Thursday, April 27, 2017

Obsessive

The wife has headed over to my parents house to help with going through the many boxes of things they put in storage during their moves over the last year.  This is something that my Mom has been wanting to get done recently along with a lot of other little things.  She has become a bit obsessive about some of these things lately.  She is about to undergo a very serious surgery on her throat and she feels the need to get things in order.  It is putting a lot of stress on her, worrying about all these really inconsequential things.  

For instance, the house they are living in now has burglar bars on all the windows and doors.  I am not of fan of these at all.  More on why in bit.  These particular bars are cast iron and are painted black.  They have evidently been in place for a long time.  The never got cleaned so show a lot of dirt and there is some rust.  But the casual observer from the street can't see any of that, at all.  But it is driving my Mom nuts and she wants them painted ASAP, before her surgery.  She and my wife think it won't be a big deal to paint them.  She wants a much lighter color (that will make them more visible IMO).  The wife volunteered to paint them for her, no big deal.  She was looking at 'color swatches' the other day when I found out what the plan was.  She was just going to slap some latex house paint over those bars and call it done.  I proceeded to explain to her about the need to remove the rust and dirt and how latex paint wouldn't work at all.  The bars would look worse than before in a short time. 
I think I finally got through about all the prep that was needed and the correct type paint, but that didn't sink in until she spoke with the paint guy at the depot of homes.  Not sure what the plan is now.
Maybe they will come up with some new and wacky way to get it done today while working on the boxes.

A bit about her condition.  She is not able to eat or drink much at all due to choking.  It's not only uncomfortable it is dangerous, more so than she thought.  The surgeon told her she could aspirate very easily.  It has become such a problem, it has considerably curtailed their activity.  She won't eat in public or with others.  It embarasses her when she chokes while eating.  OK so eat at home.  But they have not been eating at home in years, not much anyway.  They eat out lunch every day and that is their socializing also.  She has lost a lot of weight, too much in fact.  Yes they do eat more at home but it isn't as much as before.  They aren't getting enough.

She has had this surgery before by two other doctors.  Neither one was confident they could fix it. They were gastro doctors.  They were right, they couldn't fix it.  This time she has gone to a very well known ENT.  This guy says he has done a lot of these surgeries.  Yet it is a somewhat rare condition, he only does about a dozen a year.  He can find no evidence the other doctors did anything.  SMH.

There are other things that Mom has been worried about, this is just small sample.  I think a lot of the stress of her condition and the surgery has clouded her thoughts.  I try not to add to that.  She sent a message to me through the wife because she thought I would argue with her about it.  I really need to watch what I say in the future obviously.  

About my not liking burglar bars.  While I agree they are great for security or making you feel safer, I find them to be a death trap.  There have been too many house fires I know about that have killed families that got trapped by the bars.  Imagine being in a raging fire and you need to find the key to unlock the bars to get out.  Sounds easy but you would be kidding yourself.  Panic sets in and then it's too late.  If you are in the market for bars, do your homework first.

Happy Trails

1 comment:

Harry Flashman said...

This is why I live in Georgia, and my mom, my two brothers and my sister all live in Oregon.

I thought I was safe until my wife's family all settled in a town 45 miles from us, so I haven't escaped such issues entirely.