to Mary Jane's Page!

Mary Jane Tucker, 1932

Mom hates this pic, but I love it; and since I'm building this page, I win! ~grin~



We are putting this page on our site to keep everyone aware of what's going on with Mom until she feels like getting back to work on her page. If you have been here recently, just hit refresh and scroll down to where you left off, as it won't be changed, only added to. *VBS* If you'd like to sign Mom's GuestBook (and she'd love to know who's been here!) be sure to hit the "next" button at the bottom of this page, and it will take you to the page where her guest book lives. Thanks!




Mary Jane and Peg, 1999

Mid-January, 2000. Mom came down with a virulent flu. She resisted (strongly!) hospitalization, but by the 28th, it became obvious even to her that that was the ONLY option. She could keep nothing down, and had to be carried to the bathroom. When she reached the hospital, they discovered she also had pneumonia. And, yes, folks, Mom had both her flu and her pneumonia shots!

Mom has experienced TIAs and intermittent angina for several years. It was perhaps good that she got so sick, because an EKG and angiograms showed several blockages! She went immediately into surgery; they thought a triple bypass.

Once into the surgery, they found it necessary to go quadruple! They could not retrieve enough vein from her tiny little legs for what they needed, so had to go in under her arm to "borrow" some more. She tolerated the surgery remarkably well, was moved from ICU to the medical floor, and was slated for release when......

Seizure activity set in! She was dressed and ready to leave, and instead found herself rushed back to ICU. They hooked her up to an EEG to try to determine if the seizures were brain-related, or heart-related. They also installed a temporary pacemaker in her neck. It was found that the seizures were caused by lack of oxygenated blood, which was due to her heart malfunctioning. So they removed the temporary pacemaker, and installed a “permanent” one high on her left chest.

She now had incisions mid-chest, high thighs, under arm, on neck, and high chest!! Bobby’s cousin Gloria suggested we nickname Mom “Patches”. I told her I thought that was most appropriate, especially since Mom has been on the estrogen patch for years, and when she went into the hospital, they put her on the nicotine patch, and now she is also on the nitro patch!! So “Patches” she is, to her online family! ~grin~

On February 11th, Mom was finally stabilized enough for release, but NOT to come home! The doctors did not want her this far away from them or their facilities. Mom has a forever-friend, Genie Eide, who lives about 5 minutes from the hospital, and is a retired RN still doing teaching and consulting throughout the state. She had been Mom’s “advocate” during all this, making certain Mom was allowed to be an active participant in planning her medical care, and translating all the medicalese into English for us kids! She graciously offered her home (and expertise!) to Mom for interim care. When Genie had to be away for classes, Ria would go out and “do” lunch and a visit so that Mom was not untended for long.

This was supposed to be for one week, until Mom went back to hospital for check-ups and release. Well....never one to do it the easy way, Mom threw them one more loop. The incision over her pacemaker had become infected, and they were afraid the infection would travel down the wire to the heart itself. Mom had no significant medical history for 82 years (if you don’t count having us kids!), but let me tell you, folks, she is making up for it all in 2000!!!! They put her on an antibiotic regimen, orally and externally, with dressing changes twice a day. Thank God again for Genie. Once again, they would not release Mom to come home to her mountain. She handled all the big stuff remarkably well, but was SO discouraged at this point. This was February 18th, and she had to return for re-check on the 25th. The doctors DID allow her a “week-end pass” because she needed so badly to just be home for awhile!

February 25th, they discovered infection not healing, and tissue over pacemaker necrotic. Now we are looking at skin grafting! This would not particularly be a biggie, except that they will have to move the pacemaker to a new location. Poor Patches is fast running out of “somewhere elses” for them to cut into!!

Okay, back into hospital. Must wait until both cardiologist and plastic surgeon are available, as cardiologist doesn’t “do” muscles. On March 3rd, “permanent” pacemaker is removed. New pacemaker is inserted deep within the pectorals, since Mom’s skin is too fragile to support it near the surface. One more week Mom can’t come home, until this pacemaker is checked out and found to be functioning. Week passes, Mom is packed again to come home, trips gaily in for final check, and all holy Hades breaks loose! They say to her, “Gee, you look wonderful, but DON’T MOVE!” Mom sits, doctors scurry. Seems that now one of the pacemaker leads has become detached, and the wire is just sort of “floating around” in there! Oh, this is exciting, folks. And, of course it’s Friday, so once again wait ‘til cardiologist and plastic surgeon can coincide time to repair it. They DID determine it was the lead that she “only” uses about 12% of the time (!!!) and not the ventricular lead, which controls the seizures and black-outs, so they hooked her up to some machine that deactivated the loose lead. Bear in mind, while all this is going on, they are telling her to NOT MOVE, because if the tip of the wire lodges in a heart valve, she could drop dead immediately! But after deactivating the wire, they send her home (to Genie’s house) with instructions to call Monday for new surgery date. For some reason, I’m not real comfortable with this! One can only imagine how “uncomfortable” MOM must surely be!

