Tag Archive | hospital

Mom Finally Landed in Hospital

Nov27

November 27, 2025

Imagine being 100 and finally needing to be admitted to hospital for the first time in 35 years. Mom’s definitely one tough bird. I visited her today and she was able to use the walker and with help from a nurse made her way into the bathroom and back to her bed. The doc thinks she’ll be discharged on Monday, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she is.

Of course then the real trauma begins as after ten days in hospital she’ll be even weaker than she was so will need more care. She refuses to go into a home so I guess I can block off the next few months of my life. Kidding. Margaret and I are definitely going to Mexico and Belize in February.

I was heartbroken not to be a finalist in the memoir category for the Canadian Book Club awards. It’s amazing to think I would even enter something like that! But then those of us with poor self-awareness are everywhere. I’m thinking of the very heavy young woman in short shorts and a turtleneck sweater in Walmart the other day.

I’ve stopped fighting with the bots at Amazon. They removed me from my ideal category, Western Canadian Provinces Biographies and Memoirs, then when I inquired said oopsies, we’ll reinstate you, please wait up to 48 hours. I’ve been fighting with them for ten days now, no sign of it.  The latest bit of gaslighting said “Your book’s detail page will display the top three category rankings only.” Yet only two categories are displayed so I guess bots are blind.

I tried out a new recipe on Sylvie the other day as I’d invited her over for Happy Hour. I made mini beef Wellington bites, and they’re super easy to make and I think with more practice will be a very nice appetizer. Then the other day for fun I tried making mango curd, and with all the leftover egg whites made meringue shells and so made mango pavlovas. Calvin and Visini loved them.

I’m waiting for Steve MacNaull’s article to appear in Kelowna Now. I’ll use that as bait and drop it plus my book and a fruitcake off to the CBC station and see if they want to talk about my book. I’ve been posting photos from the old fruitcake days on Instagram and my Nuttier than a Fruitcake Facebook page and so people are inquiring as to where and how to attain the fruitcakes, to which I reply buy Okay I’ll Bite, the recipe is in there.

It really was adorable when a nurse phoned me when mom was admitted so that I could answer a bunch of questions as mom was in a delirium so couldn’t. She asked if mom used drugs or drank and I said she drinks wine every day. The nurse laughed nervously and said, “you mean like a glass with dinner?” And I said, “oh no, at least half a litre a day. Probably more. She drinks that to go along with the three Ritter Sport chocolate bars.”

The nurse then said,” Do you think she’s in withdrawal?” I said, “oh god no it takes an awful lot more liquor than that every day for our family to go into withdrawal.” I still remember being a few weeks pregnant with Nick and feeling sick as I had a cold and my dad’s advice was to take a shot of vodka. Mom screamed saying “She’s pregnant.” To which my dad looked at both of us with a look that clearly said “So?”

But today I didn’t smuggle any wine into mom’s room, though I did take some chocolate. As she’s enjoying the food at the hospital, she might not even want that which is clearly a new sign.

I Saved a Life

Jun26

Friday the 13th turned out to be unlucky for poor old Denis. Sometime that morning I’d received an email from Luke saying Denis had gone to the Grand Forks hospital on Wednesday due to a bad reaction to Ozempic but presumably was released. Luke then emailed me on Friday saying he’s been texting his dad, but no reply. I said call the Grand Forks Hospital.

Luke then emailed he’d called, but the hospital said he wasn’t there. I then tried phoning Denis and got no reply, so I thought something funny must be going on, so sent a text to his sister Monica in San Diego saying try to text Denis as he always replies to you. She got no reply and felt concerned by that so texted Kevin on Pender Island, and he phoned their friend Mike who lives in Midway and told him to go by Denis’ house.

Mike arrived and knocked, no answer, so he called 911. The police broke in and found Denis in a coma, so called the ambulance and he was transported to Trail Hospital.  Denis was in bad shape given he could’ve been in that coma for two days for all we know. However he did bounce back and is now at home being tended to by a few of his brothers and both of our boys who were very worried about their old dad.

Hence, had Luke not let me know he couldn’t reach his dad, and had I not felt worried that I couldn’t contact him either, the whole chain of events wouldn’t have occurred, and Denis surely would be dead. His body temperature was 30 degrees C when they found him, so God only knows how long he was lying there.

Aside from that roller coaster ride all else was normal. Sylvie and I went to the Perch restaurant downtown for Happy Hour and just as we were about to be served our food it began to rain so we had to run inside. There was a huge clap of thunder that made all of us jump, then laugh. I plan to return with Margaret when she visits next month.

Petra and I went to Road 13 Winery in Oliver to watch the annual Weiner Dog races and managed to catch one of the heats. We had lunch at the Flealess Hound Pub at Gallagher’s outside Oliver, and I don’t need to tell you that I had the chicken burger, do I? All my friends just laugh as it’s an actual “thing” when I go to a restaurant. I am nuts for them, okay?

Marie came for lunch and I made a lettuce salad with ripe cherries. I had the recipe in the July 2024 issue of my newsletter. One also adds red onions and feta cheese and then top with a delicious dressing made with Dijon mustard, honey, oil, and red wine vinegar. I had found a very nice recipe for chicken cashew which I served with rice for the main course.

I suppose some people would view madcap food consumption and constant cooking and baking as overt hedonism, however they, like thrift store shopping, spark joy. I love handing a bag of cookies to Gilles the handyman whose eyes light up at the sight of them. He knows I like to make cannabis laced chocolate chip cookies too, so he always ensures these are the “normal” kind and I say Yes, Gilles, these are the normal kind.

Once again, we all thought wow, gramma at 100 could out-live Denis but thankfully, he prevailed, and I believe I’ve pretty much secured my spot in Heaven. Right?