Update, illustrated with cute pets

Mr. Bunny

Well, this was not the vacation week I had planned. Thank you for your prayers and concern about my mom and for your birthday greetings to me.  Your prayers mean so much to both of us!

My mother is doing much better today, although she is still in the hospital and there are continuing questions about what's going on with her (and therefore what she should be doing about it).  But she doesn't need my constant attention now, which means that today I had lunch with my husband and dinner with my husband and son (mesquite chicken, asparagus and corn on the cob, all grilled by my son). I've played with Mr. Bunny and Miss Kitty a bit, too.  (Here are a couple of old photos of them... haven't had time to do any photography this week.) And I might go shopping tomorrow! The garden weeding will just have to wait.

Hanging around a hospital is quite an experience.  I spent a summer as a hospital chaplain, when I was doing my Clinical Pastoral Education unit during seminary, and some of that has come back to me during these last few days.  My mom is happy with her care, and for the most part, I know how to get the information I want to get from the hospital personnel, and how to communicate what I want them to know about Mom, so I feel good about it, too. All things considered, things are going well for her, although of course we all hope to get the answers we all seek about the source of her problem as soon as we can.

There are others at the hospital who are not so fortunate. They don't know what's going on with them and they don't know how to find out. They don't know how they will pay for their care or how they will cope when they are discharged. Some of them don't know if or where they will be discharged. There's so much sitting around, not necessarily doing much of anything besides waiting, waiting, waiting. Sometimes they don't know what they are waiting for, other than the next report, some news, from the doctor, or from the insurance company. News which most likely will be bad. It can be somewhat oppressive, that hospital atmosphere of waiting for who knows what.

Our not knowing is not so heavy.  The likelihood that her problem cannot be managed is slim. She has, and will have, options. She has a life she wants to get back to, complete with friends she enjoys.

So, as Julian, who we celebrated earlier this week, says, all will be well.  Thank you for your concern and your prayers!

Miss Kitty