On March 13th (not quite the “Ides of March”!) Mom calls to see when her surgery is scheduled. They inform her that after much consultation, they have deemed her “not a good surgical risk” at this point in time. Well, I would guess not!! She was extremely ill when she went IN, and they have done six major surgeries in as many weeks! They tell her she needs to heal and get healthy, and have tentatively scheduled her surgery for mid-May to early June. She withstood the altitude relatively well when home for the weekend, and wants nothing more than to
be home. Everyone has been wonderful to her, but, in her words, she just wants
“to sit in my OWN chair, and pat my OWN dog, and sleep in my OWN bed!” I should probably add here that Mom and I do a column for the local newspaper, and she was perhaps just a tad worried about what was leaving the ‘puter without her “final cut”! ~wink~

On March 20th, Mom had her final post-ops, and was released to come home. Her brother Brison brought her up the hill, and plumb tickled she was to be here! She has also been cleared to drive “locally”, though Mom’s idea of “local” and the doctors’ idea may differ somewhat! Her chief complaint now is boredom!
Well, let’s recap her "convalescence" to date!



A little background first. The view from our kitchen window is spectacular and endless. INSIDE the kitchen is another story! We lovingly refer to it as our “butt-bumper” room, and the way it has worked for lo, these many years is: Bobby does breakfast, I do dinner, and Mom does dishes. Hey! It works. Mom hates to cook, anyway. She has done so six times in the last 8 years, and twice she didn’t even set off the smoke alarm! ~grin~ Bobby and I are splitting her dish duty until she is a little better recuperated. Well, the Thursday after Mom came home was Bobby’s and my anniversary. Mom asked us if we wanted to run away from home, and I replied we did not. She then asked if we wanted her to run away from home! I reminded her that 14 people stayed at our house on our wedding night, and one of them was her! So far, the marriage seems to be working (we will be great-grandparents in June *VBS*), so if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But Mom being Mom, she was determined I not cook and Bobby not do dishes on our anniversary. Unbeknownst to us, she called the local Pizza Parlor and ordered take-out. Then she said, “Well, the doctors said I could drive locally, and I figured this would be a good test-run.” So off she went, picked up the pizza, came home, set a beautiful table right down to the wine goblets, then took her pizza and went to her room! (It’s a nice room, with a comfy chair and a TV!) We had a lovely dinner, did lots of reminiscing, and a night at the Sheraton could not have been more romantic!
This was week one!

The next Thursday, we had a newspaper lunch meeting scheduled at Arcosanti. Mom loves Arcosanti, and it is an architectural wonder. One of the wonders is how it can blend so beautifully into the mountainside! (Have I told you Mom is not supposed to “do” stairs?!) Mom was not about to be left behind on this one, so I called and found out how to get down as low as possible with a vehicle. This involved going into their construction area. Well, you all know guys with tractors under their fannies are as big an attraction for me as Arcosanti is for Mom, so we were definitely in business! ~grin~ Off we went, bumping happily down the goat-trail, in quest of adventure! I was driving around midst trucks, tractors, and hoppers, when up saunters a gentleman who looked at home in his jeans! I figured he would very politely point out to me that perhaps I had missed the plainly marked “Visitors’ Entrance”! So I said, “I thought I had followed Mary Hoadley’s directions to get Mom in on a friendly level.” He said, “You can go down that ramp, and there should be room to back around when you’re ready to leave. Or you could back down.” I peered over the edge of the ravine, where the track ended right against the building. He then said, “I’m not very dirty. Would you like me to back the car down for you? I do it all the time.” Let me tell you, I never moved so fast as I did leaping out of the Cougar and putting it in his capable hands! And a good thing, too, because when we got ready to come home, there was another vehicle parked there too, and I could not have turned around, and would have had to back UP a blind cliff! (If you’re reading this, Mary, Paul deserves a medal! Or at least a raise!) From there, we had ramped walkways on down to the building itself, and from there “only” three flights of stairs to the cafe. I won’t say Mom is a bad patient, but keeping her under control is a lot like trying to contain quicksilver!! During lunch, Mary brought Paolo Soleri himself over to meet us. Let me tell you, folks, that was the highlight of Mom’s day! He is a most delightful gentleman, with a zest for what he is doing, and the merriest twinkle in his eyes! He is a year younger than Mom. I think I was the next eldest in the group, and you better believe they were having LOTS more fun than the rest of us put together! The following Saturday, she, my Auntie-to-the-east, and a neighbor went to the Community Breakfast. Three little "ladies in their eighties", out to set the world on fire. And a darned good job they do of it, too!
That was week two.

