Mom’s Continuing Health Issues

I’m going to comment briefly on the Numenera FreeRPGDay adventure before venting about Mom’s health, which I expect will be the bulk of this post.

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I was planning on running the Numenera FreeRPGDay adventure on that day. My FLGS gave me the adventure early so I could prep for it (which is a very good thing), but Mom was supposed to be home from the hospital that same Saturday with no one else to watch over her. So I cancelled the game, but held on to the adventure.

I found the adventure a pretty weak introduction to the Ninth World, if not the Cypher System.

The adventure desperately needs a GM summary, as I could not follow what was going on until near the end, when the writer, Dennis Detwiller, finally tells the GM what’s going on. Without that summary, it just seems the PCs are thrashing around pointlessly, trying to survive in a world that is not the Ninth World. Yes, Detwiller immediately sends the PCs to a parallel universe, rather than writing an adventure actually set in the Ninth World.

For a game that touts its place as a game of discovery, there is a fair amount of combat in the early phases of the adventure. And as I’m now running the adventure for my Thursday night group, I’m finding the combats pretty tough for what seem to be beginning characters. My players have made it only through the first encounter, as the first combat encounter is a touch too powerful for the pregen characters provided.

The adventure then becomes less a game of discovery and more a series of arcane puzzles. Again, a GM summary would have saved me a fair amount of confusion and frustration while reading, as I was trying to determine what I would have been able to fit into a five hour session. I did eventually figure things out when I got to page 16 of a 17 page adventure, which is where Detwiller finally spills the beans on the point of the adventure.

For the Thursday night game, I’ve already determined what encounters will be cut, but I’ve also seen that some of the combats are going to have to be modified. I feel that, for an introductory adventure, this adventure really is a poor choice. I’m regretting choosing it over the Vortex adventure provided with the starter box.

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I’m having trouble remembering the exact sequence of events of the last couple of weeks regarding Mom’s trips to the hospital. She’s been in and out so frequently in the past few weeks that it’s difficult to keep track. Yesterday was the latest, and she’d only been home for 18 hours (or less).

Let’s see… we sent her to the hospital on June 5th. She was there until after her birthday on the 10th, released on the 15th, with a UTI that the hospital missed and assumed was constipation. Last Sunday, the 18th, she complained of “feeling oogie.” Monday the 19th, we sent her to the other Community Hospital. They treated her for the new/continuing UTI. She was completely different from when she was in the hospital between the 5th and 15th, being more alert and coherent.

Why did we send her to the other hospital? Because the dialysis center Mom goes to recommended that or putting Mom in hospice, as Mom wasn’t capable of helping get herself dressed or even sitting up for long. Monday was a bad day, once I got this news. Then we learned of the infection and saw Mom better and got some hope again.

Friday, we had a meeting with the palliative team at that hospital. It seems locally, much fewer services are offered in palliative care than is discussed on the palliative information site. That might be because of Mom’s insurance, but I’m not sure. End result is that palliative care won’t get us better, whole family care, so we won’t be pursuing it. That and that we need to somehow get Mom to stop the passive-aggressive crap and discuss how long she’s going to fight off dying.

She came home on Saturday and we sent her back per her request yesterday with difficulties breathing. They gave her oxygen and she immediately felt better, but the EMTs said she had diminished lung noises. The hospital told my sister that Mom had only had dialysis twice last week instead of the usual three, which might be why she’s got the extra fluids in her system.

The past couple of weeks have been very stressful. Like I mentioned above, we need to focus Mom on discussing the possibility of her demise, but she’s avoiding it. I got so upset yesterday seeing Mom wheeled out again that I nearly broke down. That she seems to bounce back so strong every time doesn’t help. Those bounces have created expectations that are eventually going to prove unrealistic. We all need to be more ready than we are.

It’s frustrating how quickly the hospitals try to send Mom home without all of her issues resolved. It’s frustrating that she avoids the discussion of her future. Like I said, life is stressful right now.

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That’s all I’ve got for now.

Later.