The Saga of Me

It still being too hot to go out and pursue a story or do anything in the yard except a rain dance or drag around hoses, I thought I’d continue with the saga of the trials and tribulations of me.
A few weeks back I wrote of trying to sort out different living accommodations for my semi-invalid mother and all the guilt associated with that. As fate would have it the decision was taken out of my hands. Two falls and a T.I.A. in two weeks, two trips to the hospital by ambulance and Public Safety parked in front of my house has revealed the handwriting on the wall. My mother is going into assisted living. We found a place in Burke County, which I thought appropriate, as she was born and raised there and many of her acquaintances still live there which, I find amazing because my mother is 93; how many acquaintances could be left? This decision was not made lightly nor was it made easily but the time has come for help. My mother’s social worker, Amy Hane, has been invaluable in this search and with helping me cope with all the paperwork associated with this move.
Mother’s last trip to the University Hospital was July 29. Today, August 2, we were scheduled for discharge. 7:00 a.m. this morning I am up and ready to roll; bags packed, paperwork in hand. Phone rings. Can’t leave yet we will call you when we are ready. 11:00 a.m. phone rings. Still have paperwork to complete, call you when we are ready. 12:30 P.M. phone rings. We’re experiencing a medical problem, we must wait on the doctor, and we will call you when we are ready. 4:00 P.M., phone rings, sorry she can’t be discharged today, maybe tomorrow. Of course I am a wreck by then; I am not one of those people who wait easily. There is too much to be done to sit around and wait. However, I concluded that if I got up and started doing something around the house as hot as it is, I’d be a mess if I had to leave so I hurried up and waited. And waited and waited and waited.
August 3, 6:30 a.m. I am up and ready again. No phone call by 8:15 so I called the hospital. Once again I’m told she will be discharged today but just when they don’t know. So again I wait.
By now I am so bored and restless that I get on line, go to the freecycle web site, type in an offer for free figs; boom, 5 responses right off the bat. Once again those that want them don’t show up. That’s a habit with most of those members, they want what you offer for free but then they don’t show up. Why I remain a member is a mystery to me.
Ah, at last, discharge is in progress; I’m on my way. Picked my mother up and we head to Waynesboro. Get her all settled in, do paperwork for an hour, go back spend time with her, then on my way home. Right before the county line the cell rings. I have to go back take her to the local hospital for a chest x-ray, take her back to the home, all the while it is registering 108 on the thermometer outside, get her settled again then on my way home. It is now August 4, I’m sad, I feel guilty even though I know all this is for the best so I immerse myself in cleaning and organizing. So goes the continuing saga of me.