More snow....

Snow, ice,snow, snow....... This is the pile next to our driveway.  It is a fun place for Sean to slide. We got a foot yesterday and another couple of inches today.

We went to a birthday party for Empress on Saturday. Kylie and Brie were there. Sean was so excited to see them, he ran across the room to hug them. They were acting shy and Sean was a little embarrassed that they were not as enthusiastic as he was. I grabbed them all for a group hug and he was happy

Tyson came over to play with Sean so he came to the party with us. Fun times.

The writing on the wall

I went to pick mom up from Lakeview yesterday afternoon. The PA had called me and said they STRONGLY suggested she be admitted to a nursing home. I told him I appreciated his suggestion and reminded him there are countries all over the world that don't have nursing homes and people do just fine.

I got to the hospital and mom was sitting up in her wheelchair. They wanted to give her a shower as she hadn't had one for four days. Only problem is the shower there is a bathtub with a slide board and there is no way in hell she is going to be able to sit on that board much less get off of it. Their suggestion, "we have strong guys to lift her." That sounds like a terrific solution. Her back is broken so you are just going to have someone haul her off the board. I don't think so! I asked if there was a shower room or any rooms with walk in showers. She checked and said the rooms with walk in showers were all occupied. I sat and looked at the bathtub for awhile trying to come up with a solution. There was a bedside commode in her room that was pretty high. I took the commode removed the bucket and set it in the bathtub. I asked mom if she thought she could sit back into the chair with her legs on the outside of the tub. Great, a solution. The C.N.A. came in the room and I asked her for some towels. When she saw my plan she said "the floor will get wet." Hm, I told her "it sucks to be you." Seriously, you haven't showered her since she got here. They were lucky I didn't just give her a shower in the middle of the floor.

Shower was done, she was dressed in her chair waiting for the discharge instructions and she said "why do you think someone wrote all over the wall." I asked her what wall and she points to the wall next to the door. I said mom there is nothing there. She then starts to read pages of words off the wall. She totally saw the words and said they were written with a red sharpy.  She read the wall. It was very freaky. It reminded me of Sharon and her visual hallucinations.

I went out and told the doctor who came in the room and mom read the wall to him too. Well, there went that discharge. I put mom back in the bed. As I was leaving the nurse asked "do you think it could be the phenergan I gave her?" What phenergan??? Yes, I think it could be the phenergan. When I got home I checked the internet and there are 31 FDA reported visual hallucinations as adverse reactions to phenergan.
Good grief. I guess I should have taken her and run.

How many health posts?

How many health post for the month of January? There are four more days left in the month.

Mom started feeling bad Thursday afternoon. It came on suddenly, acute back pain. She hadn't fallen or twisted or done anything she can think of to cause pain. I should preface this with mom is ALWAYS in pain. She has post polio and Scleroderma along with being 85. This pain was different. She was in tears. I listened to her lungs and her left lung sounded gunky so she used the nebulizer and said she felt better. I asked her if she wanted some lortab or percocet and she said no. She didn't want to go the the doctor because it was too icy outside. Friday she felt crappy and didn't come upstairs. Saturday she felt really crappy. She didn't want to go to the doctor because it was foggy and wanted to wait until Sunday. This morning she woke up and was crying. She had been taking lortab in the middle of the night with out any real relief.  She didn't want to go to the doctor because it was supposed to snow. PLEASE!! Don shoveled a path, we put her in the wheelchair got her up the ramp and the snow started falling. that was 11:30 this morning. It is now 7:42 and we are STILL in the ER. They did a CXR and CT scan of her abdomen and kidneys. Nothing exciting there. Then they did X-rays of her lumbar spine, nothing exciting there. They wanted to admit her for pain control but the hospitalist said he wouldn't admit her unless she had an MRI to rule out a surgical problem.

