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.
colonoscopies are lifesavers at any age and the slight surgery required shouldnt pose a problem for a patient of any age .
i understand your message but colonoscopies might have been a bad example as the procedure is so non invasive .
ct scans have became so effective that they catch everything from arterial plaque to small cancers in their infancy . in fact theyve became so effective that autopsies are being performed with them -- no scalpel or cutting needed .
The flip side of this was my Mama would not go to a doctor for years and years and then when she started falling and breaking bones she still did not want to go, but thankfully the doctors she came into contact with did not recommend that she do so either...other than the things necessary for their comfort at this point.
your mother is 97 ? wow
im constantly amazed at the ww11 vets who are still in our communities . i know a few of them and if they have any health problems they never speak a word about it . just some hardcore old fellows .. many of them are in their 90 ' s ..
I have a similar issue with Mom's oncologist who she has been seeing for 20 some years because Mom last a low blood count, but on her last visit the doctor said don't come back because, if she hadn't got leukemia by now, she won't get getting it. Come next summer it will be struggle to convince her of what he said.
Same situation with Mom's urologist, she has a very slow moving bladder cancer and the doctor also said she doesn't need to come back... this cancer won't be the death of her. Why put her through this check-up.
Believe me, if a doctor said everything is fine, I don't need to see you anymore, I would be happy as a clam :)
Personally, if your mother doesn't need the mammogram, then cancel the appointment. Make up something to tell her if you need to -- something about AMA standards changing to once every 3 years for women over age 80 or something like that.
You do NOT need to put yourself through this, so don't.
Then I go into a cold sweat and overwhelming memories hits me big time because the imaging center is the same place where I learned I had breast cancer 5 years ago. Sitting in the waiting room makes me want to cry. My parents never knew I had cancer because Dad was still in recovery from a heart attack, so their household was in overdrive, to me I didn't feel fair to announce what was happening to me. I held this secret from all my relatives because I didn't want it to slip out to my parents.
I know it doesn't make sense because if cancer is found no surgeon is going to touch her at that age, and I doubt any Oncologist will give her chemo. Mom is very hard of hearing so it is difficult to discuss this with her. I will need to corner her GYN and ask her what should we do... I don't think Medicare even pays for mammograms in that age group.
So treat yourself to something this month. Find a way to find a parent-sitter. Movie? Have lunch at that restaurant you always wanted to go to? As for me, I splurged by buying most of my favorite author's ebook series. I have reread her books several times. I'm going to re-read it again. Each time I read it, I find stuff that I didn't catch previously. Either that, or I'm getting forgetful! =)
So... Kudos to all of Us Caregivers! And Experienced caregivers who still help out here on AC even when they're no longer caregiving.
"When told the reason for daylight savings time the old Indian said, "Only the Government would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket, sew it to the bottom, and have a longer blanket".
HA!
I know what you mean about the jeep.. I have had SUVs for 15 years now. I work at the Hop in Baltimore and they expect me to be there too. However, thanks to the magic of FMLA and the fact that the CG can't get to our house if the snow is too bad... win win for me!!! It's an hour drive for me one way, and I am getting too old for the stress of that drive in the snow and ice. However, I will say that last year I spent 2 nights in a hotel in Bmore due to the weather.So I could work. Thank God hubs stepped up with the generator and potty water...
I need to set back-to-back appointments for Mom and Dad eye doctor... Mom and Dad blood work and general physical... Mom and Dad dermatologist.... Mom GYN which means another appointment mammogram.... oops, I forgot, back to the hearing aid person.... and I need to juggle these appointments around my own doctor appointments, of which there are many, and work schedule which means half a day off for each one.
Do you feel like screaming if you see one more waiting room?
Autumn seems to bring a lot more than pretty leaves and cool weather. Seems to me it brings on serious dread/depression of the long months ahead. People here in the PNW pretend to have this "OH YAY" attitude as if they love 5 months of dark dreary and cold rainy foggy days on end. Personally, I don't believe them!!
I am loading up on Vitamin D and a good all around Vitamin supplement. You know, this is my 3rd winter here, each one I say I simply can't make another one without dying... yet, here I am, watching mom do her 5 mile, 3 hour trek around the house...
Jesse.... I so love your posts and way of thinking :) I'm finding my enrichment in my big pittie I rescued 9 months ago. Since she's a teenager compared to my other 3 geriatrics :D she makes me want to take her for long hikes along the river. Besides, winter steelhead are one the way up and I need an easily accessible place to land one. Such a tasty fish! I only get 3 hours 3 times a week and damn sure I will not waste those precious hours!!
SusanA...thanks... I am still hanging, although I really didn't think the time change would affect her like it did :/ boy oh boy.... it really brought out the not so good in her. Since I changed every light in this house to "daylight" lights, I sorta kinda helps...sorta....kinda... sigh. As hard as it is at times, I don't think I could bad talk about my mother. She wasn't always this way and one day she no longer will be this way either. One day I may be that way and I surely hope I am not talked about like a crazed person while sitting there listening.
hehe, so glad I missed the "cleaning" day posts!! Our house is clean, but it's not spotless. There is no rush to clean dishes... my OCD is the floors/carpet. The day y'all was talking cleaning, I was shampooing the carpets again. I do this monthly... geriatric dog and mom whom occasionally takes a whiz wherever. well.... Invest in a nice shampooer ;)
Countrymouse... I shall never look annoyingly at something else again without "laying my ears" back!! Too funny!! ( yes, I can move my ears)!
Feeeeeeeding time!
I am still smiling about you having your nails painted. There was an article in our local newspaper where this columnist took her 9 and 12 year sons to the nail place where she was having her nails painted.... the sons decided to have their toe nail done, and they didn't care what anyone thought about it. The nail salon used navy polish. Any negative remarks the boys got from friends or relatives, they just shrugged their shoulders and said "who cares". Good for them. They even got one of their friends to get his toe nails painted. Next time they plan to get the colors of their favorite football team :)
Its depressing.