Familia.

Krystal's adopted and beloved "step-mom" Ruth is in the hospital here. She fell and broke her hip. She's in her 80s - and a WW2 Teresenstadt survivor, so she's a tough bird - but she's grown tired of bad health, and we're scared...
Surgery is Tuesday morning at 7am pdt.
Please, anyone out there, pass along the word.
More when it comes..

EDIT/UPDATE:

She's out of surgery and the doc says he's happy with the results. Surgery was actually at 330pm due to low blood o2 level earlier and an unresolved xray question about that...

Now comes healing and rehab...

Thanks to all for prayers and good vibes. (Keep 'em coming, she may need them... she's a feisty little german lady and likely to try her rehab a bit fast..)

A month. Still can't write about it.
I have the words, and the will. But the time and the energy needed just haven't showed up together. Moment + momentum? Soon, I hope.
Gads, what a month.

Apologies for not posting till now. Been thru a lot, y'know.
I'll tell you later about what happened at the hospital. But it was peaceful.

This is what I said about my mom at the service:
( Read more... )
Love to all.

At 5am, her brain started bleeding. She couldn't wake up at all since I got there this morning. The doctors said that her frailness, plus the magnitude of the bleeding, made surgery not really an option - she could come out as a vegetable. There was hope for a drug that would reduce the swelling, but it turned out to be a temporary measure and would leave her just as bad.

I was agonizing over the decision, and I think it got made for me.
We've opted to make her as comfortable as possible.

At about 1030 the doc said she is in 'poor but stable' condition. She has been fairly stable all day, no sign of improvement. He sent us home to try and sleep; we're going back tomorrow if they don't call us sooner.
I'd love a miracle, but don't expect one.
I'm letting go.
My love to all who knew us - and I'm sure her love too. ('Cos she's like that...)

My mom had some sort of stroke this afternoon, and fell as well - we're not sure in what order. No broken anything by xrays, but she's having trouble moving and talking. They got her to the hospital as soon as they found her, but they don't know how earlier she fell (It may have been half an hour....)
She's all there and definitely lucid, but beyond 'yes' or 'no', most words are dissolving off into S's. She's having some motor control issues with her right side of her body; hand moving not quite under control, and right leg too weak to do anything with but moving a bit.
She's been medicated, and doctors are saying she has a good chance for recovery. She will be in intensive care for a while, it seems to be a waiting game now.

Krystal and my thanks for everyone out there who responded with good thoughts, especially those who read it on other folks' journals. (Other folks, please xpost?)

EDIT: Mom is now at Sunset Kaiser hospital where their stroke experts are, room 7777b. She can say my name better and is moving her right side a bit more.
We now know she went to lunch and back, which means less than half an hour between fall and getting found in her room, possibly much less. The catscans couldn't see a clot - which they say may take hours to be visible - but it didn't see bleeding either, which they say would have been evident by now if it was really there. A rupured vessel would have needed surgery, but it looks like we got as lucky as we could expect.
Doctors say now we medicate and wait for developments...

Confound it, Fuzzy, your curiosity done did it again...

Read it from the beginning and leave the real science to Gallagher!

Went here sunday:
(click pix for big!)
The Getty Villa... (That's the front door.)
Here's a great backyard view...

Oh wait, that was the front yard. This is the back...

And this is the side yard...

And some treasures...

to amuse you.

(Or anything else you have a picture of...)
http://www.lutralutra.co.uk/squirrelizer/

You can always Hear Them!

(Thanks to the Air Force Space Surveillance Radar in Texas...)