Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Three Beautiful Things 12/13/16: Mom's Heart is Stable, Mall Odyssey, Irish Death and Brandy

1. I-90 was bare. Good thing. Christy, Mom, and I piled into Mom's Malibu and I drove us to CdA where Mom saw Larry Keyser, the P.A. who keeps track of Mom's heart disease.  Larry Keyser gave Mom a report on the echocardiogram she had done last week. No improvement. No loss of heart function. Although Mom's former V-8, eight cylinder heart is now functioning as a four cylinder heart (Larry's metaphor), the good news is that her heart is stable. At Mom's house, we keep a daily chart recording Mom's blood pressure, weight, and heart rate and the recent numbers help confirm that Mom is taking the right medicines at a good dosage.  This was a good visit -- a bad visit would be learning that Mom's compromised heart health is deteriorating. Stability is what we all want to see. (On Wednesday, it's back to Shoshone Medical Center so the wound team can check on Mom's cellulitis wound -- which continues to improve and heal.)

2. Then, after we ate lunch at Applebee's, we undertook an odyssey at the mall, featuring a flurry of returns, exchanges, and coupons and Mom and Christy making a few purchases at J.C. Penney and Macy's.  Mom toured the stores in her wheelchair, helping her be able to peruse a wide range of clothes without getting too fatigued.

3. Back home in Kellogg, to ward off the cold, I poured myself a glass of Iron Horse Brewery's Quilter's Irish Death, a sweet, dark strong ale (not a stout) and enhanced it a bit by pouring some brandy into the glass of beer. It was a sweet and warming way to relax while preparing the leftovers that Mom and I ate for dinner.

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