July 8-14

With the Atlantic League (in addition to most of pro baseball) in its All-Star break and the Barnstormers not home again until the 16th of the month the new week figured to be rather uneventful but it was anything but. Jenny and I had lunch on Tuesday (a day earlier than usual) because my mother had a ear doctor appointment on Wednesday....or at least that was the plan but it didn't happen quite that way. Ever since my mother came home from The Hotel we've made the best of an imperfect situation, there have been some minor pitfalls here and there but it hasn't been a total disaster. When she had the endoscopy in May the doctor told her that a feeding tube remained an option if things didn't improve. She has continued to struggle with swallowing even though just about all of her intake is in liquid form, recently she stopped drinking the nutritional shakes because she claimed they were too thick and hard to swallow. Ever since then she has become noticeably leaner and weaker simply because she isn't getting the proper nutrition she needs, I called the gastric doctor and left a message about reconsidering the feeding tube. On Wednesday she was leaving the house for the ear doctor appointment, she got as far as the front porch and simply could not go any further. She sat down and laid back from utter exhaustion and I immediately called an ambulance. It was only a matter of time before she ended up in the hospital, the only question was what would finally be the last straw and this was it. When she arrived in the ER her gastric doctor happened to be present and he immediately became involved, the feeding tube was inserted on Thursday morning. On a side note I asked him if he had received my message and he said he'd been at the hospital all week and had not gotten any messages from his office. I was planning to call him again because a week had passed and my mother was getting worse, this incident rendered that unnecessary. As the week progressed she remained in the hospital, there was talk of her being discharged at the start of the new week but that seems overly optimistic. I guess we'll find out when we find out. Take care, thanks for reading.