Transfusion #14

Mom went in for another transfusion of 2 units of packed red blood cells (PRBC) today. AJ from Dr. Chan's office called on my cell phone yesterday evening; Mom had been on the house phone talking to Mrs. Vea for a while. They wanted her in today, Dr. Chan said her levels were so low he did not want to wait an additional day. I later found a note about a lunch arrangement that Mom had apparently made while I was taking a nap; she did not tell me about it when I told her about going in for the transfusion today. When I found the note I asked her about it and told her I would arrange to reschedule the lunch because of the other things on her schedule.


While I was on the phone with Paul, Mom got very agitated about me calling to reschedule. She said she could handle everything herself, even though she could not find the message with the number to call. (I had to go back through her cell phone's recent calls list to find it.) I volunteered to drive her to Kailua so that Paul did not have to make an extra trip to come and pick her up and I would also be present to take care of any medical-related issues. The interesting thing about this anger is that she is not sure what this lunch is about. She knows that Paul knows her friend Ellie, who appears to have passed away in Europe about 60 years ago. Ellie's granddaughter is visiting and Paul is hosting a lunch to get them together, along with his other aunt (Ellie's other sister, Sally) so that the granddaughter can learn more about her grandmother through Mom & Sally. I am not sure how well this will work due to Mom's dementia. Some of the things she has told me about Ellie have changed over the last few months of her talking about Ellie. Hopefully, Sally can provide more information.

The other thing that was interesting about this is that as soon as we got home on Monday, Dad gave Mom the note he had taken from Paul. He had Paul's name and phone number along with Ellie's name. Mom told him she did not know Ellie or Paul and she left the note laying on the counter and went on her way doing other things. The next morning she found the note and began to make up stories about who they were. Mom said Paul is Ellie's friend and he lives in Europe and is visiting Hawaii, so she needed to call him before he left town. In actuality, Paul is Ellie's nephew and lives in Kailua (as explained to me by Paul). Since she thought Paul was only here visiting, Mom got really upset that Dad had not told her about it when we got back (I told her he did, she ignored it) and ranted about it for most of the drive to her blood draw that morning. When she confronted him about it, he said he did give it to her, so she dropped it and then went on a rant (to me) that he should have called her cell phone as soon as he got the call. I told her he was having problems remembering things, she said he didn't try to find the paper with her number. Interestingly, when she tried to call Paul she was going to leave her cell phone number and could not remember it or find the paper she had written it on. After this she stopped saying Dad should have called her while she was in Kohala. It will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow.

Usually Curtis brings lunch when we are at the ATC since he works about 5 minutes away. But today he had trouble with finding his 1st lunch source closed, then getting stuck in traffic on the way to the 2nd source. Fortunately, its Wednesday and the farmers market is at the Kaiser Moanalua facility. I told him I would get lunch and he should just show up to eat. As promised a few weeks ago, I went to G-Town for the monchong. I also got the furikake salmon and a side of stuffed cabbage. It has been such a long time since I've had stuffed cabbage! Curtis really liked the monchong and the stuffed cabbage.

L to R: furikake salmon with 'nalo greens & brown rice, monchong with nalo greens, & stuffed cabbage.

As we were leaving the ATC we saw a cat sunning itself just outside the parking structure. It seemed to be very relaxed and comfortable.


On the drive home from the ATC, Mom was wide awake, no nodding off like yesterday afternoon. She also had more energy in the evening. Hopefully, she will do well tomorrow at the lunch in Kailua; although it has not improved her memory. She still thinks Paul is a friend of Ellie's from Europe.

When we got home, I found a box hidden behind a bin near the back door. I had guessed it was the photo that David had sent to Mom & Dad. It was a photo he had taken of Sarah & Kaia when he was visiting after Kaia's birth.

Sarah & Kaia (photo by David)

Happy Birthday to Micah & Kulsoom! Happy Belated Birthday to Lembi, Santiago, Michelle, Delbert, Georgia, Uncle Bruce, Crystal, Deandra, BJ, Stephanie, & Richard!