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I know what you all mean about stores that move things around.. and I have to I say I have a love/hate relationship with Costco. My folks love to go there for the samples.. etc... I hate the crowds. But worse I hate the fact that the place is not marked for what is down each aisle! You go for something, with 2 elders and have to go up every aisle to find it! Probably good from the impulse buy area.. but awful for those of us who are trying to FIND something with a confused elder! Sometimes I just say the heck with it and go somewhere else. I am still laughing about the last time we went.. bumped into a friend who was there with her MIL.. swapped lists and each hit one end , "Hey the bacon is here"...LOL
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I'm sitting here watching a YouTube video on how to groom the dog. But what I really have to do is finish looking for the documents to apply for Medicaid, which wouldn't be so bad if I'd been in charge of them from the beginning of the decline.

When I arrived at my mother's house last year, it was a mess. After I cleaned the place, I started sorting out her 'papers' which meant I scooped up everything that looked important then threw it into a box so it would be 'safe'. Turned out there were three boxes of safe stuff.

Friday while visiting the OT told me she had just requisitioned for 24/7 release because she was 'doing so well physically' (huge smile on her face). Of course, there was the 'you've got to be kidding' I momentarily thought but then I saw they were serious. That was the OMG moment. Talked with SW and Mgmt who told me there are no Medicaid beds available if I cant' take her home with me.

I hate to say this but I do not wish to take her home. It would be better for all of us right now if she stay in the facility. She seems to like the interaction with people. Everyone agrees she's declining mentally with the paranoia (now it's pee-ing) and all I can remember is having to get out of bed while she had to go to the bathroom umpteenth times just before her fall at the doctor's office for the UTI we thought she had.

I tried to get on the social security website (ha ha) and they give you ONE TRY each 24 hours! They don't even give you THREE! And I don't know what I did wrong. Right Social Security number, answers to the questions are good, etc., etc., And calling them just isn't an option because I need the phone I will throw at the wall in case I have to make a call tonight! Honest people can't get on these websites anymore but the criminals can!
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I watch these older people use their smartphone like pros like the younger people. And I'm in awe and envious of them. I have a dinosaur flip open phone that I can actually hear the person talking. No camera there. I have a 2nd cellphone in which the keys are so tiny, can barely hear the person, has a camera cannot photo since not enough space (huh?), but great for texting than my dinosaur one.

Drives me crazy when stores rearrange the shelves. I have my list and limited time before I need to go home because the sitter leaves at a specific time. I End up not buying as much because I also need to go to 2 other stores and the post office.
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And it is the age old thing of once again being too dang nice...I always try to work with them and let them move me around to accomodate them in other situations...so I guess they just assume .."yeah, just inconvenience that one...she won't mind"...Good grief..it's a lifelong deal with me....why is being easy to work with equate with being a doormat these days???
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OK...now I have a whine....I hate to whine since I've had a lot of blessings lately, but one of my all time biggest whines with the caregiver situation is not even the fault of the one I am caring for...it is the absolute apparent disregard for a caregivers time by hospice providers not keeping us in the loop when the regular folks aren't coming...Both the nurse AND the aid were apparently sent elsewhere today...for what reason I don't know so I sat here all day and of course I already bathed Mama myself and now I find out the nurse is supposed to be someone different and they just don't feel the need to call. Our regular nurse just informed me (because I texted her) that the office was supposed to have called me to let me know she had been sent to a different area today and we would have someone else...Since our nurse comes around 11:00 and it is now getting close to 3:00 I can't help but start wondering what is going on...Also, I had a couple of quick errands I needed to run...So now the deal is they just didn't bother to call and let me know. I let the nurse know I am not angry at her as it is not her fault but the office needs to up their game at respecting folks time and letting them know when there are changes being made without our knowledge....Typical corporate BS...it just infuriates me the total lack of respect these folks have ...I guess they assume we are here anyway so what's the big deal...do they not realize that we also have things we need to do and I am not leaving our door unlocked for when they just decide to show up??? Our regular nurse told me she would be happy to come Friday instead of the other one coming today and I told her I would prefer that...unbelievable..or is it just me being ridiculous...does this not happen to others out there??
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FF - mom has always had a funky sleep cycle - laying down to sleep during the day and up/down all night - she does do better if I keep her on a high-protein low-carb menu (for the most part - she won't give up her bananas and still eats wheat). But regardless of what she eats, she still sleeps pretty much around the clock, with 2-3 hour periods of wakefulness, then back to sleeping again. Doc can't pinpoint it without a sleep study, and she has failed sleep studies in the past and refuses to have another at this point - so we deal with it. (She never goes into deep sleep long enough for them to get a good study done.) I've been urging her to have another study done, but she simply won't do it.

