Life's a Bitch and Then You Don't Die

My friend Donna Sue Gonzalez (possibly the funniest woman on earth) and I were chatting on the facebook today.  We were talking about taking care of old people and I said that I was hoping the rapture would happen, but yet once again, I didn't get what I wanted.  She said she saw a bumper sticker that said, "Life's A Bitch and Then You Don't Die!". Well, ain't that the truth!!!

I took my 79 year old to her first visit to the neurologist today.  As she sat there explaining to Dr. Hwong  how something exploded in her head and now her memory is leaking in her brain, I watched his face.  He was good. Stone faced and really good. This obviously wasn't his first "bat-shit crazy" rodeo. In the span of about 3 minutes she told him that her head had constant pain across her forehead but now that she doesn't have the pain anymore she can go home and live by herself. She also said that her mind was alright but, "I just have trouble remembering things". He nodded and then performed some physiological tests on her. She was loving it.  The more tests, the more she kept talking and he kept listening. He said that he wanted to get to the bottom of this so he ordered an MRI, a video EEG, etc..

After the appointment I came home and turned on Oprah's final show.  (I will hopefully blog about this later) She said a lot of things, but one thing that gave me an Oprah "Aha" moment was that all of us want someone to listen to us. We want validation, we want to be heard.  I must admit that I have stopped listening to my little 79 year old and she needs that...even as her memory is leaking in her head, she needs someone to listen.

Before I left the appointment I wanted to talk with Dr. Hwong. I wanted to make sure that he knew the extint
of her memory loss. He said he got it.  I asked if these tests were necessary. He said that there could actually be something physically wrong with her.  He also said, "and I don't think we want to have regrets".

So, Dr. Hwong, if loving you is hwong, I don't want to be hwight!


What would Betty say?  "Oh, I hope I never lose my mind!" And then she would remind me that she had a black friend at work and that I shouldn't use dirty words.