As Time Goes By....

 It has been 40 full days since my beautiful MIL was remanded to the medical community. Initially, we were told her surgery went well. Apparently, it's what we don't know that gets us.
They completely removed the hip prosthesis. We have (much later) been told that lack of a hip joint is, in itself, debilitatingly painful. The rehab hospital increased her pain medications, as she was screaming in pain.
Once she was over CV19, MIL got pneumonia. For the past month, she has subsisted on sips of water, and an occasional bite of applesauce. Over this past weekend, she was moved to Hospice care. Arlene's health has declined like a rocket sled. Last week, she was given "maybe 2 days" to live.
We have been, like most of the country, locked in to a major weather system. There has been no let up in the waves of cold, snow, and ice since we were told that Arlene will NOT be coming home. Tom's siblings have been to see her, as often as they can.
With a favorable turn in the weather, maybe Tom will be able to make the trip to see her.
My heart holds on to hope. 

Meanwhile, "back at the ranch"... Tom suffered an episode with his  posterior. Our ten minute Doctor Go expertise would say that he had a  Superior Cluneal Nerve entrapment. (We use DuckDuckGo, rather than a more common search engine). The ER Docs believe either this was correct, or he has a bulging disk. He was given several shots and sent home. I had to brave the storm and go back out for the prescription medications, as the pharmacy was three hours from opening when he was released. My white knuckled drive home from the ER was compounded by Tom's pain. The return trip... well. Oklahoma and Arkansas are SOUTHERN states. Quite unprepared for blizzard conditions. The snow and wind had hit in earnest as we had driven home.
I made it back to the pharmacy, discovering I'd left my gloves at home. The entrance I parked closer to, nearest the pharmacy, was now barricaded off. I slipped and shivered my way to the opposite end of the store. I got to the pharmacy... and their "drop off" window was closed. It was half an hour past its opening time. A manager sat behind the counter...  I was informed that the store had suffered a broken water main, and the pharmacy would be closed for the next week. (I burst into tears.) I slipped and slid my way across town to a smaller pharmacy... where the pharmacist jumped through hoops to get the prescriptions transferred. Trust me on this... you don't want to need medication on a Sunday, in a small town coated in ice as the worst storm of this century hits. I made it back home, drugs in hand.
I am so very grateful that Sam had stayed up during the midnight watch with Tom, allowing me a couple of hours of sleep, however fitful they were. I used his All Wheel Drive Subaru both trips to town... and stayed on the road when others failed. (I stayed on where the suggestion of road appeared to be! There was NO visible road.)
Eventually, the steroids reduced the swelling that was trapping the nerve bundle, and Tom was able to move without so much pain.
The snows came. They stopped. They came again. And yet, again. We are entered into the third week of below zero temperatures. (It was -20 two mornings ago. That was NOT counting wind chill.) The snow has been powder sugar fine. We "Only" got about 8" on level surfaces, once the wind quit. Deep drifts. Tom missed one day of work. Sam's boss called them off for 4 1/2 days. During this week, our bathtub drain froze. Tom discovered that it has one place where the drain slopes UP and not down. This caused an ice dam. The TV went out, and our secondary refrigerator failed. But, we have had electricity, and propane, so our house has been warm and we have had water. There are millions without, across the country.
Aurora LOVES the snow. We let her out to 'take care of business', and she doesn't want to come back inside. Jaffa, on the other hand, has dragged his blanket over near the heater, and stays curled up inside of it. He is as "over" the pretty white stuff as I am!