I was just blowing steam, I guess. My whines are nothing compared to what some of you are dealing wtih.
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Well, good thing I went ahead and bathed and fed Mama...our aid comes early in the morning and if she is not here by 10:00 I know something is up...additionally, not one peep out of our nurse...could be something corporate going on..some meeting or some such mess....that's ok, I know it happens..but it sure would be nice if they let us know someone is not coming, running late, etc...I don't do that well with folks not coming when they say they are...and by that in this situation I know they can't be here on the dot, this kind of job often encounters someone having a bad day, being difficult to handle, being sick, an emergency, etc...I understand all that...but is it too much to ask that someone just call you when they are going to be late or not come??? ah well...things are too positive lately to let this throw me a curve....
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CM, you're not horrible or ungrateful! Ask your kids for some tech support, and I bet they'll get you up and running. It's unbelievable how fast gadgets become obsolete. Just last week, the main button on my hand-me-down smart phone (won't mention brand name) decided to work only when it wanted to. I never would have thought it, but I have become pretty dependent on this thing! I grudgingly went to the mall and got a replacement. Not the latest and greatest, but one model up from what I had.
Because I'm OLDER than I realized!! -- I didn't realize that this wouldn't be a completely 100% smooth transition. It took a few days to iron out some kinks, especially with the one app that I use all the time (password app for all my mother's stuff). But things seem to be ok now, fingers crossed :) And I've just put one more toe into the waters of the 21st century, lol.
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I have a feeling that some day my sig other won't be able to communicate with his grandchildren. The grandkid's parents no longer have a landline, found that out when trying to call one of the children to wish them a happy birthday... now everyone has their own cellphone.... no way he or I will be able to remember 4 different cell numbers compared to their one landline number they had for years :P

And no, we don't store cellphone numbers on our own cellphones... I find it quicker to open up my old fashioned address book and get the phone number I don't remember from there. I see the mess my Boss makes scrolling through phone numbers on his Smartphone and winds up calling the wrong person and making some embarrassing comment thinking he is talking that the right person.... [sigh]. And all the "butt calls" from his phone and from others. No one has ever accidently sat on their landline phone and misdialed someone :)
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Book, my kids clubbed together and bought me a shiny new iPod for Christmas. How can I tell them how much I utterly hate loathe and detest it? It doesn't fit my sound dock - they bought me a new bluetooth enabled (whatever that means when it's at home) one which I will also have the joy of wrestling with when I can face it. It won't play with my current iTunes set up. It's asking for a password I am not aware of ever having known, not even back in the mists of time. I could get enormous pleasure from jumping up and down on it and smashing it into a million pieces - but for now it's just sitting untouched in its packaging, a daily reminder of what a horrible and ungrateful person I am.
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We were forbidden for a time to use a certain supermarket chain because they had acquired land for a new store that my father had hoped his rugby club would be able to buy instead.

FF, did that CEO have a "Ratner" moment? We had a spectacular fall from grace when Gerald Ratner made a speech to his jewellery company's shareholders and publicly trashed his own products. Infamously, he compared their popular best-selling earrings unfavourably with a prawn sandwich, saying that the sandwich would last longer. I have to say I looked on in delight as the shares plummeted and he was rapidly forced to resign - schadenfreude, I know, but it was such a hilarious piece of self-sabotage. And this man was supposed to be a business guru? Then there was the electronics chain that somehow managed to name their new product line after a Japanese WW2 convicted war criminal. Lovely! I am agog to see what they will think of next.
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Susan, when it comes to shopping, my Dad still refuses to shop at a certain store because of something the company CEO did 50 years ago.... [sigh].

