I almost got through a pleasant if boring Christmas - it's raining, the Girlchild had to go to work, we are going to dinner tomorrow to do our own Christmas when she's off.
My mother called this morning while I was coloring my hair, I told her I was putting goop on my hair and I'd call her back. She sounded perfectly fine.
I called her back later and we talked for a long time, she told me her childhood friend (who is also 80) called her, she talked to her brother, who is 86 and still in his own home, she sounded perfectly fine.
So after 4 she calls me and tells me "Oh, I didn't want to tell you earlier, but I've been Dizzy All Day! I Had to Lay Down!" She read her prescriptions and one of the possible side effects is dizziness, so she's all worked up and blaming the doctor.
I told her to call the doctor tomorrow to tell him she's having side effects, and if she keeps feeling dizzy to call 911, because I am not a paramedic OR a doctor and I can't do anything about this from two hours away while we are having heavy rain and under a tornado watch. I told her that if she really feels dizzy she needs to call 911, and she immediately said oh no, she's fine, she "just wanted me to know."
What am I to do with this information? I can do nothing about it other than worry and tell her to call the doctor, which I'm betting she won't do. I don't know if she really was dizzy or if this was crying wolf. I know that every holiday for the last several years my father had some sort of crisis, so I suspect that we couldn't let a quiet Christmas pass without a medical thing, even if it is imagined.
Oh, and the creepiest damn thing - on Friday she gave me a card to give to my daughter, and she put a To-From sticker on the envelope, and she signed her name as Gram. HER mother was Gram - the nightmare who consumed my mother's life. My mother has always been Grandma to my kids. I saw that name Gram on the envelope and got chills, I swear to God.
The dizzy spells may well be real but the way your mother is playing this is emotional blackmail. There is no reason on Deity's green earth she cannot consult with her doctor over this.
ReplyDeleteYou remember how you said she wants to come live with you? This is the next move in that particular chess game.
Oh - I am sure it's just that, What's christmas without a crisis? Don't pick up that suitcase, darlin'. though, I know you didn't intend to.
ReplyDeleteAnd Merry Christmas too you too. Have a great day with Girlchild and do some serious postX shopping while you're at it.
I didn't budge, did call her this evening, she is of course fine. But you know, one of these days this crying wolf crap is going to come back to bite her, because I have heard it so many times and it's always OVER NOTHING, let's remember she has NO health issues, she's just old, so I have learned to wait 24 hours and call back. I have to keep repeating, if it's really an emergency, call 911, not ME. Shit, when my father was dying she called me before 911!
ReplyDelete