Dale and I with Brent and Judy Moore, our awesome clinicians at the spring dance. In one short weekend, we fell in love with these beautiful people.
Brent and Judy dancing. They are the most elegant dancers we've ever seen. Judy was a June Taylor Dancer.
The last month has been a blur--especially the last 2 weeks. We'd been frantically tying up all the loose ends getting ready for our annual spring dance. Brent and Judy Moore, awesome teachers/cuers/choreographers from Knoxville TN came to do our dance. They are high level dancers, so they were really slumming to come help us out. But they were wonderful. They stayed at our house, and we really enjoyed having them and getting to know them a bit. We found that we have a lot in common.
But I'm jumping the gun. First I have to record what transpired before that memorable weekend. On Feb. 26, my (Leslie's) mom started coming down with asthma, which, as usual, quickly turned into bronchitis. She goes through this several times a year. The following Monday at 2:00 p.m., I took her to Urgent Care, where the doctor discovered she had pneumonia as well as testing positive for flu. He called the hospital to set up admission there. We went straight to Freeman, where we waited in ER until midnight, when they finally got her into a room. The next 8 days were a blur of pain and illness, plus dealing with heart and kidney failure. They put her in isolation after the first day, which was a good thing because she had a private room.
Meanwhile, we were still having to do all the prep for the weekend dance. I was at the hospital all week, but I was able to finish up the programs, email them to the printer, and get that job completed. Everyone else pitched in help with the decorations, since I couldn't. We didn't think we would be able to go to the dance, but I emailed Mike and Sarah and asked them to come for the weekend to stay with Mama. They graciously agreed, so we got to dance after all. Plus it allowed us to host the Moores at our house as planned. We were exhausted physically and emotionally going into the weekend, but we felt like we needed the getaway. Besides, we'd been planning and looking forward to the weekend for an entire year, and we selfishly didn't want to give it up. We regret that we weren't able to host the Moores the way we'd intended, but they were ideal guests who didn't need any pampering.
Freeman released my mom on Tuesday of this week because, I suppose, they couldn't do anything else for her. But she is completely helpless and can't be left alone. So I had to take off most of the week to care for her. It seems she's even weaker now that she's at home. We've had to move in with her to take care of her. One of us runs home briefly each day to pick up mail, newspaper, and another change of clothes.
As a result of all this, it finally caught up with me yesterday. Mama had suffered miserably with nausea all morning. I made several calls and got a prescription for nausea called into Mays. I gave them long enough to fill it, but when I went to pick it up, the clerk said it couldn't be filled without "a doctor's prior authorization." I just stood there in shock. I said, "Well, what does THAT mean? It was the doctor who called it in." She just shrugged. I said the doctor's office was closed until Monday, so what was I supposed to do. She shrugged again. I started crying, said my mom was really sick and needed it NOW. She shrugged. Then a superior came over, said they could fill it but couldn't file it on insurance. I said I didn't care, just let me have it. So I sat there crying harder while they filled it, then went out to the car and had a complete meltdown. Of course, I had to compose myself before I went back to the house--couldn't let my mom see me like that.
I'll stop my pity-party now and sign off. Hopefully the next post will be more upbeat.
