Frustration

Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion.  I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.     Kurt Vonnegut


​It’s been an interesting week.  Mom was scheduled to have the battery in her pacemaker changed.  It’s an in and out procedure.  Still, with a 94 (soon to be 95) year old woman with other complications, you can’t be too careful.

Since Mike is the one with legal power of attorney over any medical issues and is really the primary caregiver, he took the day off work to take his mom and dad to the hospital.  She had to arrive by 11:30 a.m. which takes a lot of planning and help.  Comfort Keepers need to have her up, dressed and ready, the medical transport has to be planned in advance and Dad needs to be kept on track.

The surgery was scheduled for 1:00.  She was prepped and ready to go.  Unfortunately, a power outage occurred so she was sent home and rescheduled for the next day.  Now if this happened to me, I could easily get dressed and be on my way.  It would be only a minor inconvenience.  Not so much with an elderly stroke victim and her husband with dementia.  Getting dressed takes a lot of effort and assistance.  Getting home takes a call to Ambucab.  Meals have been missed and the parents need to be fed.  Then, all this has to be rescheduled for the following day and Mike needs to take another day off work.

No one is at fault.  These things happen.  You certainly want everything functioning well for even a minor surgery.  But it is disheartening.
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The good news is Mom did get the procedure and she is doing well.  Instead of just changing the battery, they gave her a brand new unit.  At the end of the day we are very grateful for medical care, for insurance to cover it and for having Mom a little while longer.