Friday, February 10, 1984

Love has had four coronary bypasses, instead of five, because the fifth artery was to an area of the heart that was too damaged for a new artery to be of any use. Luckily, only a small part of his actual heart is damaged. He will be in the Coronary Intensive Care Unit 'til noon tomorrow. If everything goes well, he'll be in a regular room in the Coronary Unit after that.

I got about two hours sleep before being awakened by the minister who volunteered to call Love's relatives, and kept up-to-date of the progress of the surgery in blow-by-blow descriptions. I didn't go to the hospital, because of Mom, and Love had agreed that I couldn't take her, and I couldn't leave her home alone right now either. I didn't tell him Mom was in the hospital before his surgery, because he didn't need to be upset. If I had been there, he would have known something was wrong.

I called the Township Supervisor and he suggested that I call Cilco, the gas and electric company, to arrange for a level payment plan. I must do something before they turn off the gas and electricity. This has been a wacky winter, going from bitter cold to spring-like weather, and back to bitter cold again. The utility company said that I can pay ten percent of my bill now, and the rest spread over level payments during the summer. Hooray! I've stalled them for another month, if I pay ten percent, and go to their office to sign the level payment plan later. A stay of 'electricution'!

If Mom should become completely bedridden, in a short time I'm going to be a mental case trying to take care of her. I'll be able to afford to hire someone about once a week for four hours to help with bathing and washing her hair, but I will still be on duty twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Fortunately, I have no trouble communicating with her new doctor, in marked contrast to her old doctor. Hopefully, I will have her new doctor's cooperation. I know I'll have to get out from under the responsibility from time to time. Just to be able to sleep straight through one night would be a welcome change. I am so tired, am losing weight, always have an anxious feeling, and was beginning to come unglued until Mom landed in the hospital yesterday. Since she's being well taken care of for awhile, maybe I can get myself back together and out of the depressive state that I've been in lately.

I'm better organized today, although I'm still dead tired. Mom's doctor is supposed to call, but if he doesn't hurry up, I'm going to call and tell his nurse not to call me, and go to bed. I think that I could sleep, sleep, sleep for about twelve hours if I'm not interrupted. I feel very confident that Mom is in the best hospital and under a physician I can entrust her too. It is a welcome relief, after all these years, four years to be exact, to have her under a physician that I feel comfortable with. I called and was told that Mom's new doctor has had a new baby today, and that he will be unavailable unless it's an emergency. That settles it, I am going to bed, and I was told Mom is "in no immediate danger".