Arrgggghhhhh!

Yes, that is me screaming.  Yes, it is because of my mother.

She is supposed to be discharged sometime next week and can finally go home.  Home, home.  Hometown home.  (But I'm not counting on my freedom until it happens.)

She is still completely wheelchair bound.  She cannot stand and pivot to transfer from the wheelchair to a car or chair.  The only way she can get in and out of the wheelchair is by using a sliding board. It is exactly what it sounds like--a narrow board a couple of feet long that spreads from the wheelchair to a bed or another chair that she scoots on. One of the problems with this method is that it will only work if she is transferring to another seat that is very close in height to her wheelchair.

Both of my cars are way to high to use the sliding board.She wants me to rent a car and drive her home--which would cost twice as much and require me to lose a weekend. I said, "we're going to look into flying." Of course, she had a million excuses why flying wouldn't work because she is in a wheelchair.

But guess what?  Right on the airline's website are its provisions for disabled passengers.  Guess what?  The airline has its own sliding boards and the flight attendants are trained to use them (I am not).  They also have a tiny wheelchair that will fit down the aisle.

And so she is flying.

But yesterday she said I needed to go buy a sliding board so that I can drive her to the airport and get her in and out of the car.  Ummm, no.  I am not moving her in and out of the car by myself.  She incurs enough injuries when medical professionals try to move her. And besides, my car is still too tall for her board.  I told her that she would have to hire a transport company to take her to the airport.

She was not happy.  She said "those places cost $40 per trip!"  I said, "that sounds very reasonable.  That's about what I had to pay for my last cab ride from the airport." She's still pissed.  Because it's way more convenient for me to spend $50 renting a car just to risk dropping her than for her to pony up $40 and ensure her own safety.

And then I asked her what her plan was for getting home from the airport.  She said, well, I guess I can get my friend Suzy to help Husband.

Yeah, Husband who is in the hospital right now receiving chemotherapy in anticipation of a bone marrow transplant.  The Husband who before this last blast of chemo reportedly didn't have the strength of a child.

I have been banging my head against a wall trying to explain to her for the last several weeks that she needs to move into senior apartments where there is staff on site to assist her. She will not do it.  She thinks that she is going to go home and her Husband is going to take care of her and their life is going back to normal.  It is not.  She will kill him. Literally.  There is no way in hell that with his cancer and the treatments he is enduring that he can take care of her.  He can't even take care of himself.  But in typical narcissistic fashion, she can only think about herself.  They have the means to move somewhere where people can take care of them, but they just won't do it. 

I hope that once she gets there and sees him she comes to her senses.  I have no way to force her to act reasonably. But I am truly worried about how her husband is going to fare. She seriously makes me want to scream.