Now we are into April and (what else?!) the annual Cordes Lakes Ladies’ Luncheon. Mom has never missed one, and isn’t about to start now. The theme this year was Mardi Gras, and Mom has a pair of gold boots her sister Sue sent her that she thought would be the perfect thing to wear.....if she could just figure out something to go with them! When I get the pictures back, I will scan them in here, and you will see that she certainly did!! Until then, suffice to say that she giggled and said, “Bobby wouldn’t walk out the door with me looking like this, would he?” and I replied, “Probably not sober, Mom!” ~laffin’, holdin’ sides~ And, of course, she couldn’t go to the luncheon without a trip to the beauty shop first! Even though she was wrapping her hair in a golden turban for the big day...oops! Gave you a clue, didn’t I? Oh, well. She reminded me that I am not the boss of her, and off she went to the beauty shop. It IS only eight miles, but it is on the highway, and across the freeway! Remember how you felt the first time your first kid drove beyond the pasture? Well. that’s how that day was for me! But she did beautifully, of course, and came home with nicely coifed hair to wear under her turban! LOL
And that was week three.



Well, I guess this WAS sort of a dull week, Mary Jane version! Mom has been extending her "local" driving in about 4 mile increments, but Monday she threw caution to the winds and went for Prescott Valley! She had "a few" errands she felt required her personal touch, and planned only to be gone for a couple of hours. But she kept running into people she knew, and it wound up a four-hour expedition! She was pretty worn out for the next couple of days. I would be more emphatic, but she IS still the boss of me, and says I can't be! ~grin~ She checked with her doctors on Wednesday, and they told her she could expect this pain and shortness of breath for at least another month. PLUS she still has the one "disconnected" pacemaker lead that can't "kick in" when her heart tells her it needs it!! By Thursday, she was ready to play bridge, but one of the other bridge buddies wasn't feeling well, so they put the game off 'til Friday. She played all afternoon, and then the four of them went out to dinner. Next Thursday they are all coming here to play. *VBS* Saturday she got a real lift when Genie Eide, her forever-friend and patient advocate, called to say she would be dropping in for a visit on her way up to Sedona. Peg is pretty happy about the visit, too, because it will be reassuring to have a professional, loving-yet-detached eye take a look at Mom! *heaving large sigh of relief here*
And this lady is bored?????? (Check back often!!)

Week 5 was fairly uneventful. Genie and her friend made it up for a brief visit. She feels like Mom is looking real good...."better than I have seen her look in a long time!" But the bridge game was a total bust. Mom worked really hard getting the house all decorated Eastery, we went "tea and crumpet" shopping for her and she set up beautiful canape' and snack trays. It was VERY nice. At the last minute, Mom asked Jack to pick up George on his way, and only then discovered that George was "unable to play"...but hadn't bothered mentioning that to anybody! When the snowbirds are gone, there are only the four players, so Mom caught Flo at home and cancelled. We had LOTS of chips and dips with dinner that night, and I am very angry with George. Not just because we chip & dipped it, but Mom wasn't feeling her perkiest anyway, and she went to a lot of trouble to make everything nice. The man is RUDE! I said it, and I'm glad! (There are lots of things I would do for my Mom, but learning to play bridge is NOT one of them! When I play, I want it to be FUN! Bridge is serious business, folks!! LOL)



Week six began with Easter Sunday. My auntie-to-the-east, Betty Digges, traditionally has the "gathering of the clan". For the last five or six years, Mom has been down in the valley at Easter-time; so this was her first time in a long time to participate. There was less than half of our usual crowd -- only 27 or so at any given moment. Mom enjoyed the socializing, catching up on news (and new arrivals!) and even ATE really well! Mom did the whole column for the paper this week all by herself, and even admitted in print "sneaking off" to Tesky's for biscuits and gravy.....definitely on her no-no list! But her no-no list is longer than she is tall, and all-in-all she does pretty good at it. Though there are a couple of items there that, if she were really keeping track of her "recommended daily allotment", she would, even as I write, be working on the day of June 14th.......2008!!!! *wink*



Mom is scheduled to see her doctors May 12th thru May 16th, so will be away for Mother's Day. We have promised to hold all festivities in check until her return......we work our OWN calendar these days, folks! ~grin~

Below are just a couple of the well-wishes she has received from dear friends. I will be setting up a page soon to display more of her gifts.

     

Update: 05/15/00 Mary Jane has thrown the doctors yet another loop. They have decided she is not yet able to withstand the surgery to repair her pacemaker, unless it becomes a "crisis situation". They also discovered some "other problems", and have cancelled her echocardiogram slated for today, and replaced that with a stress echocardiogram, requiring hospital admission, for Wednesday. So once again, Mom plays the waiting game. With all she has been through, she certainly desrves a pacemaker that functions fully!! So Mother's Day is still on hold at our house. Nancy sent the wee giftie below to tide us over. *VBS*





You may go                  or on to
        
to our index,              Mom's site!