Kim's Thoughts

I just returned home from a week long visit with my Mom. She was released from the rehab facility on Friday (7th), so I flew up there on the 8th. Following is an account of my adventure!

The adventure started on Thursday night when the pain in my side got much worse. I had my flight planned for about a week knowing that Mom was probably going home on Friday. The plan was for me to go up for a week to help her get used to getting around in her home with the restrictions she has and help her with whatever she needed. How much help was I going to be with a pain so intense that my whole right side was literally useless? As I said in an earlier post, I went back to the urgent care place on Friday and found that I had a fractured rib!!! Man, that was just perfect!!! But, I had to go and would have to do what I had to do and just suck it up!!! I also figured that, unless I was going to need to get really physical for Mom, the week away from my usual routine and the girls just might be just what I needed to get the healing process underway!

Then, Friday I open an article on the AOL homepage about a major airline charged with not performing required inspections and discovered it was SOUTHWEST!!! My flight was booked on Southwest!!! Uugghh – just what I needed to read!!!

Also on Friday, it started snowing up home and was beginning to accumulate pretty heavily. The predictions for Saturday were worse!!! I was going to fly right into a blizzard!!! Under different circumstances, I might have thought better of making the trip, but I was determined and really excited about going to see Mom – I needed to see that she was OK after her surgery!!!

So, Saturday morning I got up, loaded the car with my bags and the girls, and took them to Rae-Zor Boarding at All Animals. I hate it when I have to leave them behind when I travel, but feel good about leaving them with Rae. She has a great facility there and the girls get to have play time with other dogs and aren’t just couped up in a cage, like a lot of boarding facilities – they really like it there and have a great time when they get to go for doggie day care. They are well cared for and safe there — it makes it a little easier to go without them — but it is still so sad to drop them off and know that I won’t see them for a whole week!!!

I got on the plane and got as far as Baltimore for a 3 hour layover. The flights going to Buffalo were already starting to get delayed and some flights going north were being canceled!!! So, when I saw a chance to catch an earlier flight that was delayed and about ready to leave for Buffalo, I grabbed it! Because of the timing and situation, they couldn’t switch my checked bag, so I ran the risk of the flight my bag was on getting canceled, but at least I would be in Buffalo! When I got to Buffalo, it wasn’t snowing at the moment, but it had been all morning – the following pictures are what I saw looking out the windows at the Buffalo Airport: As it turned out, the flight with my bag did make it to Buffalo and on time, too! My brother picked me up at the airport and we headed to Albion (about an hour drive). The weather got worse and worse as we got closer to my Mom’s. By the time we got there, it was snowing so hard we could barely see to drive and the roads were really bad! I got in the house and my brother and sister-in-law headed to their house while they could still get there!

Mom and I had a nice evening and settled in. She is doing remarkably well considering what she just went through. Of course, she’s not dancing around the house, but she gets up out of the chair by herself and moves right along using a walker. She has to steady herself when she gets up and get her balance before she can start walking, but once she gets moving, she does really well……I was very impressed!!! She’s still pretty swollen and bruised and she has a wicked incision!!! But she’s doing good!

On Sunday, my nephew, his wife, and my niece came out and used the snow blower to dig us out – we were BURIED!!! My brother and sister-in-law came out later and helped finish the job and un-bury the car so I could get out, if needed, during the week. Here are some pics I took on Sunday:Snow bank that covered a couple feet up on the front picture window – we couldn’t see out!!!The pool is FULL of snow!!! And the snow had drifted up in banks up to the deck!!!This is the path that they dug from the shed to the front of the house with the snow blower!!!Mom’s car – buried in the driveway!!!!I quickly realized that getting Mom out on the patio for some sun and coffee was out of the question!!!Another shot of the patio, back yard, and pool……it’s a Winter Wonderland!!!The driveway after the snow blower did it’s job…..And the other side of the driveway after Mom’s car was cleaned off…..

Believe it or not — there was NO snow on the ground before this storm system started on Friday afternoon — all this fell just on Friday afternoon / evening and throughout the day and night on Saturday!!!! Sunday morning it was all clear and sunny — but my nephew waded through over knee deep and in some places hip deep snow to get to the shed for the snow blower!!! WOW!!!

The rest of the week was great — Mom and I had a really nice visit!!! I helped her practice some things that she would need to be able to do by herself after I left and when my brother is at work and couldn’t be there. She got some much needed rest (no way she could sleep in the hospital or rehab with them waking her up every 2 hours for meds all night long) and my rib got some relief, too!!! It’s been almost 5 weeks now since the pain started and I think it is finally well on it’s way to healing!!! So – it was a good week for both of us and we got to talk a lot and enjoy each other’s company —- I’m so happy that I went up there!!!!

Then – today, I head back to NC and fly into tornado warnings!!!! I fly up into a blizzard and back into severe thunderstorms!!! I got to Sanford in time to pick up the girls — they were so happy to see me and I was so happy to see them!!!! I missed them so much!!!! I thought they were going to eat me alive before they calmed down enough to be able to drive us home!!! ha-ha-ha When they got home, they ran through the house like wild animals – then they had to go out and pee in their own back yard (even though it was raining pretty hard – they had to go out!!!!) It wasn’t long, though, before they were sound asleep and they haven’t woke up since!!! They are HOME!!!!

So — the adventure is over!!! I’m all settled in!!! But, I’m sad that I had to leave Mom — I really wish I could have stayed another week……….