No problem right? In the hours between getting here and making that decision we have had a blizzard. The airport has been shut down. They called the MRI tech to come in and do the test but she got stuck in the snow. The CT tech came in at 5 and said he could do the MRI at 7 when he got off of his shift as the CT tech. Around 7:15 they took her to MRI so I am still waiting. Mom is not real happy, she said it's been a really long day.  She's had a couple of IV pushes of Dilaudid so if she doesn't move she isn't in pain.

She said she was hungry so at five, I went and got her a cup of soup which she promptly barfed right back up. She had just said it tasted good. I didn't ask but I'm guessing it didn't taste as good the second time around. Good news is if she does have a "surgical problem" none of the food I gave her without asking permission stayed in her stomach.

9 p.m. and we have a diagnosis! Compression fracture of L3 and L4. She is being admitted tonight so we will figure out what they are going to do about it tomorrow. What a lovely way to spend the day. (That was sarcasm.)

Lovely

Sean calls his blanket "Lovely." He has taken a liking to Charlie Brown because he thinks Linus and his blanket are awesome.

Lovely has been getting a little worse for the wear. I had been patching him but the entire edges were disintegrating. Sean asked me to fix it "every day and never give it away." I asked him if I could put a new edge on it and he said yes and requested blue.

An itty bitty Sean on his bright blue blanket.

A big Sean on his faded blue blanket.

Sean's blanket travels!

 One year old

 Sick at PCMC

 The Canyons Ski resort

With Addie and Alexis in Illinois

 Mexico

 Catalina

 Everywhere is home when you have your blanket

With his sisters.

 Grand Canyon

Ice and other stuff

We had an ice storm yesterday. We don't usually get those in Utah. I don't remember ever having one. There is still two feet of snow. It has been so cold nothing has melted. The ice fell on top of the snow. It looked like meringue It was awful to drive in or walk.

 

Today Sean had a follow up appointment with the orthopedic surgeon. When we walked into the office the waiting room was PACKED. I had never seen it like that. It was wall to wall with people with their arms in splints. Usually there are one or two people with splints and a couple with cast but never over a dozen with splints. They were all people who fell yesterday on the ice and broke their arms. Except for one older man we talked to who said he tripped over his luggage at the Seattle airport and broke his.

Sean has been learning about the body at school. Today I took in a heart, blood component and teeth model and some stethoscopes. The kids had a lot of fun playing with them. They have really learned a lot. They could tell me what the heart did, what blood did even the function of a white blood cell. Impressive for five year olds.

Sean next to his body

This is Rover. Rover is my robotic vacuum cleaner. He is the best pet a person who doesn't want a pet could have. Every day he vacuums my entire downstairs. It takes him two hours but he doesn't complain. (Well occasionally he gets stuck under a chair and beeps). He leaves stripes on my carpet in a nice neat pattern. I walk in the house and it looks like I have vacuuming OCD. I love it!!! Now if he could just keep the counters clean and take out the trash.

Lie's my mother told me

Sean's been asking a lot of questions about Santa lately. They all stem around Santa's immortality. I told him last week that Santa lived in our hearts and minds and that was why he didn't die. Today he told me when he grows up he is going to be Santa. I asked "why is that?" He said "because Santa doesn't die." I told him Santa was more like a super hero then a real person. I compared him to Spider man and Superman. Sean said "NOOOO, you don't know anything. Santa is not a Superhero." (Great, that is starting early). I told him Santa didn't have a heart and blood and he said of course he does or he wouldn't be alive. Finally I told him Santa isn't a real person, he's just something that makes people feel good. He is an idea and a good feeling and that the Santa's he see's aren't real Santa's. He pondered on that for a minute and then asked who gave him his presents. I said daddy and I do. He then asked "If I was bad and got a lump of coal would that come from you too?" I told him it would. I hated to burst his bubble at five but I really am not fond of lying about Santa or the Easter bunny or any of thats stuff.  I don't know if it's because he is adopted or all the trauma surrounding his birth family but I really don't want him to have to wonder about what is true. He asked the other day if he could stay with us forever or if he would ever have to go live with another family. I think being adopted gives kids an insecurity on some level that those of us who aren't adopted can't understand.

