Well, neither Mina nor I have written for some time, as you can tell. I have been incredibly worried about Mom. For a long time, she had trouble walking, and it hurt her a lot. She used a stick (she called it a cane) to help her get around. Sometimes she would cry because it hurt so much.
Well, one morning, before it even got light, she and Dad left the house. They fed us first, of course. Dad came back later that night to feed us, but then he went away again and we didn’t see him until morning. This went on for a few days, just seeing him in the morning and at night, when he came to feed us. He didn’t even sleep here. We didn’t see Mom at all. I was very scared, and so was Mina. We just couldn’t understand where she was.
Finally, a few days later, Dad brought Mom home. She had to push a thing called a walker around, but she smiled a lot and said that her hip didn’t hurt any more. I was glad to hear that, but why did she have to push that thing around? One day a woman called a nurse (whatever that is) came to the house, and another day, a man that Mom called a Physical Therapist came to the house. Mom slept on the couch a lot and didn’t get up much, and she kept on pushing that walker thing around. How weird! Sometimes she stuck herself in the stomach with a metal claw, and she took some pills.
The next week, the Physical Therapist man came again, twice. He made Mom do some exercise things, and she started walking with her stick again, and she started going upstairs, too. We were so glad to have her back home, but she smelled real funny. Even she noticed it. One day she said she wasn’t going to take any more pills, because they made her sick. Another day, she said she wasn’t going to stick herself in the stomach any more, either, because it made her heart pound at night.
On Monday of the next week, Dad took Mom to work. She took just her cane. Boy! Was she tired when she came home! She slept for a long time after that. She worked again on Tuesday, but then not again until Thursday. Actually, that’s her regular schedule. She was happy to be back at work, but it still made her very tired. One day, Dad took her to the store. That made her tired, too. Well, I guess I can sympathize with that! Most things make me tired; that’s why I take naps all the time. Eating is tiring, running up and down the steps is tiring, sometimes even sleeping is tiring. Mina doesn’t get nearly as tired as I do, but she is so young yet.
But I digress. Mom started going somewhere else to see the Physical Therapist man, although I guess it was a woman where she went. Sometimes she was a little sore the next day, but almost every day she did more and more stuff. Driving herself around was the next step, and then walking to the store. That really tired her out!
Anyway, Mom says she got a total hip replacement on her left side. I’m not sure what a hip is, and I’m not sure I have any, but Mom does. Her hip doesn’t hurt any more, she smiles a lot, and now she walks most of the time without her cane. She says she is going to sell it when she is sure she no longer needs it. I will be glad to see it gone, and Mina will, too. One day in the kitchen, Mina got in the way and the cane accidentally hit her on the head. Mom felt just terrible and tried to comfort Mina, but she can’t bend over yet, so she couldn’t really reach Mina. I know that she wouldn’t hurt anyone, especially one of us or Dad.
We are all so happy to have Mom home. She has started cooking and baking again, although not nearly as much as before, at least not yet. She says that she will have to make us some more food soon, and maybe it will be fish this time. There is a sale on whole, frozen fish somewhere, and she says she wants to buy it and cook it with some other stuff for us. I hope it will be as good as the chicken food she cooks. Yum!!!
Well, just thinking about eating has made me very tired. I guess it is time to take a nap.
Yours,
Apache
