Everyone, I'm moving the blog's address.

Please go to fphilibert.blogspot.com

The change was necessary for administrative reasons.

More video messages. From Vicki, Paul, Roya and Nick. Ah hes, and a hairy rodent named Mini.

And what the house looked like this morning, with everyone doing something to get it ready. Mariana and Regina stayed up until past midnight decorating. Susana did a cake capable of handling a small conflagration in the form of 80 candles, and everyone pitched in to help.

Aunt Christy

Mariana and Susana

Juan and Coqui

Working on a giant birthday card

Right now Mom's looks like a Salvation Army shelter. Both her house and ours are full with guests. We improvised a Pizza Hut dinner last night, followed by a group massage session. Notice Aunt Christy? Didn't take her long to figure out the last in line gets nothing.

I wonder what we would do without technology. It's everywhere. The UN telecommunications agency reported that there are 4.6 billion cell phones on the planet. That's a lot of conversations.  Also read somewhere else that the human brain has changed when compared to those of our ancestors, most likely because of the development of speech. What will it look like in future years?

Notice everyone is on the phone, even Aunt Mary. The cat was on blue tooth. She's always in the middle of things.

             

On the eve of the Big 80 --

The rest of the Ferrer clan arrived last night. Christy got here in the afternoon. And thanks to Susana and Juan's intervention as well as Benny Otero on the Mexico City side, Aunt Mary came to stay here for a while as a welcome surprise. Mom was especially eager to see her. They've been friends since they were 5 years old.

The photo is of a cake Christina and Eric made  well together with the video below. This was going to be for a video I was secretly making for Mom's party in Mexico City. All of that got cancelled but the video shows that the kids put a lot into this, not just a short video message. Though they won't be here in person, their video is a good substitute.  I will miss them though.

I wrote a four-page letter to the President and CEO of Methodist. Wisely, I ran it by my sister who is the assistant to the director of the VA hospital here in Houston. She gave me very constructive criticism and I whittled that letter down to just over a page. I also changed the style and made it more to the point. In another blog I'll write the letter I'd really like to send.

But never mind that. Here's Christina and Eric being their goofy selves.

And the next bit of good news is:  

YOU'RE INVITED TO MOM'S 80th BIRTHDAY OPEN HOUSE!

It's this Sunday, August 11th, her actual birthday, from noon to 4 p.m. at: 15607 Tylermont Drive, Cypress, TX. If you want to bring something, bring a writing pad or tablet and a pen or marker. We're taking up a donation of these writing materials. We'll explain why later.

Mom is very, very excited about this special birthday. She intends to blow out 80 candles. That's right, 80, and Susana is baking a cake big enough to hold them. Of course, instead of frosting you may wind up biting into wax. So come and share this special occasion with Mom. She'll be delighted to see you.

It's Mom's third day after getting paroled from the hospital. My brother Art and nephew Jonathan arrived yesterday.

Now that the dust has settled around the discharge papers we can report the casualty count: Two medicines prescribed with no prescriptions; one medicine given to patient to take home to which patient is allergic; steroids prescribed by a doctor that didn't know patient was being discharged; and home instructions issued by another doctor that directly stated the opposite of what the general discharge instructions instructed. I'm going to have a talk with Methodist's administration very soon.

Mind you, we think Houston Methodist is a great hospital. It has great people who are competent and really care. All except whoever designed their patient-doctor relations protocol. We suspect that person was probably raised in a concentration camp or maybe got his GED behind the walls of a mental institution.

Now the good news. Mom took her first walk outside of her home. I imagine it must have been like watching the first man ever to take a space walk, Alexei Leonov, back in 1965. Mom stepped out, gingerly, tethered to her walker and escorted by Jonathan Philibert. Granted, I didn't watch Leonov myself. I was 7 and I was living in Chihuahua, Mexico, where we had one black and white TV that received one channel. I don't think Leonov's walk made it to the program line-up.

First day at home. Vicki is now handling Mom's long list of medicines, though Mom has been managing her own medication quite well thank you very much. We just want to be able to step in if necessary.

Yesterday we found out that the hospital sent her home without a prescription for a vital medicine. Super Doctor Paul came to the rescue and got us over that hurdle. But man, what is it with modern medicine? They can handle brain surgery but not sending a patient home with the correct medication. 

Mom is very calm, and very sure that we will be guided along the way through this maze of challenges. My sisters have been doing yeoman duty with Mom, a heroic task. Mom is a great woman but can be very hard on those close to her. My sisters too are exhausted and yet they're right there, plugging away with whatever is needed. I conked out last night on the dinner table and today I only made a couple of short visits to Mom's home. I've had a lot of work to catch up with and I'm still behind. Life goes on and bills have to be paid.

Today Home Health Care came in the form of nurse Andres. He found that yet another medicine was prescribed without a prescription. Mom's list of medicines could take up a couple of shelves at Walgreens. Once again a call to Super Doc got this taken care of. And today I finally got a call back from Dr. Zhang's assistant. I called yesterday because the home care instructions specified one thing about a couple of medicines and his own discharge sheet indicated something else. Plus we needed an appointment for the follow-up meeting with both Dr. Zhang and Dr. New, at the same time. Dr. New didn't even know Mom was going home. I'll write more later about these modern hospital snafus.

In any case, nearly 24-hours later the problem with the instructions was straightened out. "Your Mom has a lot of physicians taking part in her care," the assistant mused. Yes, I thought, and they all specialize in their own little world. Besides, no one talks to anyone so the result is that the patient has to be aware of the whole picture or you're in for some unexpected and preventable troubles ahead. Not only that but the doctors never asked to speak to the family. We caught what we could when their visits coincided with one of us being there. Other than that they only focused on giving Mom instructions and explanations but hey, just because she just had brain surgery and is on enough medication to outfit a MASH unit shouldn't be a problem. The assumption is she'll be able to digest all the information and inform the rest of us. And never mind that her family is exhausted. We're all capable of comprehending the intricacies of steroid effects coupled with hypertension and diabetes as well as the projected path of Hurricane Glioblastoma in Mom's brain, right? Yes indeed. And this is one of the world's most advanced countries? I'm a little pissed.