart failure, brought on by whatever virus she had come down with in August that apparently had not been adequately treated. So, she spent 3 days of her vacation in the hospital. They did put her on some new medications and some oxygen. In fact, they sent her back to our house with the oxygen. She did well on that, even if she didn't wear the oxygen quite all the time. She was supposed to go home on 9/29.
Somewhere, the wires got crossed with the company who provided the oxygen for her to come back to our house with. They were aware that she was getting on a plane on the 29th. They sent her with portable oxygen tanks, instead of a portable oxygen concentrator. When we arrived at the airport, they told us the oxygen tanks are not allowed on the planes. Yet, since she showed up with it, they wouldn't allow her to fly without oxygen either. AND she needed a form filled out by a doctor to allow her to fly with the oxygen or without the oxygen. Come to find out, the oxygen company didn't even have a concentrator device available for her to rent. They said they could order one, but it would take 2 weeks to get here.
After spending 3 days trying to get several different doctors to sign off that she could fly without the oxygen, without any luck, we finally decided that trying this any further was pointless. We had already made up our minds that, if the doctors didn't come through on the form, I would drive her home. The airline very nicely refunded the unused portion of her air fare, since they wouldn't allow her to fly home with it. So, we packed up our suitcases, loaded up the Blazer with oxygen tanks & paraphernalia, suitcases, plants, and plant starts -- and Mom and I took a road trip to Florida.
We left on Friday, October 4th, and arrived at her home in Florida Saturday afternoon. We did spend one night in Dothan, Alabama, on the way. I spent Sunday and Monday at her house visiting and resting up. She loaded up the Blazer with plants and other stuff that she was sending home with me, and I left there Tuesday morning to drive up to Ocala, a place I had never been before. I spent a very pleasant afternoon and evening (and well into the night) visiting my friends, Pam and Jerry, that I had not seen for several years. I loaded Pam down with lots of plant starts, too!
Around noon on Wednesday, I reluctantly got back in the Blazer and headed northwest once again. I made it back to Dothan and spent the night there once again. On Thursday, 10/10, I drove a little over 13 hours to make it back home that night. I was so tired, I didn't even eat any supper. I was so glad to be home again and out of the Blazer! I spent the next 3 days "resting up", and then went back to the hospital for my monthly lab work. Afterwards, we did our monthly grocery shopping. The day completely wore me out, proving to me that I wasn't as "rested up" as I thought I was.
I spent all of this last week alternately "resting up", doing laundry, cooking, cleaning, and the usual household chores. The house was clean and looked wonderful when I got home from Florida, by the way! He had done an excellent job on cleaning while I was gone! I did finally get everything unpacked, washed and put away. I also went through the stuff Mom sent home with me and found places for all of it.
In the meantime, Lee has been working around the place, as usual. On top of critter chores, he's been building nest boxes for bunnies. He has hauled 3 ranks of firewood (a cord) up to the house for the outdoor wood furnace. He had some excitement while I was gone trying to light a fire, only to discover a bird had made a nest in the chimney pipe! After cleaning that out, it was good to go once again. He built a cold frame cover for one of his big raised beds today. This is a 4' x 12' bed of cabbage plants.
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| Closed for a cold night |
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| Back fully sealed up |
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| Cold frame open |