I know his thinking about death is because his Grandma Sharon died and I feel sad that he has to understand that she's not coming back. You want to protect your kids from everything and you can't.

When his tooth got lost I told him the tooth fairy would put money under his pillow and he asked "are you the tooth fairy?" I told him yes so that wasn't a big deal. I don't think he was keen on the thought of a fairy coming in his room and messing with his pillow while he was sleeping.

Sean asked me the other day why I like Oreo's so much. I said "because they are full of vitamins! (Oh the lies his mother told him). Later that evening Sean was holding the Oreo's reading the wrapper and saying  vvvv, vvvv... I asked him what he was doing and he said "I don't see the word vitamin on here." I had to tell him there were no vitamins in Oreo's. Now he knows all the secrets! Soon I will have to tell him that Sunny D is not really orange juice.

Air and stuff

The air is so bad in the valley. We have the unpleasant honor of having the worst air in the nation once again! I think we should share that honor with other states. Hopefully, we will get a storm this weekend that will clear it out. Unfortunately with so much snow still on the ground once the storm passes the inversion will return. Crappy air isn't helping Sean's lungs. He's been having fevers at night. I took him to school yesterday and when Don picked him up he was miserable. I just took him for a few hours today so I could write a story. The schools science fair is Friday and he needs to finish his "body." He brought home a couple of body parts that he needs to color. He has missed so much school between broken bones, trips and pneumonia's. He has a follow up appointment with the orthopedic surgeon on Friday. His range of motion is still limited in his left arm.

Our health insurance this year is strange. Much higher deductible, $1500 per person or $3000 for family. It doesn't pay anything until you meet the deductible then it's 80/20. Oh well, beats not having  insurance.

Sean's big tooth is growing in behind his baby tooth. It's getting loose but still not ready to come out. Sign him up for braces. I guess there is no reason why he should be different than any of the other kids. That will make us six for six for braces. I've got to get our records moved to the dentist required by our insurance plan and get us in for cleanings.

On Monday we went to a place called "color me mine." It's a place where you paint ceramic. It was fun. AJ and Steph have gone before. Sean painted a robot.

Don will pick up our projects on Friday after they have been fired.  Sean asked "how many days until my robot is done cooking?"

Along with the worst air we've had the best gas prices the past few weeks. They are starting to go up so I wanted to document these prices.

THE SCREAM! Or maybe just the yawn. Steph and AJ got their follow up 3 D ultrasound. I told AJ to get used to that open mouth look because he will be seeing a lot of it.

Isn't that the most precious little face. I can't wait to kiss it:)

Sharon Lindsay

Sharon Lee Foster was born on September 23, 1937 to Evelyn Lucille Ireland Foster and William Dale “Pete” Foster (or Dale William, his brothers and sisters could not agree on which it was). Sharon’s mother grew up in Decatur and her father in Lovington.

Sharon as a baby

Sharon and her brother Peter Foster grew up in Lovington. Sharon spoke fondly of her memories of Lovington as a busy city and missed the stores and shops of her youth.

In high school Sharon had many friends and was a cheerleader.

Sharon and Pete

Sharon with her mom, Evelyn and brother Pete.

Sharon and Pete

Sharon loved Lovington. She lived in Fisher but returned to Lovington. She thought Lovington should somehow use the name to its advantage and wanted the post office to postmark valentine cards with the town’s name.

Sharon and Dave

Sharon met David Lindsay in Lovington and they were married in August 1957, they divorced after many years of marriage. They had three children, Don (Carol), Dava (Ghan), and Darci (Gary). Sharon in keeping with the Foster name was a foster parent for many years.

Sharon with her children, parents, brother Pete and his family.



Sharon, Dava, Darci, Don



Evelyn, Sharon, Darci Dava, Don, Alexis, Addie, Kirk, October

Grandchildren and great grandchilren at Evelyn's 100th birthday party.

