What a crazy week this has been!  I was supposed to be away, but guess God had other plans for me.  2 wks ago we has sauerkraut as a fast supper.  I didn't rinse the stuff like I usually do - stupid me!  Anyway, I have been suffering with salt induced fluid retention.  And - I do mean suffering.  By the end of the day my feet don't fit into my shoes.  But I am getting it down, little by little and avoiding almost all salt in the process. Then, 3 days before I was supposed to leave my right hip & knee went into spasms.  Of course I was going to be driving 800 miles, so this really concerned me.  No matter what I did, I could not calm the pain in the knee.  So, I said maybe God is telling me to not go yet. Well - Sunday, the day before I was to leave it really came apart.  My hubby (with COPD) went to take the trash to the Convenience Center.  He got almost there and his p/u quit on him.  So, since he had not taken his cell phone, he walked over 2 miles toward home in 90+ degree heat.  Finally a neighbor, heading in the same direction, saw him and realized he was in trouble.  He stopped and helped hubby crawl into the bed of his p/u & drove him home.   This great neighbor came back about 30 minutes later to help make arrangements for a tow truck to bring our truck home.  Now we had to pay for towing out of the travel money too.  Thankfully, hubbby recouperated from all his breathing problems and is OK.  But I took this whole thing as a sign from God that I needed to stay home.   Good thing I did. Monday I really thought this decision was a mistake.  Got a call from the billing person at the nursing home.  She seems to think that I should be making payments on mom's bill even though there is still insurance to cover it.  I have such a hard time talking to her on the phone.  In person she is really sweet and nice.  But when she gets on the phone, she is like Jekel & Hyde.  Really bummed out my day.  I spent the rest of the day speaking with Medicare & Mom's insurance company.  (Total - about 4 hours plus the time with her.)  Both Medicare & the insurance company have advised me to ignore her and not "pay one red cent" until all other forms of payment have been exhausted.  Since this girl is not cooperating with me, I had to call the main office to get the copies of bills as the Insurance company requires.  That was another day and another hour on the phone. Tuesday we went out to do some ministry business and came home relaxed.  Picked up the darn mail and it started all over again.  Letter from Social Services demanding that I do something prior to July 2.  Seems this worker has been on the Internet and found something in AZ unclaimed funds that she thinks belongs to Mom.  I spend 3 hrs on the Internet trying to find the Unclaimed Funds site for Arizona.  Finally found it and looked up Mom.   I found something, but unfortunately it is listed at the wrong address.  Don't know how I'm gonna prove this is hers. Wednesday the telephone started ringing off the hook at 9 AM.  (this is not good since we don't hit the bed till 2-3 AM while doing the International part of the ministry)  First was a friend who had a car breakdown about 150 miles from here.  She called about different 6 times throughout the day.  Then there was a collection call for our married daughter. Finally it was time to call Arizona to determine if this was indeed mom's unclaimed funds.  Of course they would tell me nothing on the phone.  The lady was sweet and informed me all that I would need to send them (almost a book) to attempt to determine to whom this thing belongs.  Then we headed off to our chiropractor appt, came home for supper and headed out to p/u our stranded friend who was now only about an hour away at a bus stop.  Finally, after finishing the daily ministry work, we hit the bed about 2 AM. Thursday was somewhat uneventful.  We even got to enjoy some of the harvest from our garden.  But that was not to last!!!! At approx. midnight I received a call from the nursing home.  Mom had taken a bad fall in the bathroom.  They were sending her to the local ER for treatment & x-rays.  So, out the door we headed.  When we arrived, we were shocked at what we saw.  Mom had a lump just over her eyebrows & above her nose.  There was blood on her face, hands & clothing.  She also had a red line on the left side of her face just past her eyebrow and extending down with a little curve.  This must have been the slight curve from the commode.  She pointed to 2 other lumps in the hairline and on the top of her head.  Both the ring finger and pinky on her left hand had swollen and bruised knuckles.  She had bruises on both knees and both shins, along with a bump on one.  She was in a lot of pain.  We are still trying to figure out how she caused so much damage to herself in a very small bathroom that only contains a commode.Both x-rays & CT scan were completed.  Diagnosis, nothing broken.  The worse problem was from her right thumb.  At 93 her skin is beginning to become fragile.  AS a result, she had torn the skin from top to bottom of her thumb and it was bleeding freely.  It required wrapping steri strips around the entire thumb, from top to bottom to close the wound.  Then a pressure dressing was applied.  Because Mom is still insisting she is going to go home, we sent her back via abulence.  We all left the hospital around 4:15 AM.  WE came home and hit the bed approx. 4:45 AM. Friday was more of the same.  Our friend had asked that we pick her up at the hospital after a procedure that was being done in the AM.  That call came in about 10:30 AM requesting that I be there before noon.  Talk about sleep deprived!!!!  So, since she had been sedated & her car was 150 miles away on the side of the road, I got up, dressed & headed back to the hospital.  She was not real sleepy, so we headed up to visit Mom & see how she was doing.   There sat Mom in bed.  They were changing the dressing and the thumb was still bleeding a very little bit.  We saw to it that she had an ice pack for her head and helped her eat her lunch.  After checking with the nursing staff and taking care of some other business there, we left so "friend" could go home & sleep off the medication.  Got home, drove to have car inspected, went shopping, ate supper and did the rest of our normal evening. Today I am so tired and so is DH.  But - can't imagine how I would have felt if I had been 800 miles away for all this.  Maybe I can plan this trip for later in July.  Maybe, if I get to go, I will be able to come home a little rested and feel human again. Gotta really hate weeks like this.