As for aging and being forgetful, it seems like my Dad is still on the same loop for the past few years.... for him I can't tell if it is absent-minded professor thing or if he just not paying attention or if he does have some short term memory issues.

As for having to pee, I find myself doing that if I sit too long in front of the computer, as soon as I stand up, it's a mad dash to the bathroom. It's only with the computer, so I must be sitting in a way that annoys the bladder. Wonder if that is the case with your Mom, the way she is sleeping.

You say some days your Mom will sleep all day, other days she is like a ping pong ball.... this is just a long shot, wonder if it is food related?.... does she eat the same breakfast day after day?... if not, example if she eats eggs in the morning does she have more energy? Keep a food log and see if there is a pattern.
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...and now she's scratching at her arm, absently....where there's a sore from her scratching already. (sigh)
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Sitting here wondering where the heck someone like Cap shops if he refuses to patronize any of the companies he listed, and stores owned by anyone other than his own race are unacceptable as well. Oh well. Life is too short to worry about such things. I shop where I can get the best deals and get the items I want. Someone else can worry about who owns the store. I could care less what race they are, who they sleep with behind closed doors (provided they are adults) or what color they paint their toenails.

I have a more serious question: I know aging varies from one person to the next, but just how fast does this forgetfulness thing advance? I mean, is it common for an elderly person to have a few days or a week where they do pretty well with remembering things, only to have the next week go completely to heck?

Mom is having one heck of a bad week and it's only Monday. Yesterday, I was busy with work and trying to get things done around the house - consequently, I didn't follow her to every bathroom vist - and because of that, she only changed her incontinence pad twice. So now I have to remind MYSELF to follow her there every. single. time. She's back to sleeping 5 minutes, popping up like a d*mn champagne cork, announcing she has to pee, going to the bathroom, laying back down, and then back up again 10-20 mins later. (No, she doesn't have a UTI or anything of that sort - she's been an odd sleeper like this for years, except now it's worse.) Some days she sleeps all day....some days she's up and down like some kind of ping pong ball on speed.

Today, she looked outside and said, "Oh look - it's snowing!"....5 minutes later...."It's starting to snow!".....10 minutes later...."Is it snowing out there?" WTH?

I guess it's just part and parcel of the whole aging/dementia thing, but it sure is frustrating. I'm trying to keep her on track with what time of year it is and the date by decorating (just put the hearts up for Valentines Day) and putting up a calendar next to her chair, so she can see the dates. She still gets confused, but it helps a little.
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bookluvr, I know how you feel when it comes to new technology. I am hanging onto my old cellphone, I can call/text, and do Kodak moments which takes forever to figure out so when the cat does something stupid the moment is gone. My old 35mm camera I could just grab and snap... ok it would take months to finish the film roll and get the pictures developed but that was the fun of seeing what photos were on the camera :)

My sig other's cellphone is even older than mine. Anytime someone says use a certain App we look at each other and say *App?*. Oh well, I am not one who needs to use the Internet while waiting in the grocery store line... [sigh].

As for the older folks, my parents don't have a cellphone... good heavens, my Mom never could figure out the TV remote control... she was spoiled back in the 1950's when my Dad made one that was so simple to use.... TV on/off... volume up/down... and table lamp on/off. We only had 3 TV stations back then so getting up off the sofa was no big deal.... funny, we always found something of interest to watch even with 3 channel choices.
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I read one time that stores move things because people then have to search. While they are searching they see other things they want, so it increases sales. Some stores make it a practice to play musical chairs with their inventory.
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hobbesmom, the grocery list you mentioned that your Dad made is identical to the list I made for my parents. It also was aisle by aisle with names of items they use on a regular basis. My Mom knew where everything was in the store, so if she needed Jello, it was a quick find on the list. The list also worked great whenever my sig other went to get our groceries, saved him a lot of valuable time :)

