Sunday October 26th 2025

No Stars In My Eyes, LPN · Oct 26, 2025

So, last night Nannie complained at various times about her feet, ankles and lower legs: they sting, they ache, they hurt, they hurt to be touched. No matter what I tried out to help, just plain didn't help at all, and only led to more complaints. She was determined not to let anything 'help'. She had already had Tylenol, but it didn't help. Finally, even though she said it would not make her legs and feet feel any better, she said maybe it would help if she went to bed. So I got her ready and put her to bed. But then her socks hurt her, so I changed them to something not as tight on her ankles, the kind with those nubs on the soles that are supposed to help keep one from slipping while walking. AND THEN!-----> I heard a tremendously loud THUMP from her bedroom. This was less than 10 minutes after I THOUGHT she'd settled in. She managed to not fall all the way to the floor, and when I got in there, she was trying to make her bed up. She didn't know why she'd tried to get up. "Maybe" she had to go to the bathroom, she posited. So, I took her in to sit on the potty, even though she'd pee'd and massively pooped minutes before. And, of course there was nothing she could do there, so it was back to bed, whether she wanted to or not. As we were leaving the bathroom I said, "You are going to go back to the bedroom, the room with the BIG bed in it"...... and she pointed to the recliner in the den and said, "In there?" Nope, not a bedroom and not a big bed. Then she gets the giggles when I tell her to stay in bed this time, close her eyes and SLEEP!

I just feel so absolutely SAPPED by the end of the day, and come to think of it, also, now, early in the day. Dementia is an energy suck in the worst way. So what else is new? I really DO try, and used to be able, to let a lot of it slide right over my shoulders, but the longer I have been here, the less able I am to do so. The other CG's can giggle and say 'she's so cute', and if I only worked with her 3 twelve hours shifts a week with her, I could do the same. But 9 + 1/2 years has beaten some of my compassion, tolerance, and understanding to a bloody pulp. Only her two sons have understood that, because they have many more years of exposure to the plain old mean-ness of her personality, and that was going on during ALL their lives, so they KNOW where I am at with her "care-giving". That real person still lurks mixed in with her dementia. Her passive-aggressive-ness still proclaims itself often, as it is in her bones!

Yah, yah, yah. Blah, blah, blah. Oh well, so what, who cares. This too shall pass. I only hope I am present in my own life when all of my complaints "come out in the wash".

Ado Annie, ASN, RN · Oct 27, 2025

Stars, how nice to have a bit of a break yesterday.

Just realized I should go move laundry around before settling in for the night.

Hope you all had good weekends.

nursej22, MSN, RN · Oct 27, 2025

I slept in, after getting home late from the gala, celebrating the 50 or 60th anniversary of the nonprofit my dd works for. We won a raffle! $1000 of tree services, which we can use to trim up our japanese flowering cherry trees which have gotten unruly.

This evening we went to a friend's house for a Halloween party. She had sent the invite to my husband, who told me this afternoon that we were supposed to bring an appetizer. Oh gee, thanks for the heads up. So he printed the email for me, I glanced at the time, and put the address in my phone for later. So we pull up to their house, and no other cars. We find out we are 2 days early. I should have taken more time to read the whole email invite thing, but I assumed he knew what he was talking about. D'oh.

Off and on rain and breezy today, more forecast for tomorrow.