I'm tired of cooking/preparing 3 meals a day. It's just the two of us but boy oh boy can that woman eat!! She stays slimish, I get fattish. It's bad enough I do everything here much less start making her one thing and me the other. At times I feel guilty when I buy her fast food cuz of the nutritional value....not to mention I eat it too.
Thanks to all of you, I'm better able to help my newly retired nurse sister with not one or two, but three family members who are trying to enlist her as a caregiver for themselves or loved ones. Going to re-read advice to Hope......
As far as the things that have to get done, write he down and prioritize them based on need and cost and then take one job at a time. I write three things to do on the chalk board and erase them as they get accomplished. That really helps make me feel like I was accomplishing things. Depression can keep you from getting only thing done. I used to be a hard worker that accomplished more than anyone in the office, multitasking and kicking myself at the same time because I was really just asking for more assignments. Well in retirement, it is a little differen. If Mom wasn't here I would probably be sleeping most days.
In all honesty I do feel better already after all the hard work out there this morning...once it's mowed I have discovered a lot of tweeking and pruing..I do love yard work, that's why I hate I seem to have gotten to almost detest it so much...because i don't understand myself ...thanks for those works...on a funny note..my little pup is toting this huge stuffed dog arond with her and putting it in her bed...bless her heart, it seems to be a comfort to her..she's such a sweet little dog...
Susan, ask the director to tell you what choices of roommates mom could have, then YOU go to each one and help make the decision. No one knows mom like you do.
I feel like a normal person today... which means I feel like catching up on all the house stuff. yay :/
Sitting here staring at a mountain of bills - mine and Mom's - and trying to set aside some time to crunch numbers and do up a budget this weekend. It's going to be very, very tight for a while - probably about a year - until I get things paid off. I think I can swing it, but may have to consider taking on some additional part-time clients in order to do it without starving. Mom's income disappears as of the first of next month, so it's not like I had much of any warning or time to prep for this.
Susan, yes, normal is a good feeling. I got a full solid 9 hours of sleep last night first time since mom passed. Hmmm, perhaps it was the 1200 mgs of gabapentin my dr prescribed for me yesterday. She MADE me make an apt with the psychologist, says I need to decompress from the last 4 years or I will explode. You think?
Susan, I know your mother didn't pass away but she is gone now. Yes, you can visit her but... it's still somehow like being left alone like me. You will still have the guilt, probably moresoe as you visit and see her decline. Jessie had such wonderful words for you... hopefully you will accept the guilt as a normal feeling and keep moving. Your mother, in her right mind would totally understand. Sometimes life isn't fair and whoever called it the "Golden Years" was full of shit!!
Shar, so wonderful your husband is helping out, but 7 bottles?? LOL Cute in a weird way :)
Poochie is doing very good. He's up and walking about, ate his breakfast and doesn't seem to be in any pain. I'm telling you, this little fellow has always been a super dog. Heck, I thought he was dying many times...hehehe, general age related symptoms. Hey, I'm still a caregiver ! LOL
Now my 2 older brothers have appearred at lunchtime.They are discussing where they will meet for dinner tonite and where they will go hiking tomarrow.They do nothing to help Mother or I ever.Sunday,on their so-called visit to Mother,they will show her pictures of the fun they had.I am beyond hurt by both of them.
Glad, same problem here with those original posting that have one 250 word sentence. It can read so many different ways. I also heard the problem could be the devise they are using to type on.... also hard to make paragraphs. So much for new technology.... give me my old desk top computer :)
I would to stop in and visit her should I call the rehab place to find the best times?
Stopped and saw dad this afternoon. I forgot to mention yesterday when I was chatting with one of the other residents who lives a couple doors down the hall from dad she mentioned that dad looks for mom and he must miss her a lot. I got choked up and didn't know what to say as the activity director and his assistant have told me the same.
Dad must have been active last night his summer and winter clothes all changed around in closet and emptied a nightstand drawer and combined it with the other.
Plus today he brought up about where he is to live, where his truck is and those 'animals' in the field outside his window (it's a weedy grass that is tan/cream colored). These topics he repeated about 10 mines each in a 30 minute span.
I did get time out of his room and to the living room where there are other people sitting.
A typewriter is much quicker and easier if you are doing a couple of envelopes. Just put the envelope in the typewriter, center it correctly, type. Done.
Using a computer you need to wake up the computer and the printer and sometimes that could take several minutes... then search for labels [now where did I put THAT box].... now you need to look for the program to design the label, and if it has been awhile of not using said program it could take mega time to look for the program.... oh gosh, what size are these labels?... hope these labels are from the right box. Now you need to change the font and the font size so it's not too small.... decisions, decisions.... ok, maybe a color will be nice.... let's change the font again... wonder if dark blue would work. It could take a half hour to print one label :P
I'm with you sendme2help :)
Jeanette so happy your dog is doing fine. My cat is sleeping on my foot right now. He has a foot fetish I think. When I am using the bathroom he wanders in and puts his paw on my foot. Such a sweetie.
Lucky you definitely need a hospice worker with a lot more sensitivity than that. Jeeze. I wonder if these people get so jaded they forget who they are dealing with.
Hope its good to have a good bawl even if you didn't mean to do it. I seem to burst into tears at the weirdest times these days. Grocery store line ups etc. The men in the white coats might come for me if I'm not careful.
Gershun, I guess I needed to do it but sure didn't mean to.didn't even feel it coming on, the aid was hugging me as she was leaving and it was like someone turned on the water works...I figured a good headache was going to follow that but once I got in the yard and worked my behind off I guess all the sweating got rid of the toxins and stuff, and for sure, Jeanette, it definitely did help my mental outlook, as it always does.
The pup decided she wanted to go for a run tonight and before I could grab her she scooted out the door like a shot. I had already put on my pj's which meant no bra (or drawers either for that matter because I put all my clothes in the washing machine) and my pj's pants even had a hold in the bottoms...barefooted...so here I go running through the neighborhood, stuff flying in every direction and Annie was running like she was headed to a big pile of pupperoni.....The new neighbors who across the street got to see quite a show I'm guessing and she kept going. Finally, she went into a neighbor's carport and got trapped in the corner so I grabbed her harness...crisis averted...but I can't undo what all those people had to see .....little varmit..
Mom's roommate came back from the hospital tonight while I was getting Mom tucked in, so they'll probably get to know each other tomorrow. She's not super talkative, but she did just come back from a pretty long hospital say and apparently has some pretty major medical conditions going on - so she's probably pretty tired right now.
I had a major comedic calamity tonight. Decided to treat myself to a rum n' coke and some pork rinds. Sitting at my desk, typing away, sipping my drink and munching my pork rinds, when suddenly a BIG black ant crawled around the top of the hutch on the desk, and sat there, as if taunting me. I called his bluff and swung at him with a thick envelope, squashing him flat - and knocking my drink over into my keyboard, all over my desk (soaking papers, sticky notes and bills) and into my bag of pork rinds. I scrambled to pull the papers out of the mess that I could salvage, trashed the sticky notes after committing their contents to memory (I hope I remember them), dumped the liquid out of my keyboard, and trashed my now-soggy pork rinds.
Now I need another drink, darn it.
Sharadale, I don't think guys even notice our pj's unless they're silk nightie type pj's and mine are as far from that these days as they could possibly be....
A scene from a Stephen King movie comes to mind:
Vera (a stroke victim, looking down at her cotton nightgown): I *hate* this nightgown.
Dolores (her caregiver): Well, your days of silk n' satin are long gone, Vera. It's strictly wash n' wear from now on!
Some of us hit that wash n' wear stage earlier than others. I'm one of them.