Saturday March 23 2024

Ado Annie, ASN, RN · Mar 23, 2024

I'm waking up slowly with a cat in my lap and coffee by my side. Dory's anxiety is really ramped up. Might have to start her back on meds for cognitive dysfunction.

Naturally as I type this she is lying calmly on a chair. Twin B thinks she has separation anxiety. At age 15. But to be honest, she always did. Having Darby with her helped and now Darby is gone.

Need to get started soon so I can at least get my laundry done. We had baked potatoes last night and there were 3 whole potatoes left over. Thinking about soup or twice-baked potatoes for lunch.

Editorial Team / Admin · Mar 23, 2024

Ado, soup sounds good! Poor Dory. It's hard enough for US to process separations/death, let alone explain it to pets with whom we have limited communication skills.

Joe, sounds sensible to let that app go, yes. I hope the bird-watching is profitable, if only to get you outside!

Another MEH night of sleep for me, I'm afraid. I need Joe's get-up-and-go, to do walking or exercising daily!! I have been remiss, and I think insomnia is one consequence of that!

Not much planned for today. The soup turned out well, dh loved it. I could have predicted it doesn't look like the photo, as the tortellini absorbed all the water, so it looks like --- yes, like stew! Oh well, will add water when it's time to heat it. We'll have it the next couple days. We have rain forecast, on and off, for the whole weekend. That means more snow in the mountains, yay. That's good soup weather!

Y'all have a good day!

No Stars In My Eyes · Mar 23, 2024

Last night when I told Nannie it was bedtime at 10 PM, she didn't want to go to bed. I said that was okay, I'd come back down later to turn off the lights and TV, after she went to bed. At 11:30 PM, she said she was watching a really interesting show, and wanted to keep watching it, so....okay, I'll come back down later. Well, at 1:30 AM she was STILL awake and watching TV! I told her it was 1:30 and I was turning off the TV, did she want to go to bed? No, she said she was comfortable right where she was. So I left her there after adding a blanket on top of her, turned off the TV and the lights....leaving the bathroom and her bedroom lights on so she could find her way to bed, should she decide to do so. Which she didn't do.

This morning I came down and fed Momo, and asked Nannie If she was awake, and she said "Not really." But I gave her the AM meds and yogurt and juice. BiL came by with the med refills I had told SiL she was low on. After he left, Nannie said, "Boy, he's just cute as a bug, isn't he?!"

She c/o her neck aching; not surprised, sleeping in the recliner with her head drooping over to the right. I gave her an Advil for that. Got her in the bathroom to wash her up and change her pullups and pads and pants. Then she wanted to go back to the recliner. I have never, never known her to stay awake so late ! She is now leaned back and readjusting the neck of the turtleneck jersey and making sure her cuffs are even, with the white turtleneck's sleeves are showing under the wrists of her maroon jersey, to just the exact same length. She is fiddling with her shoulder wrap, but looks exhausted, so I am hoping she will doze off. I had to roll a towel to put under her neck to support it. She is TRYING to go back to sleep, but is frowning and fiddling with her shoulder-wrap. I'm not sure if I'll have to adjust the towel under her neck, but will keep an eye on her. I'll be happier when her face relaxes from that frown. Her meds ought to start kicking in shortly (let us pray!).

So, it's Saturday, huh? Don't know what I will do to occupy my time this afternoon. I know the dishes soaking in the kitchen sink ought to be washed. Since Nannie's bed was not slept in, at least there are no sheets to launder! And there's certainly no end of little projects to attack....I should run out to a grocery store to see if they have a book of stamps, but there is the possibility that I will wait and do it tomorrow...or even Monday morning. Such a slacker! But the mail won't go out until Monday anyway, so it'll be fine if I leave it off my list for today. If I do go out, it'll be a short, brief trip. However, Nannie has to stop fiddling and frowning before I go. I leaned the back of the recliner down further, so she is more horizontal, hoping that will bring on the relaxation. My horror-scope says I need to be patient today, so I reckon that's what I'm doing right now! Wheeee!

Anyway, you know I'll come back by here later on......

Ado Annie, ASN, RN · Mar 23, 2024

We had the twice-baked potatoes (Hubs' choice). It's about 45 degrees out and sunny. Dory is back at it. Nothing satisfies her for long.

Tortellini soup sounds good.

