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.
Veronica...I just cannot imagine that that doctor does not consider gardening exercise. Evidently he does not garden the way I do..and Im guessing you do...I weed and hoe, and lift and haul and mow with a push mower and etc etc...he's out of his mind if he thinks there's no cardio in that...In my earlier years when I kept our lake property looking like a golf course, I was in the best shape of my life...I bet that doctor would ot be able to keep up with you if he tried....I have to wonder where these doctors do get their degrees. The one I saw yesterday didn't even listen to me telling him about how badly my head was hurting, the headaches, the lumps on my lymph nodes, in fact he told me that it is when they disappear that I will have something to worry about....
Gershun, lol at the back to serious note... hahaha
I think I have Sharknadoed out...but I'm watching the rerun now...For some reason watching crazy goofy stuff is just enjoyable to me these days.
Sorry if my posts are all over the place today. I'm trying to cheer myself up. :)
This week took the cake though, the neurologist told me I would not have the weakness if I exercised more. I said I work 2 hours in the garden most days but he said that is not expercise and have I seen a gardener with muscles. he showed me how to do some lunges between too chairs but my weakness made me pull myself up by the chair arms thus pulling a muscle in my upper arm. That will heal but not the opinion I have of the Dr. he is in his 50s and goes backpacking and I am 76 so i hope his knees get worn down in due time. Do these people actually go to medical school or buy their certificates on line?
Maybe I got more stupid in my retirement years, but when an emergency room patient (been to the E.R. 3 times, then referred to the office for the headache) came to the office she stroked out as I was taking her vitals. The doc accompanied her in the ambulance, she recovered quickly and was able to walk 3 weeks later, but only thanks to a doctor's presence. You don't have to tell me, but doesn't your doctor want to see you when your B/P is so high? Or has the medical care system deteriorated so far we cannot get help?
I am determined that it takes a special breed of human to do what we do day in and day out and still be able to find our humor now and then...yay us!!
Maybe we should all start a new show. Called International Caregiver Ninja's. The contests would be epic. I can see it all now.
If I had sent everyone a list of the things I did it would be a book and I'd probably still be writing it. Oh and the forementioned sister was named executor of my Mom's will so of course we get a blow by blow report of all she does in that regard too. Give me a break!
Glad I got that off my chest. My chest ain't that big either so it was a real sacrifice!
:)
I'm happy to report we got our home AC system fixed today. All it needed was a really good cleaning and servicing..Freon was fine, but he told me i called at just the right time as we were about to be totally without any air had I waited...We got a very reasonable price too so it's nice to have that behind me. Everything all lined up for respite next week...yay....no surprises hopefully this time...
Now if I can get the truck ac going I should be all set for next week...
And for checking in so we won't worry. See you are doing well with your sense of humor there! We all are thinking of putting you on the PBS/Britian so we can watch for free on the Roku. If you need anything, like support, hugs, jokes, just ask. I know you are being brave, and very busy too!
(This isn't about me or my siblings, but someone else's.) I simply can't stand to see someone that is so selfish and narcissistic as to think they *have* to be acknowledged for doing something so simple as taking their mother to the ER. Give me a freaking break.
I found a skipping rope in her belongings and she wants to keep it in case she needs it - Oh of course you will Mum - that, I think, is something we would all pay to watch.
So how is she?
On the mend
First off she is almost back to normal but is foul tempered - well actually thats normal too but rarely seen in public let me tell you. She has diarrhoea no surprise there the IV antibiotics will do that every time. So she has been isolated as per procedure - ooooooooh well that has gone down like a lead balloon. By the time I got there she had already lobbed two plates of food on the floor AGAIN saying she didn't want to eat. Well one went on the floor one on the health care assistant who was doing her very best bless her. I took the third plate off her put it on Mums tray andsaid ..... just stop this childish behaviour and eat the bloody food Mum or I am going home...Im not stopping here to watch you throw a tantrum.
Well the nurse looked as if she was about to pass out with shock. Mum was in shock I have never spoken to her like that before. And what did she do.....picked up the spoon and ate the lot.
I went outside with the HCA because I knew she would have to report it. I told the nurse (and a bloody social worker who was earwigging) that I had spoken harshly to my mother because if she wanted to behave like a child then I would treat her like and adult child.
Two voices spoke in harmony one said that's fine she did need a talking to the other said I will have to note that down for your file Judith. Now no guesses that the latter was the same damned social worker I balled out a few months back...I chose to ignore her and carried on talking to the nurse. We discussed care packages and I said we didn't have one...oooh she said why not......social worker still listening ....oooooh yes ooooh good.
