DIARY OF AN URBAN MILKMAID


PROFILE GUESTBOOK OLD OLDER OLDEST
I have a headache. The kind where you know for sure your brain is inflammed... Also intermittent chills, body aches and a mildly upset tummy. I'm sure it's Lyme Disease. I really think if I feel this bad tomorrow, I'm going to stay home from work. I mean, why shouldn't I? I have sick time! Loads of it!

It's my kid's 19th birthday today. I was commenting that when I was her age, I was dragging sailors home, yet she's still here with me, and so far - not one sailor! Wild. Just wild.

There's a crazy woman living in our apartment building. They've served eviction papers on her, yet she continues to stay on. Today, in broad daylight, she tossed her garbage in the pool. And her house keys! Last week, she poured pancake syrup on the porch of the assistant manager's apartment. She tried to run her over with her car last month... Somebody threw potato salad on her front door, and instead of cleaning it off, she's left it there to rot and stink, and attract vermin. I wouldn't be surprised if she was the one who threw it on the door to begin with...

The woman who lives next door to me has also been evicted, but for non-payment of rent. She's a bit of a crack-head, but she used to be pleasant and we'd chat. These days, she brings bar flies home and then engages in knock-down, drag out fights with them. And cries that she's a "victim of domestic abuse" to whomever will listen. She's even collecting benefits for being a "victim of crime" from the State of California. I finally couldn't take it any more and yelled at her that she does a disservice to all the abused women who can't get away from their abusers when she INVITES ABUSIVE MEN INTO HER HOME. Now she's too embarrassed to talk to me. Good.
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We're signing my mother up for Hospice Care, hopefully in the next few days.

If you ever need Hospice care - like, you or a loved one is close to dying - it's a wonderful service! (And if they're old, it's paid through Medicare 100%) Not only do they have nurses who come a few times a week to monitor the patient, they can manage pain, get them medical equipment, oxygen, social services, chaplains, visitors who volunteer to just hang out with the patient or go shopping for them... They also help the family to understand what is happening with the loved-one. That really, no matter what methods are used - the patient (mom, grandpa, god forbid - child) is going to be dying, and that's not going to change... Helping the process happen as naturally as possible is the goal. Just knowing this helps me to sleep at night, because before I got to understand that my mother is, in fact, going to be dying - and maybe soon, I was very anxious about "saving" her, or avoiding a health crisis, or when the phone would ring, I would cringe thinking it was her caregiver wanting me to rush her to the ER for something. I can sleep now, because she may die. And that's okay. That is what she is supposed to be doing pretty soon anyhow.

My mother, when asked by the Hospice nurse, if she got sick, would she want to go to the hospital, or would she like to stay home and just be made comfortable, broke out in a giant grin and said "That's what I want!" The Hospice nurse turned to me and said that most of her patients say the same thing, the same way. With Hospice, it's more or less a comfort thing while nature takes its course. No paramedics in their yellow slickers, no lying in freezing cold emergency rooms for hours and hours, no needle sticks, no hospital food - just familiar surroundings and kind helpers.

We have some clerical hurdles to get past, but after that, things may just work out for the best for my mom.



August 23, 2006

Buh Bye!
October 05, 2008

Be Afraid, People.... Really Afraid
September 01, 2008

One Last Bitchfest for the Road
August 24, 2008

Get the Popcorn Ready
July 17, 2008

I'm a Rich Ho-Bag
June 20, 2008



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