Well, back to the fun.

nursej22, MSN, RN · Mar 23, 2024

its raining, here and in the mid 40s. The cherry trees are starting to bloom, which is the signal for my seasonal allergies to flare up. At least with the rain, they are not as bad. I have started daily claritin and steroid nasal spray. I did a short, 2 mile jog this morning, before the rain started in earnest. Then I went to a meeting for the Master Gardeners , that was more of an open house. They discussed the various programs and committees for people who may want to do more. They had some of the insect display cases out, and they had a giant Asian hornet in a case, also know as a murder hornet. Gosh, those are huge!

I drove home past a cute little house for sale that DiL told us about. We are no where near being ready to move out here (too much junk and an adult son to shed) but a girl can dream. 2 bedroom, 1 bath, 1250 sq ft, with a small garage for $598,000. I also stopped at the grocery to pick up stuff for dinner. I'm going to make sweet and sour chicken, stir fry veggies, and fried rice. dh made rice in the rice cooker for me. You're supposed to use leftover rice, but 4 hour old rice is going to have to do.

I've been getting a variety of pop-up health questions. Right now it's something about kidney stones.

I saw a term once about some bumps on my forehead which turned out to be seborrheic keratoses. She also did a full body check (included it in the office visit) and found a red bump on my calf. She suspected squamous carcinoma and warned me to keep a watch on it. I said it was a bug bite. It faded after 3 days.

Editorial Team / Admin · Mar 24, 2024

nursej22, I'd say 4-hour-old rice could be labeled as leftover, LOL! Sounds like a yummy menu!

I did the online jam with dh, just to keep my calluses up. I also tried out a new guitar pick I'd ordered. It seems like it worked OK - was lightweight but gave some heft when I needed it. And didn't slide in my fingers, twisting around!

Gotta do laundry this evening. Have a good evening!

Tweety, BSN, RN · Mar 24, 2024

G'day!

Worked today. I've had worse days but had better. Had a lady with a draining abdominal fistula that on her abdomen that drained copious amounts of bile and not matter what I did it ate through the devices I tried to contain it. Night shift was putting a colostomy bag over it, even though I tried that...twice. Hopefully their version works. She's been dealing with this a year and a half according to her daughter in law. Seems like there should be some surgical intervention that could fix it, but what do I know. Patients were also grumpy, one even accused a coworker of changing the times of her pain medication in the computer and was playing games with her. Where do these people come from and how do they make it out there in the real world?

Anyway..

No Stars In My Eyes · Mar 24, 2024

Nannie was fussy and grunting every time she moved, c/o her neck and shoulders hurting. Then it was her hands.The Advil I gave her this morning apparently didn't work well enough; she was getting on my last nerve. I put a Lidocaine patch on her 'hurting' area, but "It feels Too Wierd" (!) so I ended up taking it off. She kept thinking there was something she had to do in the yard, but was so mixed up she could not be clear about any of it, waving her hands and pointing her finger and saying, "Oooh, YOU know." (I had no idea). Anyway I ended turning on the TV mid-afternoon hoping to distract her. She ate a good supper and had her meds, but the evening was more groaning, fidgeting and fussing. and if I tried to lightly massage the spot, you'd have thought I was stabbing her, I finally told her: ice pack (no), warm pack, (no) I then said, "I have done everything I know to do. If it doesn't feel better in the morning, after sleeping IN BED like she's supposed to....it was either suffer another day and hope to find a doc who would see her Monday, or call the ambulance. (NO!)

I got her into bed and came upstairs with Momo. I am going to take my Xanax and hopefully that will let out my steam; I definitely need to decompress. I never liked having fussy old women who were unsatisfied with everything, as a patient. And look where I am.

I think SiL said she would take Nannie to her house...?...on Tuesday? I can't wait. With my luck, that will probably be the day SiL hires Stanley Steamer to do the floors.

Well I am too crabby for words, so I better quit here before I say something unkind, not nice, and very offensive....

Ado Annie, ASN, RN · Mar 24, 2024

I took care of a patient once who had an abdominal fistula like that. I felt so sorry for her. The skin was excoriated and so tender because it was so challenging to contain the drainage. She was nice and thanked me for being gentle.

Stars, I haven't tried it yet but you can buy stamps and have them delivered by your mail carrier. I like going to our post office. It was built in the late 1930s and has a mural from 1940 when the New Deal was paying artists to do things like that. And since this is a small berg I can get there in less than 5 minutes. But if I were in a place where it was a hassle to get to the post office I would probably give the stamp-buying-from-home a try.