January 2020 Recap

Happy Thursday. Hope your February has been a good one. Mine has not. More about that next month though. I was hoping to post this January recap a few weeks ago but things with my mom took a turn for the worse so I was delayed in finishing it until now. Better late then never though right?
After a dry and mild January winter came back with a vengeance. Lots of snow and cold. I am so over it. I just want spring to be here or at least warmer drier weather again.
I made this piece to welcome in the new year and new decade. Inspiration came from Ellen Crimi Trent on Youtube

January started out with more health problems with my mom. Her left hand swelled up on New Years Eve again. She ended up calling her rheumetologist without telling us. They wanted her to take a steroid dose pack but that would not work because she gets to confused when it comes to taking pills so my sister just upped her regular dose. It helped a little but I still had Dispatch Health come and look at it on the 2nd they seemed to think it was an RA flare so we went to the rheumetologist the next morning but it was pretty much a waste of time. He was able to re x-ray her elbow and it looked like she re-broke it somehow. It didn't look like that before. They suggested I take her back to the orthopedist again but we decided to see the other doctor this time since she refused to see the one we saw before. They could not get her in for at least a week though. We ended up seeing the new guy Monday Jan 13th. He was better than the other one, He said that something happened, and the elbow didn’t heal right. I have a feeling she fell on it again and doesn’t remember doing it because it didn’t look that way until a few weeks ago. He recommended for her to live with it like this even though she will have limited range of motion because the risks of the surgery to fix it outweigh the benefits so it was pretty much another big waste of time like I thought it would be. I just pray she does not fall on it again. One problem solved then another one started. 
She had been having a lot of infections in her lymph nodes since last summer. The lymph nodes swell up under her jaw one side then the next. We have been treating it with antibiotics which help but not for long. Her primary had already sent us to 2 ENT’s neither were of much help then wanted her to go to an infectious disease specialist. My mother did not want to go and I was not in favor of that either we already know she has an autoimmune disease RA which is most likely the cause I seriously doubt it is something infectious besides that. I didn't understand why she just couldn't call them for consult. There was nothing for them to see at that point. We also found out in December she has a broken tooth on the right side of her face and was suppose have it taken out on the 22nd by her regular dentist. That could be what was causing all this. The only way to really know is to have the tooth taken out but we couldn't do that until we got the infection cleared up again. She had only been off the last round of antibiotics for about 10 days. She called begging me to take her to the ER shortly after which I refused because I knew they would not do anything for her then she got very angry with me and hung up. I was pretty sure it was because of the infection. My sister got her to take some pain meds and she made it  through the night. We called her primary the following morning to get more antibiotics but her doctor is not in on Mondays and the guy covering for her would only give her enough for 3 days. That was not enough to keep the infection under control until we could get the tooth pulled though. I ended up putting a call in for her doctor myself after that to call me so I could tell her what was going on because I knew she would not be happy she was on antibiotics again. I am not happy about it either but we can’t not do anything and we have to get the infection under control before the tooth is pulled. I was really dreading the call but never got a call like I asked for. I called again and left another message to have her call me again. I heard from her assistant about an hour later saying she can’t keep taking antibiotics I knew she was going to say that and tried to explain the situation. The assistant said she would tell the doctor and one of them would get back to me. I heard from her assistant again a few hours later and she said the doctor would give her the rest of the antibiotic this time but after that no more??? How can she just stop prescribing antibiotics for someone that is immunosuppressed and has an active infection? She said she needs to see a specialist again, but like I have said before they have no answers for us either so don’t know why she keeps pushing her off to them. I also don’t understand why she could not call me herself. She has always done so in the past. It feels like this is her way of not wanting to deal with my mother anymore and that is sad. My mother was her patient for over 20 years! I decided we were done with her and signed her up for Bloom Healthcare which is what we used for dad before we did Hospice. They come to her and are on call 24/7. It is really sad that it had to end like this. It seems to me that a lot of doctors just want to get rid of the elderly and not do anything to help them anymore. It should not be like that I know our senior citizens can be hard to deal with sometimes, but they still deserve care. Once again, I don’t understand why this has to be so complicated.

Took mom to the dentist on the 22nd to have her tooth pulled but that did not go as planned. Turns out there was a bigger problem than they originally thought something about a fractured root and signs of osteonecrosis? He could not get it out so he decided that he wanted her to see an oral surgeon to do the work instead  but they couldn't get her in until the next week. Bloom Healthcare never showed up that Tuesday like they were suppose to. When I had not heard from them by 11 I called to see what was going on. They said they were not coming which made no sense. They said they could send someone out on Thursday though. I just hoped they showed up this time. We only had enough antibiotic left to last until the following Sunday. I was really worried that this tooth thing was going turn into a huge problem. They wanted to sedate her and that is not a good idea. She already has enough problems with her memory without sedation. I had no idea how I would even get her out of there after that. She also does not heal well. I planned on telling the guy all this but had not idea how much he was going to listen. She also does not have dental insurance or money to pay out of pocket. It was $100.00 just to have a consultation. I don’t know how we even got here. We still don’t know what is causing all the infections in the lymph nodes either. 

Took mom to the oral surgeon on the 30^th at 8:30 in the morning which was a terrible time. I am not a morning person. I didn't have a choice though.  He said he could get it out without having to use general which was great. I told him her history. He agreed that going to an infectious disease specialist was a waste of time. It was going to cost $850.00 to get the tooth out though $250 was for the consultation and x ray so we had to see if she could qualify for Care Credit to pay for it. 6 months same as cash, we didn't know if she would qualify though. She was scheduled to have the work done on the 12th of Feb.  I prayed it would go well the last thing we needed was more problems. We also found out her primary was quitting at least I made the right decision to be done with her. My sister is still not doing well either. Her iron is so low she had to have an iron infusion from all the bleeding.  She is still not able to get off the oxygen or the Heprin she was on for the blood clots and now they think there is something wrong with her heart. Not good either. Now I have 2 more people to worry about.  

I turned off the free shipping in our Etsy Shop Jan 1st and our sales came back. We are still down a lot from where we were last January but at least it was better than December. I got this great photo of a buyers daughter wearing my Alice in Wonderland hat for her 1/2 birthday. Isn't she adorable?

I was so sadden to see the devastation from the fires in Australia especially the loss of all the animals including my favorite the #koala. I wanted to do something to help so when I saw that @blackchalkco on Instagram was donating all the proceeds from her class on how to watercolor the animals I was in. She has raised over $15,000 now which is wonderful and not only was my money put to good use I also learned how to watercolor a koala. 

Finally The Floral's and Praise for His Glory Challenge had taken a few months off so I went back to verse from last January that I have been wanting to do for awhile. 

Inspiration for the wreath came from Archer and Olive. I am still struggling to have faith in all this but found comfort in creating this piece. I hope you enjoy it too.

That's all for now I hope the rest of you month is good and I hope to be back soon with my February recap.