5C's Que Pasa

…and we are all so happy to see him.  I can’t believe that we only have 7 days together.  Not enough time, not just to be together, but to simply get my to do’s done.  I have no option.  I have to get these things done before I can even think about heading south.  In other words, get those things done so I can work on my Mexico to do list.

This is my desk at Dad's condo and every morning I have to pack it up in case there is a showing. The day before I left Edmonton we had 3 showings, well that was after I dropped the price by $6000.00, but no offers.

...my desk here in Kelowna, does it ever get cleared. No! Most of this mess are Dad's files which I brought back here with me. I have cleared his condo of anything I will need in the future so if it sells while I am on the Isla ( fingers crossed ) I won't have to go back.

Yesterday we did some errands together and while at the local grocery store ( Cooper’s ) we met another lady who lives here in the park.  After a few moments I realized that she knew Colin but had no idea who I was.  I told her that I was Colin’s wife.  She stuttered ” you are Contessa ????”. She did not recognize me as I have lost quite a bit of of weight since seeing her earlier this spring.  Do you think she thought Colin had a new woman?  She sort of blushed and said that she thought I was a neighbor 😳 Have to say that l loved the compliment.

Went to the vet this morning to get the girls their boosters but have not done the International  Border papers yet as we don’t have a departure date.  We had planned on getting the girls teeth cleaned in Mexico in January but our vet is concerned about about the use of anesthetic there. We were not concerned but she worries but we told her it was much cheaper to get it done in Mazatlan.  So in the end Colin is going loan her some photographic studio equipment for her to play with over the winter and teach her how to use it before we leave in exchange for her doing the girls teeth next week.  Good deal.

Colin's Mom and her three sons. Colin is the youngest.

She certainly doesn't look 100. If I look half that good when I'm 70 I will be happy.

Four of the five nights that Colin was in Winnipeg he took her to a special place for dinner and wined and dined her. On the actual birthday evening the three sons and spouses ( except me ) shared a meal.

Mommio did not want a fuss but Colin thought she deserved to be spoilt. They both enjoyed the revolving restaurant and went around twice.

How often can you wish someone that?  Colin’s Mom, I call her Mommio, turned 100 today.  As Colin has no computer there he can’t send me any photos but this is a photo from last year.

They always have fun.

Colin took her out last night to the Fort Gary Hotel where she was feted at midnight.  She loved it.  Today the three sons are together and their spouses with Mommio, sadly I have to miss the big event.

Photos in a few days when Colin gets back.

Both Mommio and the hotel turned 100 this year.

Meanwhile Dad had 1000 ml drained from his left lung today and I was able to ask that they give him some pain meds ahead of the procedure and suggest they drain the fluid slowly.  When I was there last they took 950 ml out in 5 minutes, much too stressful on the lungs and the patient.  Today they did it over 25 minutes, much better.

Caeli was totally startled during her nap.

I asked our window cleaner to come back and clean just the one window. While I was in Edmonton the landscaper blew out our water lines and somehow managed to make a mess of this window. So I called Shaun and he came around today and cleaned it at no charge to me. Lovely English bloke.

Adios Colin....

We were barely together for 24 hours but like ships passing in the night it was time for Colin to head to the airport at 6 AM this morning.  Our original plans had us leaving Edmonton in our RV after a 4 day visit with my Dad in Edmonton and heading to Winnipeg.  Colin’s Mom turns 100 next week and he is off to celebrate with her.  Sadly I won’t see her for at least another year.  Because of my Dad’s situation it just didn’t work out for us to take the RV to Winnipeg and then head straight south thru Texas to Mexico.  We were looking forward to a new route and some different locations to have some adventures in, but it was not to be.  When Dad took a turn for the worse last Tuesday Colin graciously told me to stay in Edmonton and he would see his Mom another time.  I am so glad that things worked out as I just could not deprive Colin of celebrating his Mom’s hundredth.  That only happens once in a lifetime.

Carmeh is missing Colin already, jumping up and barking at the sound of a car. She is his girl.

Caeli is my girl and now that I am home she is just happy to be laying under the fireplace.

I’m loving being in my own house.  I miss Colin but at least I have the dogs to talk to and they talk to me.  They have different sounds for asking me to open the door so that they can go out.  It’s too cool now to leave patio door open so they can use the dog door in the screen.  When it’s time to eat there is a moaning sound like they are starving and haven’t eaten for weeks.  Treat time is announced with a sharp bark at exactly 2:00PM and if you don’t move fast enough the bark is repeated until you head to the treat cupboard.  I was often lonely at Dad’s as it was just me in a big silent space so I am enjoying every moment here even though I am working.

Sadly just after starting this post I received a phone call from a sister who found out from another sister that Dad has the superbug Ecoli ( ESBL ), it was found in his last sputum specimen.  I have been in touch with the charge nurse twice and she has put in a call to infection control on my behalf.  We are still waiting for the blood cultures to come back.  I was told that the IV antibiotics are broad spectrum and should be good.  Colin has offered to come back here early and I said not at this time as I should be able to manage things by phone.  Right now Dad is in isolation with everyone needing to wear masks and gowns.  My sister Lise wondered about the nurses not washing their hands and I started to think back.  Ecoli is so easily transferred from the colon to the mouth area due to poor hand washing on the part of staff.  There is one particular health care aid that has been helping Dad to the bathroom earlier this week.  He had been constipated and things started breaking up on Wednesday.  This particular person would wipe Dad’s bottom and then with my help get him back to bed and reattach his nasal oxygen cannula. However she was wearing the same pair of gloves that she used to wipe him and then touch his nose!!!!!!!!!  Over the past few weeks I have had to mention to the staff that they had dropped his nasal cannula onto the floor and a new one needed to be added to the oxygen line.  Once before I could speak the HCA just picked it up off the floor and put it on his face.  Sigh!!!!  Of course I mentioned this to the charge nurse this afternoon and suggested they change gloves between certain procedures.  People do not think!  Hopefully Dad will recover from this but he does suffer with a lack of immune system especially in his lungs.  The charge nurse assures me that Dad is responding well to this antibiotics.

