It's my last full day in Prescott Valley, Arizona. While Alexander and I have done some fun activities, I'm not leaving with a sense of satisfaction or relaxation.
My mom's still struggling with a lot of pain and COPD. Listening to her do her breathing treatments is emotionally painful. We met with her neurosurgeon yesterday and were made aware of the significant risks of another surgery and subsequent long and difficult recovery period. Then, the best case scenario is that her pain may decrease by about 50%. She seemed happy at the thought of that much lessening of her pain. I can only imagine how much it stinks to live day to day with that kind of suffering. If her pain could be better controlled, life would be better. But doctors are reluctant to write prescriptions for narcotics, and those are only partially dulling the pain. She tried the Fentanyl patch recently and found them to be ineffective. Scar tissue from previous surgeries prohibits epidural injections and modalities like chiropractic and acupuncture only provide slight, temporary relief.
She should not be living alone. She doesn't want to move to Minnesota and I can't move here to help. She's still mentally sharp but older folks are notorious for making poor decisions regarding their welfare and independence. She says she's not quite ready for assisted living and doesn't want to sell her house in this lousy market. Bottom line, though, is that I need to convince her that her safety is a priority and preventing a wreck is better than cleaning up afterward.