Climbing in Skirts

My family has never been that great at communicating. Usually things come up in more of an "oh, by the way" manner, family emergencies included. Like when my grandfather passed away. My dad called my sister to say that we had lost our grandfather. Lost?? Steph didn't know she was responsible for keeping track of him. Anyways, the message could have been conveyed a little better. Or when my aunt was hospitalized for a heart problem. "Oh, your mom had to leave town to take care of your aunt in the hospital." No explaination as to what happened. I don't think that anyone was informed of my car accident (head on collision), until way after the fact. For the most part I was ok. I just had a few broken teeth

So, Steph called me last night. I was in the middle of cooking dinner so I didn't answer the phone. I checked the voice mail and it sounded a little frantic. " Mom's hands are in splints, she has carpal tunnel, Dad took her to the doctor because her hands turned blue". First I thought, "gee why didn't mom and dad call me?" Then I called Steph to get the story. I called her first because my parent's aren't the greatest at explaining how serious a situation is. Steph and I chatted for a bit about what went down and about our family's communication problem. She found out that mom went to the hospital for her hands because mom called to ask how much Steph's hairdresser charged to wash hair. Most mom's would have pulled the "I brought you into this world card" and said "I am injured, can you come over and wash my hair?" Not my mom. I am guessing that she doesn't want to be a burden to us like her mom was to her and my aunt. Burdens aside. We all live in the same city. It's no big deal.

I called mom last night and got the story. She was out walking with her neighbor and her hands turned blue. She came home and they went from blue to red. So dad took her to the doctor. They took some blood tests. They had her come in for more tests and then they told her that she had carpal tunnel and she had to wear splints for the next 2 weeks. I told her that I never heard of blue hands being a symptom of carpal tunnel (I had researched carpal tunnel a few years ago before I was diagnosed as having scar tissue built up in my wrist from that car accident). I told her to hang tight and I would get a second opinion. This was sounding like a vascular problem and that maybe she should ask about those blood tests.

Yet another situation that I am thankful that my best friend is a nurse. I called Meg for her opinion. I was right in guessing that it was a vascular thing. I spent an hour on the phone with Meg playing doctor. I now have a list of thing to ask mom about when I call tomorrow.