Last night around 8 pm, I got a phone call. My sister Grace was calling.....from her home. Sprung from the Big House!!
After seeing the kind of treatment his mom was getting in OK City, my nephew Aaron decided he could cover the basic care if the physical therapist could come to the house. SOMEBODY agreed. So Grace is confined to the sofa - but her boys are happy to see her.
Never mind getting food that a hospital/institution won't give you!
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Let's try again on the Alla Barocco link
In case I didn't get the title to be a hot button, try this for Alla Barocco. When you get there, scroll down to Alla Barocco and choose the right play button: gray for lo-fi, black and green for broadband. I finally looked in blogger 'help'.
Tom was kind enough to create a file to place in our iTunes, and I can forward it if anyone would like a copy. Playing this, the Star-Spangled Banner, and our fight song (plagiarized Notre Dame Victory March) was the cost of getting into the school basketball games for free.
OK Nikki or Daniel, how do I link in jpegs?
Friday, February 6, 2009
Sundays on the Phone with Mom
My experiences in 3 months of rehab in the Payson (AZ) Care Center taught me a lot about accepting things I can't change. Things like not being free from pain, being able to move my body freely, being able to move about the building, being in a place with no family or friends whatsoever, or being able to leave that prison. I learned to adapt. When I got placed on a commode without being sure my call lights were in reach, I did'nt howl 'help me' like some residents would, because I knew the nurses and aides had become hardened to it. So: (tune: Camptown Races)
"I can't reach my call lights here, scuba, poobah,
I can't reach my call lights here, oh scuba day.
One's stuck in the can, (In the bathroom which I could not yet move myself into)
One's stuck on the left,
The third one's stuck in the middle of my bed,
Somebody help me please!"
After three repetitions help came. "Susan, you're fun-nee" said the aide. The nurses would ask me for prayer if it looked like a hard day was coming up. The only grouch I had in the room was the night nurse with the 2am bedpan, and once physical therapy proved to her that I could get out of bed without falling her mood improved immensely.
I was shocked when my mom got caught in the 'automatic' door at the Whitehall Shell/A&W/Long John Silver's and it broke her pelvis. Didn't she carry enough weight to cushion the blow? or to have her bones built up to avoid osteoporosis? This was the beginning of the end of her independent living - at age 70. She's in a wheelchair, walking hurts her back.
"Mom, it just kills me that you have to be in a home," I'd tell her. "Your mind is still there." Since I was in California, my youngest sister did the actual placement, and I'm sure she feels worse for having had to be the one to do it.
I used to feel bad about calling her - until I'd walked a mile in her shoes in Payson. I lived for calls from my kids and was overjoyed when they got up the gas money to visit - Twice. Now I make a point about calling every Sunday, and if I miss, make an extra call. She says some weeks that I'm her only "visitor".
Since my middle sister in Oklahoma fell and got lumbar fractures, she has been in rehab in Oklahoma City since August. None of her immediate family can drive from Lawton, so she's up there alone. I swipe my daughter's cell phone and set up a 3-way call. Grace is harder to get to - bedridden - so she gets a cordless phone from the nurses' station. Then I call Mom, who usually gets a push to a phone in the hall. Mom asks about the weather, the usual how's the grandkids questions, and then sits back and listens to Grace and I go at it. Mom wishes the phone had 4-way so we could include sister Deb, niece Brandy, or even Great-great-aunt Capitola, who is 105, lives with a 65-year-old granddaughter, and has cheated the nursing home twice. "Nurses in homes are so busy, Aunt Tola, that you probably get better care from Carol."
Mom and Grace got extra calls on Wednesday about the fire. Take no chances having them fret about the national news.
Lord, You sure are teaching us patience with these (medical) high-maintenance bodies!!!
"I can't reach my call lights here, scuba, poobah,
I can't reach my call lights here, oh scuba day.
One's stuck in the can, (In the bathroom which I could not yet move myself into)
One's stuck on the left,
The third one's stuck in the middle of my bed,
Somebody help me please!"
After three repetitions help came. "Susan, you're fun-nee" said the aide. The nurses would ask me for prayer if it looked like a hard day was coming up. The only grouch I had in the room was the night nurse with the 2am bedpan, and once physical therapy proved to her that I could get out of bed without falling her mood improved immensely.
I was shocked when my mom got caught in the 'automatic' door at the Whitehall Shell/A&W/Long John Silver's and it broke her pelvis. Didn't she carry enough weight to cushion the blow? or to have her bones built up to avoid osteoporosis? This was the beginning of the end of her independent living - at age 70. She's in a wheelchair, walking hurts her back.
"Mom, it just kills me that you have to be in a home," I'd tell her. "Your mind is still there." Since I was in California, my youngest sister did the actual placement, and I'm sure she feels worse for having had to be the one to do it.
I used to feel bad about calling her - until I'd walked a mile in her shoes in Payson. I lived for calls from my kids and was overjoyed when they got up the gas money to visit - Twice. Now I make a point about calling every Sunday, and if I miss, make an extra call. She says some weeks that I'm her only "visitor".
Since my middle sister in Oklahoma fell and got lumbar fractures, she has been in rehab in Oklahoma City since August. None of her immediate family can drive from Lawton, so she's up there alone. I swipe my daughter's cell phone and set up a 3-way call. Grace is harder to get to - bedridden - so she gets a cordless phone from the nurses' station. Then I call Mom, who usually gets a push to a phone in the hall. Mom asks about the weather, the usual how's the grandkids questions, and then sits back and listens to Grace and I go at it. Mom wishes the phone had 4-way so we could include sister Deb, niece Brandy, or even Great-great-aunt Capitola, who is 105, lives with a 65-year-old granddaughter, and has cheated the nursing home twice. "Nurses in homes are so busy, Aunt Tola, that you probably get better care from Carol."