Because, I said, that would involve working with some jumped up social worker who has never worked in one to one care on a 24/7 basis in her life ,has no bloody clue about the needs of patients or carers yet feels the utmost desire to listen in to private conversation record details she knows zip about and then tries to tell me she knows what I am going through when clearly she doesn't have a scooby ( scooby do - Clue sorry I am a Brit after all!) and to be quite frank I wouldn't piss on her if she was on fire.
Now the Social worker looks as though she is about to fit, sister coughs to hide a snigger HCA bends down to pick something up although quite why her shoulders were bouncing up and down and she had tears in her eyes when she eventually stood up I could not say but she was grinning from ear to ear!
By the time I left social worker was nowhere to be seen, I had been given a cuppa by the staff and Mum was being her compliant self - her public persona firmly back in place. Will deffo be in for another 2 days at least while they try and rehydrate her so meanwhile I will continue with the packing xxxxx god bless all of you who believe that He will and to the non believers - do your best and then some and you will never have to worry about your conscience because it will be clear
Hope enjoy your respite when it happens. Its nice just being ahhhhh sometimes. Everytime I get up or down from the couch I'm more like Owwww these days but this too shall pass.
On another note, the nurse has urged me to schedule my respite and so we will do it starting Monday. This time, I will have already gotten my doctor's appt out of the way (yay) and hopefully can get the AC on my truck checked out and fixed so I can actually do some fun things next week. Also, thank God, they are going to plan it for her to be picked up mid morning, so the aid will be able to help me get her ready and the nurse will be here...so together we can get her there without all the chaos that was present this past Monday. So all in all, this should work out much better...
The place where she stays is very clean, quiet, nice views out of their windows...they were very good to her last time and so I believe it will be fine this time...and I am even looking forward to simply sleeping in one morning and drifting around having coffee, watching the news, etc. and just "being"...ahhhhh
With your dad having dementia, he's not capable of understanding where your mom has gone which is very sad. When my step-mother died in May of 2014, my dad started praying for her to come get him nightly. After a while his Alzheimer's progressed to where he forgot that he had even lost or had a wife. He doesn't know who my step-sister is anymore, but he knows me and my wife.
I'm sorry about all of your losses, hope you can find some help as well as find ways to take care of you. The rebuilding of your life will take more than one day and a night, but you will get there over time. Good luck.
Try to do something nice for you today.
Yesterday,when my 2 brothers came by to visit Mother,they both left in tears.I bet they will have alot of regrets in the days and years ahead.
Thanks again for giving me a place to come to about all this.To all of you,Take care.
Took Dad out yesterday for a beer at a waterfront restaurant and then just driving around as it was a nice day. Take another photo of us as when it comes time that we cannot have outings I will have remembrances.
I hope everyone's mothers have a better day today.
They did change the mattress, but I'm not completely sure I was Little Miss Popular for the rest of mother's stay there.
But you've reminded me. In the five years of our being regular customers at that place, I did not see an empty hand gel container, a dirty wash basin, missing paper towels or soap or, now that I think about it, an overflowing waste bin. Not once. I will go and leave positive feedback on their website before I forget about it again.
When Mom had the osteomyelitis they talked about possibly sending her home for the IV but then said medicare wouldn't pay for that and the plan was to go to a nursing home or to a long term recovery hospital for 5 weeks. She went to that hospital instead of a nursing home which was a relief because they were much better, but I would have been fine with doing this at home with a nurse's help. The nursing home she was in for rehab last summer just did not seem very sanitary and I have since found out from a friend that the whole place came down with c-diff while the friend was in there! I have such bad memories of that nursing home and it does not surprise me to hear they had such an outbreak. I would never send my Mom back to that one again.
Gershun, take care and rest your injury. I have been overzealous in exercise lately to burn off stress from my caregiving situation, and now I have another huge change in my life with a business going on, so I am in the mood to walk as far and as fast as I can.(preferably to another hemisphere!)..but have to watch my sciatica and foot pain doesn't come back on me. I feel mentally like I am getting squeezed in a vice these last few days.
I wonder why everything in life seems to hit at once. Also now Mom is eating less and less. She wanted a tuna sandwich and then didn't eat one bite of it...goes right to the deserts on the tray but does drink all the liquids. I hear her coughing so it is time to go check on her again and begin a new day....