Day 5

Thursday, October 30, 2008
5:54:10 AM
Day 5

A good night's sleep is what I needed, so I thought. After finally drifting into a deep evening slumber, I found myself waking up around 5:00 this morning with excruciating pains shooting down both of my legs from my Pelvic bone area. My lower back is so tense, that even a good massage won't be of too much help at this point, and given the fact that the water in this place only stays hot as long as no one else uses any water, a bath is totally out of the question right now. That will have to wait until we get home tonight, if at all possible.

Part of me wanted to keep on working yesterday, even though my body was pleading with me to call it a day around 3pm. My mind, however, had other plans and pressed me on for another full hour beyond my normal ability. Today, Jerry has to go back for his second treatment with Dr. Russo. Considering what has to be done, Jerry will likely be making many trips to Dr. Russo's office. However, after this trip, I will be the one driving. Andy's driving is what makes me think that all people over the age of 75 ought to not be allowed to drive any more. He takes hair pin turns at warp speed, nearly tipping the car to one side. Then, on the highways, he'll get into the left hand lane and only go around 50 - 55 mph. Normally, this would be fine, but the speed limit on these highways is 65, and travelling slower is nothing shy of a safety hazard. My mom will tell him to pull over, and he'll say, "I'm going to do what I want to do, Doris. I don't care if the other drivers don't like it. I don't travel over 55 mph at night." I'm waiting for him to get pulled over and try to tell that to a CHP.

In the 4 full days we've been here, we've already heard tons of stories about my mom and Andy from the people in town. Some have been a bit reluctant still to openly talk about my mom's mental stability, but there have been some that are full out willing to talk to us with no shyness what so ever. Jerry and I both welcome that because we know it has no reflection on us, and people in town love my mom to death, but are afraid for her safety, and not much more. They know she's got problems, because over the years its become increasingly apparent to them, especially since she's been married to Andy. Somehow, he brings out the best and the worst in her, and generally all at once.

Although I know it's not going to happen anytime in my lifetime, it would be a hell of a lot easier if everyone would be willing to somehow keep my mother occupied long enough for me to get half the place cleared out. As it is, with only a few hours of work, I was able to clear out a ton of stuff in the bedroom. What I'm hoping to do is clear out the closet in the bedroom so that I can stack boxes of stuff my mom will want to keep in there. That way, the crap will be out of the way, and we'll have room to work with.
I'm waiting also for my mom to make the mistake of telling people we're moving in to her house because she's allowing us to move in. As it is, she's told everyone that the reason we moved up here is because Jerry was unemployed for so long, which is not the truth. Jerry owned his own business (Omni Computer Technologies), and was getting call after call by the time we moved up here. Business was just starting to pick up again. He simply wasn't working a 9 - 5 type job that my mother thinks everyone should work at because anything else is not really a job. To her, it's a long term paid vacation, unless of course it's a store of some sort, in which case it's 'an overwhelming job that no one should have to handle alone'. Except us, of course.

I don't know why, but for some reason, I keep having these visions in my head of my mother having a total breakdown over a pile of magazines, and being hauled away in a padded wagon to the nearest sanitarium. Then I see visions of her laying in a hospital bed, half medicated and unable to really know left from right because of the medication, with the doctor telling me that she suffered a major nervous break down and told us that she'd have to remain in medical care for awhile longer before they considered her stable enough to be released. Then, I see a vision of Jerry and I in the doctor's office explaining my mom's ADHD/OCD/Hoarders Disorder to him, and asking him what, if anything, can be done for this, and then having Jerry go on to explain the situation with the house, and asking if there's any way we can get her to just stay away while we clear out the house.

The doctor warns us about my mom possibly having a huge breakdown, but thinks that for her own safety, and ours, it'd be best to tell my mom that she's going to be kept for extensive evaluations, so we could get in there and totally clean everything up, and more importantly, out. He ends up giving us 1 week. In the last part of my vision, we get the entire place cleared out in 5 days, and spend the remaining 2 days sweeping floors, checking the wood stove, checking the refrigerator and hanging up curtains. By the time my mom gets home, she's in better mental shape than she ever has been, and the doctor has left a message on our answering machine saying that she NEEDS to keep taking her medication or she's going to risk having another full blown break down.