Mom and Grace got extra calls on Wednesday about the fire. Take no chances having them fret about the national news.
Lord, You sure are teaching us patience with these (medical) high-maintenance bodies!!!
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Fire in Coatesville, epilogue
I was interviewed by the Coatesville police, fire marshals, and PA state troopers. No news people, however. The only thing totally destroyed in the fire was a waist-high Rubbermaid storage shed and its contents. The occupants' peace of mind, however, is another story.
News video is available for the websites of the local tv stations: KYW - 3, CBS; WPVI - 6. ABC; WCAU - 10, NBC; WXTF - 29, FOX. When the camera looks straight at the fire damage, look to your right beyond the white house next door to the brick house and the yard above the 4' stone wall. That's our back yard, between the stone wall and the wooden fence.
Also news on CNN and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Inquirer site says a disabled relative was sleeping in the back room where the fire started. Bleep! I'm glad I was fast on the dial thumb.
News video is available for the websites of the local tv stations: KYW - 3, CBS; WPVI - 6. ABC; WCAU - 10, NBC; WXTF - 29, FOX. When the camera looks straight at the fire damage, look to your right beyond the white house next door to the brick house and the yard above the 4' stone wall. That's our back yard, between the stone wall and the wooden fence.
Also news on CNN and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Inquirer site says a disabled relative was sleeping in the back room where the fire started. Bleep! I'm glad I was fast on the dial thumb.
OOPS
How DO I get that link to become active? An alternative is to Google "Alla Barocco" and select "shan1975's soundclick station", which is how I found the mp3 file.
For all Band alumni, esp. Whitehall
There is a link to an excellent MP3 of "Alla Barocco" by Giannini at this site: http://www.soundclick.com/members/default.cfm?member=shan1975&content=station&id=403184
Choose Alla Barocco by Goose Creek Bands from the page.
The title means "in baroque style", but the composer put the subtitle Folk-Rock under it. Our band would play it to warm up the crowd before basketball games and between the halves. It made a great alternative to the marches, show tunes, and baaaaaad arrangement of "Sweet Georgia Brown". (It was bad because it had been simplified too much. People kept trying to swing the rhythm like the famous whistling rendition for the Harlem Globetrotters. Mr. Frang, the teacher, kept throwing fits at us.)
One cup of lemonade, in an economy that's been throwing lemons. I think I ought to find a recording of The Boss' "Glory Days" to go with it.
Choose Alla Barocco by Goose Creek Bands from the page.
The title means "in baroque style", but the composer put the subtitle Folk-Rock under it. Our band would play it to warm up the crowd before basketball games and between the halves. It made a great alternative to the marches, show tunes, and baaaaaad arrangement of "Sweet Georgia Brown". (It was bad because it had been simplified too much. People kept trying to swing the rhythm like the famous whistling rendition for the Harlem Globetrotters. Mr. Frang, the teacher, kept throwing fits at us.)
One cup of lemonade, in an economy that's been throwing lemons. I think I ought to find a recording of The Boss' "Glory Days" to go with it.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
There was another fire in Coatesville last night:
Too close for comfort!!!!!!
Last night, around 9:30, two of my girls were in the kitchen and one was in the dining room on the computer. (The phone jack is in the dining room.) I was watching TV in the living room waiting for the timer to go off for the loaf of bread in the oven.
The younger 2 smelled smoke, and thought the bread was burning. The older one looked out the back door, saw the flames, and shouted “There’s a fire!” The girls handed me the phone to call 9 1 1, because they figured I'd get the address right. I dialed on the run and saw the flames for myself. As it was, I heard the sirens from the nearest firehouse before the dispatcher finished getting information from me.
The first fire engine arrived just as I hung up the phone. I think a cop was just ahead of it, because someone with a male voice was blasting the flames with an extinguisher.
This was not a vacant house. There were people inside watching TV, who knew nothing until a neighbor across the street knocked on their door. The vacant house between my house and the torched house was unaffected.
Police, fire, ATF, and news agents were running all over the neighborhood between houses. The police and fire marshal took statements from my daughters and me. Chester Avenue was blocked off all the way from Oak Street to Lincoln Highway, its whole length. My girls said the fire engines in front of the house and behind it were there past 1 am.
Now there is an ABC channel 6 newsvan in the alley and plenty of lookie-loos going by.
Someday soon this psycho is going to trip up, I pray.
Last night, around 9:30, two of my girls were in the kitchen and one was in the dining room on the computer. (The phone jack is in the dining room.) I was watching TV in the living room waiting for the timer to go off for the loaf of bread in the oven.
The younger 2 smelled smoke, and thought the bread was burning. The older one looked out the back door, saw the flames, and shouted “There’s a fire!” The girls handed me the phone to call 9 1 1, because they figured I'd get the address right. I dialed on the run and saw the flames for myself. As it was, I heard the sirens from the nearest firehouse before the dispatcher finished getting information from me.
The first fire engine arrived just as I hung up the phone. I think a cop was just ahead of it, because someone with a male voice was blasting the flames with an extinguisher.
This was not a vacant house. There were people inside watching TV, who knew nothing until a neighbor across the street knocked on their door. The vacant house between my house and the torched house was unaffected.
Police, fire, ATF, and news agents were running all over the neighborhood between houses. The police and fire marshal took statements from my daughters and me. Chester Avenue was blocked off all the way from Oak Street to Lincoln Highway, its whole length. My girls said the fire engines in front of the house and behind it were there past 1 am.
Now there is an ABC channel 6 newsvan in the alley and plenty of lookie-loos going by.
Someday soon this psycho is going to trip up, I pray.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
