The Upbringing of Parents

OCTOBER 13, 2012 These parents! The fun just doesn't stop. Now it seems to be my dad's turn. Always the farmer, he ended up dropping a trailer hitch on his big toe. That is bad enough just for anybody, but he is on a blood thinner and is diabetic so he has a double whammy there. He ended up spending a few days the week before last in the hospital on IV antibiotics. It is very difficult to get him to stay off his feet, I'll tell you that. He was a pretty good patient and Mom was starting to wonder just what he was doing with those nurses as they all just loved him and said he was "cute". Of course my mom, the trouble maker that she is, smuggled him both tobacco (Copenhagen) AND a weapon (is there a man of his generation that can live without his trusty pocket knife?). Boy, it's a good thing they don't frisk the visitors at the door or she would be in trouble. They're just a couple of regular law breakers! Once Dad got home, his primary care provider wisely referred him to the wound care nurse, Jennifer Rosenmeyer. Deb and I went in with him and watched as she debrided it and actually found a real toe underneath all that dead skin. Everything was going along pretty good until last Saturday. Dad started retaining urine and after urging my mother that this was nothing to play around with, my sister took him in to the ER where a catheter was placed and 1400 ccs of urine were drained out of his poor bladder. They then sent him home with a catheter and my sister, Deb and my daughter have been taking care of his catheter this week. When he saw the doctor on Wednesday, after noting that the urine was clear, the decision was made to try and take out the catheter to see if he could go without. She told him that if he had not emptied his bladder by the end of the clinic hours at 5 then he should come in and she would put the catheter back in. Unfortunately he had no results and was VERY discouraged when he had to come back in and get the catheter put back in. It was very heartwarming to see my mom holding his hand as she drove him up to the door for me to bring in to the clinic. Many of the providers came out to visit and try and cheer him up while we were waiting, offering reassurances that this will clear up with time. Dad just feels like he is being such a burden for us -- he never wants to be a bother for anyone. It doesn't help that we are approaching that time of the year that brings us the memories of my brother's passing.

Gabby has been keeping busy taking care of Grandpa and Grandma -- running errands, cooking and baking, cleaning, emptying catheter bags and such. It's a good thing we have her around! Today she is a bridesmaid in Emily Swyter's wedding. It is supposed to be an outdoor wedding but we'll see what the weather brings. She has had a great time this week with that with getting her nails done and the rehearsal supper and the like. NOVEMBER 10, 2012 I've been so busy that I forgot to finish the update I started. Since then my dad endured a trip to the urologist with the directions to keep his catheter in for 2 more weeks, continue on his Proscar probably for the rest of his life and then remove it and try, try again. This past Monday was the 2 week mark and after much prayer by all involved...SUCCESS!!! It seems that things have settled to a different kind of normal for my parents and they are getting used to that. My sister on the other hand doesn't get a break as her husband's family is now having health issues. After having both Pat's parents in the hospital last weekend in Britt and his sister in the hospital in Mason City they ended up losing his sister on Tuesday. Linda's heart just could not take anymore and God took her up with him. This is devastating for Pat's parents not to mention Linda's husband and family. Please keep all of them in your prayers as they try to adjust their lives in this time of loss.

Last weekend Mike and I went to Dubuque for parents' weekend. We stayed at the Hotel Julien and on our way to check in noticed lines of people in the downtown area. Just our luck...President Obama was having an "event" there later on. Oy! After checking in we drove around and just had to get a picture of the billboard that Mike's brother-in-law sponsored. Once we got done driving around we went back to the hotel with a little time to kill before we were to meet Fr. Dellaert for supper. While waiting we got hooked onto the Notre Dame football game. It was in overtime when we had to pry ourselves away. I tried to rationalize that Fr. Dellaert is always late anyway, but Mike said we really should go and get a table before the Obama "event" got done and the restaurant would then be overcome. Luckily Fr. D could get the game on his mobile so we kept an eye on it while visiting. We had a great visit with Fr. Dellaert while eating at Crust. That has become my new favorite place in Dubuque. He even liked the pizza and said he was going to have to get one to takeout when he goes to his folks' sometime. It was good to see him again and hear all about his life changes while laughing about the old times and even trying to see the humor in the way our lives have become at the present time. This weekend Mike and I used a "gift certificate" we bought for a dinner with Fr. Huber. We originally planned to take Fr. Miller and meet Fr. Dellaert there but life just happens and they were unable to join us. So at the last minute, I called the parishoner that placed the bid on this dinner in my absence at last year's Harvestfest and invited her and her husband to join us. We had a very nice time and got to sit back and have Fr. Huber wait on us (not like he doesn't do that for us anyway, but he did so more "formally"). Mike and I stayed overnight, which was a good thing as I don't think Mike could have driven as he was so tired and full. This morning we arose and ate a light breakfast and visited a little more with Fr. and took off, leaving Fr. to begin his busy weekend and us to do a little shopping. I did a little shopping at Bed, Bath and Beyond and then I decided I was done with the shopping thing and that we could head for home. Mike decided we had time to kill so we drove into Rydell and looked at vehicles, namely the Traverse and Equinox. I'm not sold on the Equinox and Mike thinks the Traverse is too much of a vehicle for the two of us so we'll just keep on looking and thinking. We're not really in a big hurry anyway. I can't believe he is even looking since our agreement when we bought the Cadillac was that we would keep it until we are 50 and that is a couple years away. Well, I have a hankerin' for some popcorn for supper -- usually I have that for supper on Sunday nights but it feels like a Sunday night so I'm just gonna go for it!