Catching Up

You are an incredibly busy lady with an enormous heart. You inspire me. I wish you a great visit with your mom & sister too and a happy belated birthday wish as well;)

Good to hear from you Anne. You are free to PM me whenever you want it will not be intruding. It is just some days take all my time to keep things running. My sister is really looking forward to the sun and wamth here. I don't know if it rains more in Alfreton than it did in Tring but i hear about the drear weather more. They have arrived and are at the hotel now to get some rest.

Stephany i would have said it will settle down and you won't have so many at once but today the aide came to give Dick his bath and 5 minutes later the Nurse from Home Health to draw his blood. This afternoon as the hospice nurse got here a neighbor also stopped by to say hello.

I have started putting my phone on speaker so I can keep doing things and talk.

I just hate it when people phone early. The early morning calls aI get are from the East and they don't consider the time difference. 6:45 in the morning I am not waking Dick up and they won't talk to me. They phoned 6 days later at a better time and then would talk with me.

I hope your rest is better tonight. The carbon monoxide alarm started to beep at 6 a.m. yesterday the battery was low. Why can't it go low in the middle of the day.
My sleep is much better now that my knee isn't waking me up.
Julie in Tucson

Julie, today we had two hospice visitors, and four staff members......a really long day, and it's only afternoon.

I sympathize, because when everybody finally left, I started to cath, and the phone rang, and I thought I could answer it, but....

bad idea.

Anyway, one thing at a time. Twenty minutes at a time.

I got four hours of sleep, and then five, until the ****phone rang at 9:00 am.

How're you sleeping?

Stephany in Iowa (also cold and rainy)

Julie,
What can I say? I think you are one fabulous lady to keep so strong and practical for Dick! I was so glad to read your postings and your recent PM as I was worried about you but did not wish to intrude.
Carry on keeping strong and have a wonderful time with your Mom and Sister.
Much love,
Anne
(Here in rainy, cold England!)

Today I took Dick across town for his lymphedema massage. If feels like I spent all day getting him ready.
In the morning I give him 3 sets of pills. First the pain pills plus senna with DSS, next the temporary pills (prednisone) then his regular pills. Take his glucose reading to find out if he needs carbs or can wait a little for breakfast. Next his asthma meds. Two inhalers Spireva and Advair. He likes to rest for 15 to 30 minutes after the pain meds. Put on the Lidocaine patch mid morning. Then it is wash up, put lotion on and then I put his compression hose on. Everything gets interrupted by his need to pee. Next is getting dressed. This takes some time as he is slow. Plus I have to put lotion on his shoulders and chest as he has a slight rash of unknown cause. These days he is eating in bed quite a bit. This morning it was breakfast in bed. I planned to start out the door an hour and 15 minutes before the appointment.
Leave time from the drive way was about 55 minutes before. To leave I have to have the van backed into the driveway so he can wheel up to the passenger door. I have to have the front door and the screen door open and after he leaves the living room for the front porch I pick up the inside threshhold ramp and take it to the bottom of the ramp to help the transition from the ramp to the walk.

I put a stool down for him to step on getting into the van. I back the wheel chair to the back of the van and open the rear door. Attach the lift, press the up button and guide the chair into the back of the van. Next I put the stool in the back seat, close the passenger door and walk around to get in the drivers seat. I have even left out a few steps.

I had a reason I was writing this but was interrupted by our son phoning so I lost what I was going to say next. Probably something about I can never get 20 minutes clear to do anything.

We stopped on the way home for me to pick up more Depends. Thanks to the discussion on the forum previously he uses a Depends pull up and puts an additional pad in. I asked Hospice about what they use and was told they use what the hospital uses and no one likes them. So I am still paying for the Depends. I found a site that says the European incontinence supplies are better. I think I will check for some online as leaking is still a problem.

Dick is pretty concrete now and misses the context of questions. When he got on the table for the massage the OT asked if he was comfortable and he responded with how there was a pain in his side that wouldn't stop referring to the bone pain in his ribs. She just wanted to know if he was OK with the massage table.

I talked with the Hospice Nurse about the signs of dementia I was seeing and she indicated it was probably the cancer. Julie

Hi Stephany...yeah clonazepam has a half life of 35 hrs...that one sticks around for a long time...the Ativan is about l0 to l2 hrs half life so they say....but i'm not so sure. When the little midget was kicking in my stomach after my husband died i found i had to take 0.5 mg. about every 5 hrs for him to stop.
Julie thats so great that you can get Dick to a pool...saline at that. Thats the one thing my father could do even when in a wheelchair and he loved it.
Both of you gals are amazing........Pat