Right now there is not much more than I can do but take a deep breathe, pour a glass of wine and hope for the best. I think tomorrow is going to be very very busy for me.

~ can you believe that gas in Edmonton is only 99 cents per litre.  Kelowna is down to a low of 125.9.

~ Dad is no longer confused but depressed.  He is upset that it is taking all of his energy to just keep breathing to keep alive.  He is very frail and has no energy to eat never mind to walk or stay sitting up in a chair.  He prefers to be in bed.  I met with the unit dietician Thursday afternoon and we came up ( along with the suggestions of my sister Lise via phone )  with several new ideas of things to feed him that will encourage him to eat and not take quite so much energy to chew. I do see some improvement due to the IV and oral antibiotics.  The coughing is down at least 50% and that has contributed to his demise, it takes a huge amount of energy to cough.  He hasn’t walked anywhere but to the bathroom once or twice per day.  He is definitely losing weight.

Remember, a few posts back when I told you that Dad had a new room mate and how close they were.Thank goodness I have connections and Dad is alone again. I have no idea how we would have got thru the last several days with another patient in the room.

This is how he was yesterday before I left. Just so tired with no energy.

~ we had 3 showings of his condo on Thursday, one for the third time but still no offer.

~ I had a lawyer come to the hospital Thursday evening for both Dad and I to sign some papers.  This will make it easier for me to go forward with the sale of the condo even if Dad dies and/or I am in Mexico.

~ I am also in the process of filling out 45 pages of minute detail for the probate lawyer.  This is going to take some time but if it is in place, it will allow us to head south for Mexico.

~ I arrived home here in Kelowna Friday evening.  I specify here in Kelowna as home as I now tend to refer to home as the condo in Edmonton. I am living on Edmonton time and every thought is what is happening with Dad at that particular moment.  Before I left I engaged everyone from the cleaning lady to the lady ( it is never a fella, wonder why ) who delivers the food trays to the health care aids to please, please help my father with his meals.  He needs to be encouraged to eat. They are so sweet and while saying they will do all they can for Dad,  they worry about me.  Am I eating, can they do anything for me?  The RN offered to work her breaks around me taking some time off so I could get a break. Last week week I “worked” several 12 hour and 10 hour shifts.  They are so very caring.  I actually have come to the conclusion that I would prefer that Dad stay with these caring folks rather then move to a new facility ( nursing home ) with new staff.  Plus he has his own room, when he moves he will have to share, at least for the first 6 – 8 months.  It is not likely that he will be with us that long.  I asked the doctor to not sign the order to put Dad on the wait list for long term care.  However I can’t control the future.  It is tiring when I am there but how I miss not being there to supervise.  Yah I know that I am controlling, but there is no way I was going to let that physio babe get Dad out of bed to walk on Friday morning.  Sorry but I am in charge!!  I do worry when I am not there.  Sent the sibs a text ( I hate texting )  to get it  together and it seems to be working, at least for the first 24 hours thus far.

~ I am going back to Edmonton in two weeks for another two weeks.  In my heart I need those two weeks with Dad.  They will be quality time, not time spent on business and his affairs, just fun time and reminiscing time. Depending on how the next fours weeks go, Colin and I are seriously considering leaving here about Nov. 27th.  That would get us to the Isla about Dec. 10th or thereabouts.  So I do plan to start getting ready this week to head south eventually and anything that I prepare won’t be wasted if we don’t leave.  We are just going to take it one day at a time but I have ordered 70,000 pesos from the bank 🙂

~ yesterdays flight here was the worst ever in all my years of flying all over the world.  It started with a body scan in ‘the machine’ which led to me having a very private and intimate and intimidating pat down with 2 female agents.  I was mortified when it was over.

Fortunately I was later able to relax over a glass of vino while listening to some live music in front of a full living wall of greenery.

~ however the flight was so turbulent that during the refreshment service the flight attendants were ordered to “sit NOW” and so they did.  I have never seen that before in all my years of flying.  No photo as my camera was in the overhead bin and I certainly wasn’t going to stand up to get it.  I have never ever seen flight attendants sitting on the floor in the middle of the aisle before, for at least 10 minutes.

~ so here I am back at home with so much work to do that I have no idea where to start.  Last evening I took the night off and I had a long hot bath with a glass of wine and then had a nap with the girls. Colin finally woke me up to have some dinner and then it was back to bed.  Today has been spent sitting at my desk.  Sigh!!!  It is cold here, I guess I missed fall.

~ I am so grateful to have a fully working computer and have started catching up on blogs that some of you write.  Comments soon. Reply to emails as soon as I can.  Adios for now, time to make some dinner at 8 PM.