My conversation with my hoarding mother was a hodge-podge of all her usual strategies and manufactured drama, but she has some new scenarios but same old modus operandi. The highlights of this conversation included:
She finally had the test she was scheduled for the day she hit the deer. Or according to her, the day the deer hit HER. Anyway, apparently she needs a stress test as it appears she has a blockage. She has been complaining of symptoms that appear vascular in nature for years... edema, more pronounced in the left leg, shortness of breath, the list goes on... But she has successfully blocked any opportunity to diagnose the source of her concerns. It also hit me that after all the drama she hyped about temporal arteritis, she has not mentioned it for weeks, and I believe she never did have the test. She was started on treatment, but I am not clear if she is still taking the antibiotics. It is only her eyesight, cognition, etc. that is at risk! So with this potential heart blockage, it is hard to tell what the deal truly is. She has a significant family history of it, and already the denial is beginning. She states that she does not understand how this is possible since she 'does not eat junk' and 'never adds table salt.
Seriously? Most everything this woman eats comes through a drive through window or is some highly processed crap from a box or a can. I am just gobsmacked. And not to make this about me, but it also hit me that with my father dying of heart disease as most if not all of his family has, and with her potentially having heart disease, I will need to continue to work to eat healthy and to exercise as I am post menopausal, and this also has impact for my estranged 1/2 sister. But I digress...
Her conversation moves on to a two women with several foster kids moving into the large house across the street. She is continuing her assault on at least 3 other neighbors who have the misfortune of living near her/moving near her, and now she has another person or family to antagonize and obsess over. Another group of folks to add to the list to send flowers to!
She is also obsessing about being on an antiretroviral medication to help avoid another outbreak of the shingles, and is less than thrilled that it is a medication that is advertised heavily on TV to treat herpes simplex infections. God forbid anyone think she had herpes! The horror! I gleefully advised her that shingles, chicken pox, etc. was a form of the herpes virus. I just gave her something to think about...
There is much more, but I will save that for the next episode of 'From the Mouth of a Hoarder'... Coming soon!
As always, thanks for reading.
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