Laughter-good medicine

Today marks the anniversary of the hardest I have ever laughed in my life. It didn't start out as a particularly funny day, last Dec. 16th. Mom had to go in for surgery-yes, after FINALLY getting to bring her home and have her there for a few days. We left the house at like 5AM, it was VERY cold and windy. Notice I said LEFT the house-that's after getting mom presentable and taking care of all her meds and diabetic rituals. She had surgery to connect two veins in her arm that would hopefully later allow her to have dialysis done from that location. (We would find out later that the surgery had failed.) It was one of those surgeries that totally depends on how things go, so we had no idea what to expect as far as to when she would be out. So, Donna and I were at the hospital all day, once again. I have already told you there is usually trouble when Donna and I are on the loose together. This day was no different. The nurses kept giving us things to take home with us, and so at one point, to kill time, I took a load of stuff to the car. When mom finally got out of surgery, she had to go to dialysis-that was across the parking lot from the hospital. Now, remember, she has two broken hips, and when she comes out of surgery, they tell us she can't bend her arm or hold any weight on it. It would have been nice to have some warning about that! Three out of four limbs completely un-usable! Well, Donna and I decided that rather than to load mom in the car, it would be better to roll her wheelchair across the parking lot, and put off the task that would sooner or later catch up with us-putting her in the car with her using one arm. About this time, she is late for her scheduled dialysis appointment, and we realize that her clothes were in the bag that I took to the car. So, the plan was that we wrap mom up in warm blankets, I would take the car to dialysis, Donna would roll mom across the parking lot, we
would meet up in the bathroom in the other building and dress her before taking her up to dialysis. It seemed like a good plan to us, saving us the time of going back down to the car and bringing up her clothes. Didn't Lucy and Ethel's ideas always seem like good plans??? Mom insisted on wearing her scarf, gloves, hat and SHADES, (that means sunglasses) as she always called them. Are you picturing this in your mind??? So, off we went, each with our own assignment. I started laughing as soon as I got to the car and saw the sight being pushed across the parking lot. It only got worse. We met up in the bathroom as planned and I cannot tell the rest of the story for the world to see. I can tell you that Donna and I got tickled and it all went downhill from there. I'll never forget our poor, helpless mother saying "NOW, GIRLS!!!" She had no defense, no weapons, no control, totally at the mercy of two children with the giggles. I somehow think that mom is sitting in Heaven laughing about this whole production herself! It was a moment! We did finally get her to dialysis, a bit late. I would wake up in the night for days after this and get the giggles all over again. Over the past year, I have had to wonder what the point of this day was. It was a really hard day on mom, in the end, it served no purpose. Recovery was hard. It took both Donna and I to do anything with mom as long as she was limited to one arm. It took both of us getting up with her during the night. Yet, this day will always be a very vivid memory and, I think the laughter of the last three months of mom's life is something she would not want us to forget. Mom's life was about laughter, about finding the "bright side" and many times, laughing to keep from crying, I'm sure. We laughed everyday, usually till we cried. We made the best of the time we had together, even though it was in a hospital. There was the day they came to take her staples out of her hip and she asked for some "cocaine" so it wouldn't hurt so much. Then, realizing that wasn't right, she said "novacaine." There was the day Donna was going to the bank to get mom some cash and also going to Walmart to buy her some more underware. Donna asked if 200 would be enough, and mom thought she was talking about the underware, not the amount of money and she said "Oh, no, I don't think I need THAT many! I wish I could remember all the times we got the giggles. Some stand out more than others. This day will never be forgotten. Laughter...it IS a gift.