It was one looooong day today.

My mom woke up in intense pain at 0500 this morning.  Dad and I loaded her up and we headed to the ER. My mom is not a dramatic person, is usually a trooper, with a high threshhold for pain.  Two knee replacements with intense PT and range of motion recovery protocals.  Not one peep out of her.

She was sobbing with the pain of this thing.

Dx.... bowel obstruction (Twisted bowel).  She takes a blood thinner every night so they would not do surgery until she was ~24hrs past her last blood thinner dose.   All day my mom was intermittently writhing in pain.  IV paid meds did not even put a dent in it. They gave her two different IV meds including morophine.  The only slight relief she got was from a (IG,,,,?) tube that relieved some of the pressure.  They scheduled surgery for 2100 and luckily pulled it in to 1830 because of her pain levels.

Dad and I were with her all day and my brother came for a few hours.  Her guys were all there with her.

They did a Laparoscopic procedure as an exploratory with the intent of clearing the obstruction during that phase if poosible. If they couldn't, they woul+d have to open her up to do a more invasive abdominal procedure.

Blessedly, the Sugeon found what they expectred, an adhesion with scar tissue from a 40+ year ago historectomy that had kinked her bowel.  What the Doc found unusual was that the adhesion was between an overy and her bowel.  Apparently, this is extremely unusual.

The procedure took less than 15mins, they clipped the adhesion releasing the obstruction and everything jumped into the right places, they taped her up, pulled the tubes, and woke her up. Dad and I were very relieved when teh Doc came to the OR waiting room to update us.  

We headed up to mom's room and they brought her up about an hour later.  It was such a relief. She had healthy color in her face, was sleeping soundly and not in pain.

I gave her a kiss on the forehead which woke her up.  Oops.  She smiled at me and all was again right with the world.  Moms gotta be okay.  That is just the way it has to be.  She said she was feeling much better, but still uncomfortable though not in pain.

My throat and eyeballs went into appoplexy when dad took her hand, leaned down and whispered in her ear (their secret. I have no idea what he said), kissed mom on the forhead and then dad and I headed home for the night.  Seeing my mother and my father and their love for each other gives me throat lumps and leaky eyeballs. Let me tell ya.  They have made a life together for 61yrs and counting.

Now for the title of this post.  We got home, dad and I had leftovers for a very late dinner, and we headed to our rooms.

I called DW. I had kept her updated all day. She had spoken with SS.  SS had updated her on his own medical struggles. He had COVID twice and apparently his version is referred to as Long COVID.  He still has almost no sense of smell or taste. Apparently COVID can aggrivate the intensity of gluten allergies which he suffers from.

He is frustrated and feels bad that he is struggling with remembering to call people, loses his train of thought mid sentence to the point that coworkers have started prompting him, and he just can't maintain focus. 

Of course I am concerned. However, I know my kid and suspect that much of what he is struggling with regarding his follow through, memory, etc.. is that he is getting no sleep, up most of the night gaming, and is pretty much brain dead from sleep deprivation.  I did not tell my DW this. 

What I did say is "How is it that he feels bad for not remembering to call people and he won't answer his damned phone?  We call him all the time, so do mom and dad, his uncle and aunt, and his cousins?????  He does not have to remember to call anyone. All he has to do is answer his phone with it rings. He is on the damned thing all the time!" 

So I am in the DW doghouse for not reacting as she would have liked. She even said "I am irritated that you did not react the way I think you should have and you do not show enough concern."

I at least bit my tongue at that point.

This day just sucked the mighty wong.

But, mom is good, I get to go home on Tuesday though my poor car is still waiting for parts and  I will have to fly back to get it after TG, and DW is excited that I am coming home.  Even though I stepped on my own dick with the inadequate concern for the kid's frustrations.

He has an MRI scheduled, is working with an ENT on the smell and taste thing, and is working with his ADHD Doc on adjusting meds to see if they can tune out his "brain fog".  I get the memory and brain fog thing. I have had severe bouts with both a few times over the years. All stress related.   I hope that the Docs can get it all worked out. Personally, I think they need to Rx a monster sleeping pill med for him to take at about 8PM so he is comatose until it is time for him to go to work. But, I am not a Doc. Though I hope I am right about the problem and that there is nothing major wrong with him.