Pending, Grandpa, lingering ice

Mama’s rescheduled extraction is this afternoon. She has been dreading that appointment for a few days now. The causes for concern are twofold. First, she in not looking forward to the pain or the recovery brought upon by the extraction. Secondly, we do not know if the extraction will take place today. She is set up for a “consult” today and the dental office would not commit to actually proceeding with the extraction today. That has Mama frustrated because I will be accompanying her to the appointment today which, in fairness to my employer, will require me to take vacation this afternoon to accompany her. The class I had on the schedule for today was cancelled so I am available to go with her. That may not be the case in the future so she would really like to get this over with. All we can do is proceed with the appointment and hope for the best. Things will all work out eventually. They always do. Most of the time they work out to our benefit. It is just hard to see from this vantage point.

We have been getting mixed signals from Grandma and Grandpa in the past few days. Grandma has been more concerned than normal lately about Grandpa. It is not always clear what, if anything, has changed in Grandpa’s condition because Grandma is hesitant to share in any detail about what is going on. Grandpa is a very private person and Grandma seeks to protect that privacy. However, in the past few days Grandpa, as best we are able to determine, has been suffering more from his ongoing prostate issue - more pain, more bleeding and far more frustration than in the recent past. With Grandpa’s ongoing heart issues and the fact that he has been some months without his prescribed medications, Grandma is worried for his condition.

Grandpa has been without his maintenance meds for a couple reasons. First and foremost, no doctor in the immediate area will issue a prescription for those meds without first examining Grandpa to determine if those meds are the right course of action. Secondly, Grandpa will not schedule an appointment with any local doctor because of his mistrust of the local medical community of providers after a very bad experience with one particular doctor.  He was basically run out of that medical office because he wore a Trump hat to his appointment with the doctor. So, any attempt to get him to go elsewhere and go through the rigmarole of setting up with a new office has been met with less than enthusiastic welcome. The issue with Grandma’s reporting on Grandpa’s condition seems to be dependent on how well Grandma is feeling. One day Grandma will report that Grandpa is at death’s door while in a follow-up call later that day, everything will be worry-free sunshine and daisies. No reason to worry. It is hard to follow.

Grandma wants during the times she is most worried about Grandpa to return to Texas where Mama, who is more available and more constant than Norman, will be nearby to help and comfort her through her painful days. I am certainly in favor of that, but Grandpa made his decision to follow some perceived calling in their relocation to Florida, and though things have not worked out in that area of their move, Grandpa is unwilling to make the return trip to Texas. At some point, it may become a medical necessity for him to come back to the doctors here, but we are not there yet. Honestly, such a trip would be very hard on Grandma and Grandpa knows that. Though the return would certainly help them both, until a solution is offered that would make the trip easy on Grandma, Grandpa will not risk the move. On that point, we will trust his judgement, but it would be beneficial to have them closer.

Meanwhile, the ice and snow in our area is gone in all the areas that get any sun through the day. In the shaded areas we are still walking carefully on the residue. In front of the coop building, we still have a large area of snow and ice since that area is always shaded. The same is true for parts of our road, our driveway, and areas in the front of the house. Yesterday was near sixty and today is supposed to reach seventy degrees, yet the ice lingers. Every time I watch how slowly the ice and snow recede or melt away, I think about the last ice age and how long the ice covering the ground lasted with temperatures hovered near freezing as the earth slowly warmed. That ice blanket could have lasted for hundreds of years.

It is just an idle thought, but it is interesting to consider.