Pete, Sharon and Evelyn

Sharon and Evelyn

On a cruise with Don and his family

Sharon and her oldest grandson Shane

At Myrtle Beach with Kirk (Darci's son) and Don's family

Sharon worked for 30 years with elderly in the community and several nursing homes. She also worked for the American Red Cross and managed the Champaign county meals on wheels program.

She was a supporter of “Another mother for Peace.” Sharon had very strong political views and loved to write letters to politicians and share those views. She advocated for less war, more peace and free birth control.

Sharon was an environmentalist and took pride in leaving a small carbon foot print on the planet. She enjoyed gardening and took great pride in growing as much of her own food as she could. She liked to eat kale, greens, garlic, tomatoes and even flowers from her garden.

Gardening with Alika

After retiring Sharon stayed busy writing. She had several trivia books for seniors published and was a regular writer for “A New Day” magazine. In addition to writing for A New Day she served on their advisory committee. Sharon’s last columns were published in the January/February 2013 edition. Sharon believed it was important for the brain to stay active. Sharon’s mental abilities never left her. A few weeks before her death she was still beating her daughter Dava at Scrabble.

At Rockhome Garden's in September 2012

September 2012

September 2010. Sharon in Lovington with Don, Sean, Alika and her dog Polly.

Sharon’s education included Occupational Therapy and Therapeutic Recreation at the University of Illinois and Resident Activity Coordination Training at Youngstown State University.

She loved to bowl and said that when her health deteriorated to where she couldn’t enjoy bowling it was time to die.

She started many a conversation with “welllllll.” Sharon didn’t complain and had an incredibly positive attitude. Sharon failed to mention to her children that she had cancer. It was only over a game of scrabble when Dava asked her what had happened to her breast that she said, “welllll, I might have a little cancer.” Even when her health failed her and she had to depend on others (which she could not stand!) she did it with grace and a smile on her face. Sharon was always doing for others and did not like having others do for her.

Sharon and Addie

Sharon loved her children and being a mother and grandmother were the most important things in her life. She was devastated when her youngest daughter Darci died. Sharon always said she would never go through chemo but in the end she tried chemo not because she feared death but because she wanted to live to be there for Darci’s daughter Addie. Leaving Addie was the hardest thing for her. Sharon could talk about her own death without a tear but she could not talk about leaving Addie.

Sharon loved all her grandchildren. When Alika was born Don’s wife was in the army and was sent to Germany during Desert Storm. Sharon went to Utah and stayed with Don taking care of Alika for nine months.

Many of Sharon’s friends were surprised by her death, most were not aware that she was sick. Even the month before she died she did not admit to her friends that she was not well. More than one person expressed surprise saying “but she said she felt fine.” Wellll, she fibbed! Sharon didn’t like to complain so rather than admit she felt bad she told everyone she was fine.

Sharon wanted very much to die in Lovington in her home. Her grandson Shane made that possible. He spent the last two months of her life living with her at her home in Lovington. Sharon said that Shane was both an excellent cook and company.

Sharon is survived by Don and his children, Alika, David and Sean.

Dava and her children, Shane DeYoung, Kyle DeYoung and Alexis Bunyarattaphantu

Darci’s children, Kirk and Addie Patton.

She is also survived by her great grandchildren, Sydney Meeks, October, Ashtin, Dade, Gage and Kale DeYoung, a great great grandson, Jackson, her brother Pete, his wife Nancy and her nephews Stason and Brock Foster.

Along with her “welllll” Sharon always said “nothing last for ever” and “keep having fun.”

Sharon was loved by all her family, many friends, neighbors and her dogs Polly and Okie.

Sharon died at her home on January 17, 2013. A memorial service will be held in Lovington on Saturday March 23. McMullin-Young Funeral Home in Lovington is in charge of the arrangements.

Please don’t send flowers, honor Sharon’s memory by planting a tree in the spring.