Thank goodness the one grocery store we use doesn't move products about in the store.... if they change a location, it is usually within the same aisle... whew.
The store Target, well that's another story, forget about making any kind of list, they are always moving products from one aisle to another aisle, from top shelf to bottom shelf making it easy to miss. Makes it so difficult for the older folks to find things. It would make my Mom so exhausted having to retrace our footsteps trying to find something :(

I know stores change product location so that us consumers will see something new and want to try it. It usually doesn't work that way for the elderly, they want to keep using what is tried and true. I never can get my Mom to try a new products. If we give up trying to find something the store use to have [it's probably still in the store somewhere], Mom would have me search other stores for said item.... I hate shopping to begin with, so I dig my heels in at the thought of a scavenger hunt.
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Nothing to do with caregiving. Just venting on something expensive that I'm having difficulty with. Fave sis got me a new Ipad Air (1st generation.) Computers, laptops and ereaders tend to crash on me. It never fails. Twice at work, I got a brand new computer system (display, keyboard and the Box UPS?), and it crashes. The first set - crashed just after the 1 year warranty. The 2nd set - last year - the motherboard crashed within a month! And the tech cannot fix it to it's full potential. So, I have a brand new Slow computer. Even my cars tend to break down a lot. I always believed that I have too much static electricity on me - that affects these devices.

Anyway, I finally received the $15.00 itune card that I ordered from off-island since we only have $100 itune cards. I downloaded it. Started to upgrade from a 7 to an 8 in the icloud. And I MISTAKENLY also enabled the Icloud DRIVE. Now,for the past 24 hours my upgrading Drive is spinning without stopping. Also from the beginning, the darn icloud keeps rejecting my password! And I keep resetting the password and getting a new one. And it's still rejecting my new passwords. And the darn spinning upgrade is wasting my battery fast.

Tonight, I have googled for hours on this problem. I even tried calling the 1800 number. They're closed. Anyway from what I read on Google, most of the callers who called the 1800 did NOT find a solution from them. Grrrr!!!! I will send an emergency SOS to sis in Colorado. She's a computer techy nerd (no official training but learned on her own.)

What's worse, fave sis keeps asking me how's the iPad. According to fave niece, her mom spent like $300-some on it!!! OMGoodness. I'm dead... Sis is going to kill me that I already messed up the iPad. And it's not even 2 months old in my hands. I downloaded the Kindle app. But now I'm scared to activate it. It might lock me out from my Amazon account. I've read how this problem locked some people's access to their other connected accounts. I love my books and I won't want anything messing my access to Amazon and my kindle. Sigh... okay done venting. I will now email sis in Colorado.

Sorry, all. It's like 12:30am. I needed to vent or I won't be able to sleep tonight.
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Captain, I've got three children and most of my family living in London and using the Tube daily - how do you think I feel??? But these are random events, no more or less likely to happen to one individual than getting hit by a truck or falling masonry; it's important to "keep calm and carry on." What enrages me about our current species of terrorist is how flaming ***inept*** they are. Who do they shoot in Paris? Some poor sod who's out jogging. A Muslim security police officer. A black lady police officer quietly going about her business directing traffic. How, in what conceivable way, were these people the enemies of Islam? As acts of partisan heroism go, they are spectacularly - cretinous.

Daughter waited until this weekend to tell me that she and her boyfriend had decided that Jerusalem was just the place for a nice week's vacation - last November. She was correct in thinking that I would have had a pink fit if I'd known about it; and that's nothing - her father would probably have confiscated her passport, or rung the airport and told them to arrest her. Rule one for Western citizens: do not deliberately go to places where you will be a handy target for kidnapping and therefore a headache for the authorities.

And in Nigeria some soulless [four letter word that is too rude even to use asterisks for] straps a suicide jacket to a ten year old girl, sends her into a crowded market, and detonates the bomb remotely. Justify that? The only thing that even explains it is utter, vile madness. I don't know what's got into everybody, but I hope to God they get over it sharpish.
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ill go to bed now . i aint lookin for a fight , its just im looking at the destruction of european culture and simultaniously the decay of american cities and i dont have to watch it in bewildered silence . assimilate or gtfo of caucasion nations .
sorry , im a few days / weeks ahead of myself here . germany had a newspaper office firebombed today and the uk and usa are guaranteed targets .
all over a gd bag of pinto beans ..
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finish the sentence hope... never mind, I will

the more you fart

Good thing Cap is sleepin with the bats tonight eh?

