Mom's Big Island Visit, Day #7

Mom woke up on 12/19 spitting out blood. It turns out she had bitten the right side of her tongue in her sleep. It looked really bad and very swollen. She had a hard time eating breakfast and it must have felt really bad, too. She asked me to call her doctor and get an appointment for the following day. It surprised me since she always wants to find ways to avoid going to the doctor.

 
The weather was drier than the day before. Which was a relief to Mom, she did not want to fly in the rain. Mom was very cold, tired, and grumpy. She did not want to wear any of her warm clothes because they were not "good" clothes acceptable to her for traveling in. I finally got her to put on the big fleece with the hood by telling her she could take it off when it was time to leave.

When we went to say good bye to Uncle Kazu we found out he was on one of the outings that the hospital takes the residents on; they were at the Mauna Lani resort. (They said he goes on all the outings.) They had taken box lunches and would be out all day, so we just left a message for him.

We took the coast road to the airport rather than the mountain road. On the way there were great views of both Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. But Mom did not get to see them, she was fast asleep for most of the ride. 

Looking across Kawaihae Bay at Mauna Kea (L) & Mauna Loa (R).

Mauna Kea

Mauna Loa

On the way I also saw a male wild goat just standing alongside the road. Later I saw a bunch of does and kids near the turn off to the airport.

Male Capra aegagrus

We went to lunch in Kona but Mom's throat was scratchy and she was not able to swallow much. We got a pork & squash soup & BLT sandwich combo at the Pine Tree Cafe. (I was too preoccupied with Mom's tongue and throat to take a photo.) Mom was only able to eat some of the liquid part of the soup.

The flight was delayed coming in from Honolulu so our flight leaving Kona was delayed. Since the Kona International Airport is an open air building the tradewinds were blowing pleasantly through for most people. For Mom it was too cold even with my heavy fleece jacket with the hood; she forgot to take it off when we left the house and I decided not to tell her. I parked her in the sun but that was too bright for her eyes. I ended up pulling her back so that her head was out of the sunlight but her lower body was in the sun; it turned out to be the perfect solution. She fell asleep while we waited to board.

Curtis picked us up and we got back home about 6 pm. It was fortunate that cousin Baron had dropped off a nice big batch of Portuguese bean soup on Sunday evening; that's what we had for dinner. Mahalo nui loa to Baron! Mom fell asleep on the couch.