A different kind of christmas eve

My Christmas break and escape from the gloomy, cold, Seattle climate has been an exercise in stamina. My mom had back surgery on December 23rd. I left Seattle that morning at 7am, got to Burbank airport, rented a beater car from 6.99 rentals in Mexico..I mean Van Nuys, had some mediocre breakfast and offensive coffee and started my trek down south to La Jolla (about 30 minutes from the Mexican border). 

There were points in this commute where I seriously fought to keep my eyes open and my nerves were shot. 2 plus hours later, I arrived at Scripps and my mom was still in surgery...not a good sign.
My brother started showing signs of worry, so I turned all the small bit of energy I had left to distracting him and trying to cheer him up. Finally, the surgeon came out around 5pm to tell us mom had pulled through the surgery ok but they were monitoring her very closely as her heart rate jumped to 140..a very dangerous level.

My brother and I stayed with her until almost midnight. We finally got to eat, but unfortunately, the only meal available in Solana beach at that hour was Denny's. We did our best to get the grub down. I could have easily skipped it except that food is necessary for me to get my antibiotics down for the night.
Now on day 2 (Xmas eve), my mom's pain management is much better now that she's on oral pain meds. However, she's very forgetful, disoriented, and doing quite a bit of hallucinating. Now after 2 meals and more pain meds, they think she'll be able to make it home for Christmas. I'm alone tonight which sucks. But, my brother needed to go back to LA to be with his family and I'm minding the store for the night. I can't even reach my boyfriend now as he's in a no cell phone zone for Xmas eve.

I've had some support from friends on Facebook which is totally appreciated. It's funny...it's the folks I expected to give a fuck..but I can't say that I'm not disappointed to have ZERO phone calls or texts from all the many people who claim friendship. I mean even if my mom wasn't in the hospital, a phone call to say "hey..you're in LA..let's hang out when you can" would have been appreciated. No matter how low my standards for faith in friends go, times like these show me that they can always be lower.
Tomorrow, I'll venture back into the ghetto mobile to make the trek up to Altadena and then Thousand Oaks for Christmas dinner. phew...must get it together and get going now. Merry Christmas!