Why in the world can't you buy beans from a Hispanic store? You mean to tell me, you'd buy beans for 8 bucks when you could have bought a bushel of em for 2? No... I know you wouldn't have bought either but... if it's less expensive in a Hispanic store, wouldn't you rather bite your dusty a** bullet?
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im even learning that high fibre foods are less fattening . its because lots of energy is used to digest the food .
i cant buy beans from an hispanic store . among all my other " izms " im a tad racist too . everybody else in comment sections tries to find words to mask their honest feelings . i dont . i want the borders tightly controlled because i dont care for desperados who lop peoples heads off for the terror value of it . i dont care for whining a******s who burn down their own neighborhoods instead of owning their own shortcomings and i sure dont care for frothing lunatics who blow up innocent third party victims because they consider everyone but themselves infidels . the good people of these various races who dont condemn these actions , by their own silence condone it . the imams in france have spoken up -- to shift the blame for the recent murderous attacks towards the press for " provoking " fanatacism .
moderate me clear off the page if you wish but i call it like i see it ..
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I'm sorry yall, I must have lost my mind repeating that rhyme about tooting...please forgive me...as soon as I sent it I remembered I couldn't take it back.... oh dear....
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Yes, I actually fixed the fireplace because I watched him last time he did it so I remembered...but I have googled stuff before too and it is great!!! It is so satisfying to me to be able to fix something and know how much money I saved doing it myself....

I love beans..and they're so good for you...fix em so many different ways....beans, beans good for the heart.... the more you eat em..... :)
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(paying zero attention to your indignant fart sounds)
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A good Hispanic store will have beans at a good price. Try Sedanos.

NO. It's a loud humming, you can hear it from outside the Jeep. I was googling it and it said something about bearings and the rear wheel seal? Really? damnit
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FrRRRnnnnPP !!
( indignant fart )
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humming sound sounds like exhaust vibrating against something , to me . especially if the truck hums while stationary . i have some burned up core debris rattling around inside my catalytic converter but it oughtta cook down and blow out eventually .
my beans are done and they are great . now i wanna know where to buy bulk foods online cause 5 bucks for a 2 lb bag of beans has my mother spinning in her grave . ( she aintta payin it , let em keep it ) . id love to sit here on my azz and order bulk foods . does anyone have any ideas besides wal treason or sams treason ? fk ali baba and the amazon nazis too .
jeez . who'd think pinto beans could be such a political issue ?
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You are so right hope. My mother has never been sick, blood pressure is a helluva lot better than mine, weight is good... eyesight excellent and no glasses, just an A ok healthy person aside from age and AD. Guess that's not a good example but anywho.... the smallest thing affects her entirely different than anytime in her entire life. She's fine now but I've got sneezes n sniffles.

Sunday's are my favorite... especially when it's cold n rainy. I don't have to come up with an excuse to stay in my flannels and watch football all day and of course, my all time favorite game, candy crush.

Nothing better than being a good doityourselfer female hope! LOVE IT! Probably why I'm still single... I can do better than most men on most things and really, I can. BUT... my Jeep is making a loud annoying humming sound coming from the back rear suspension area. For awhile I could turn it off, then back on and the humming stopped, now it will not stop. I crawled under it today with a ... hammer... to tap area's that might be sticking but I couldn't figure out where it was coming from? Any Idea's there Cap?.... crud, guess it's time to take it in for a tune up/oil change and or whatever. Maybe I will take both my SUV's and trade them in for one new one. meh.
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hope,
with google and youtube anybody can fix anything nowadays . my friend betsy ( flatline ) is pretty much brain dead but if her car sputters one time shes off to the parts store for a sensor or equivalent .
i like ebay too . a few keystrokes and auto parts just magically land on your doorstep . gonna be delivering crap with drone helo's pretty soon . ill have turkish hash and i mean right NOW ..
cool time to be alive ..
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