[TruTexan]

On July 20th just after midnight,my father lost his battle with diabetes and congestive heart failure. I was with him by his side on the evening shift in hospice care. He passed peacefully and I know he is in a much better place.
He decided long ago that he wanted to donate his body the the UT Medical Science Center in Houston which will return his ashes in a couple years. His memorial was on Aug. 2nd, where beloved church members, close friends and family members attended.

After having endured the stress of losing my father, I was able to return home 3wks later only to find my mother has been having irregular rapid heart palpitations and rapid increases in blood pressure. She was taken to the hospital and given a chemical stress test to look for more blockages as she is prone to atherosclerosis ...aka hardening of the arteries. They couldn't find anything that would have caused her symptoms of left shoulder pain, left sided throat pain, and the rapid increases in blood pressure and heart palpitations. This happened while I was gone with my father. A couple days after I returned home, it happened to my mother again. Once again she was taken to a different hospital in Tyler where they still couldn't find anything wrong to cause this to happen. We have urged the heart doctors office to call me as soon as they get a cancellation so my mother can get in to see her cardiologist sooner than Aug. 29th for her yearly appt.
After the stress I endured being with my father , I've come home to more stress about my mother. I don't think I can handle one more ounce of stress at this time. I"ve reached my limit and have begun to shut down emotionally.
I guess I'm trying to protect myself from the fears of losing my mother as well if something happens to her. She lives in a rural county area where the bridge is out that the ambulance drivers have used to get to the county roads. While mom was on the phone with 911. I beat all the drivers to her location and found out that the ambulance had gone to the bridge to get there and couldn't and was re-routed to the county roads back way to her location and became lost. It took over half an hour for them to arrive and finally get there to her. I'm so pissed at the county for letting this bridge issue get put off for replace and rebuild because what would have happened to my mom if this had been a heart attack ? I'm calling my state senators office to try and get something done about the bridge issue, it's not supposed to be rebuilt until sometime in 2017. That's just too long and not only my mother elderly that lives in that area but there was another incident where a 50 ish man was thrown from a horse and needed an ambulance and they couldn't get there in time to treat his head wound which may have saved his life. There are other older folks that live in that area that I am concerned about as well as children. I'm just flat out angry about the bridge issue. I just hope that I can get something done about it. I hear ya.....good luck with that right? ......well a person can try and should try and that I will do.

I hope each of you caregivers' lives has settled down with less stress, but for me, it seems when it rains ....it pours. I need a dry spell for a while.

Justy