Well, it turns out my mother has shingles. This means she must have had chicken pox as a child. She is past the contagious stage now. Papa is back to feeding her each day. He was able to go a few days and wear gloves to feed her. Now they bring her to the multi-purpose room with all the other residents and he feeds her there.
Papa has gotten the blood test to see if he ever had chicken pox. I need to schedule that for me and didn't get that done last week. Once we know if Papa ever had the chicken pox we'll determine about him getting the shingles vaccine so that he will not ever get shingles. It is entirely possible Mimi could get them again the future.
While speaking with one of the nurses about my mother, she said, "You can get them from stress. I don't know how your mother would get them from stress since she is the MOST laid-back person I ever met." We got a chuckle out of that.
The silly thing is I find myself itching more and I'm sure that is psychosomatic. That and I now have a few spots of poison ivy from working my flower beds. That is country livin' for you.
Today, Sunday, June 3, went with Papa to feed Mimi lunch. She is not eating well. She is listless and wants to sleep a lot. Her color is paler than normal. I'm sure this illness has taken a toll on her. It could also be medication given her to deal with the shingles. But Papa was able to get half her lunch in her and most of her milk and all of her prune juice.
While it feels like she is fading a bit more, I have seen her rally from very bad illness before. She is a strong lady. My prayer is for this to take its normal course for her. If she recovers I'll enjoy additional time to hug her and have her close. If not, then I will appreciate all the time I have had and all the lessons I have learned on this particular journey in my life. And, I'll look forward to the time after this life when she can tell me in her own words what this journey was like for her. That will be an interesting conversation.
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