This is My Mom

She stayed with me for three days this week while having cataract surgery. Normally she lives with one of my brothers. We had a grand old time while she was here - especially while she was recovering from the anesthesia. Or at least I am going to blame it all on the anesthesia.

My mom is almost 80 years old. She has lived an amazingly healthy life. This cataract surgery is the first time she has had surgery or anesthetic of any kind since she had her appendix out in 1947. I am not kidding - 1947!! She had six babies with no anesthetic and then never really got sick. Every time I take her to an appointment where we have to fill out new paper work - the Dr. is always amazed that she takes no medications.

Before the eye surgery, the put my mom out for about 15 minutes so that they can completely numb the eye. The stick needles directly in to the eye-ball and it is better for patients to be unconscious during that part of the procedure. She woke up fine and then they took her in for the 15 minute procedure. She never went back to sleep - hence, my doubts about blaming the craziness on the drugs.

My mom is typically a little loopy. I think it comes with her age and the fact that she really can't hear anything and now we know that she really wasn't seeing much either. But while she was here she saw tomato plants growing in my living room. She wondered how I watered them without getting the carpet wet and how I got the rows so straight around the furniture. She also feared she grabbed someones purse since her plain black purse had suddenly turned tan with big red flowers. She had a few more doozies - she was convinced the Christmas lights on our neighbors house were turning from plain white bulbs into little colorful trees and she misunderstood one conversation about someone riding a motorcycle to someone wearing adult diapers.

Since my dad died there has been no one to make fun of her when she says and does crazy stuff. My kids encourage it, they think it is hilarious and say things like "yeah, those lights are so cool how they are changing like that" and then they laugh and laugh. Later when I made them be honest with her about the lights she thought it was funny that they were going along with her. I just feel like they are so lucky they get to have her around a lot. She will live a long time yet, all of her sisters are still alive and some of them are well in to their 90s. None of them have had serious medical issues and are all still as active as my mom is. Growing up during the great depression was good for them.