Thursday February 8th 2024

Ado Annie, ASN, RN · Feb 8, 2024

Hey, all!

I finally have a fully functional phone again (Hubs loaded all my stuff onto his old phone). I'm slowly getting used to the difference in interface (the important little buttons at the bottom of the screen are REVERSED from what my other phone had). But no more feeling out touch with the rest of the world. How dependent we have become on these little gadgets!

ER admitted 4 patients yesterday, and there was a direct admit, so census went from 2 to 7 pretty quickly. Only one nurse scheduled for the evening so we helped get meds caught up. The aide stayed until another aide and another nurse could come in about 9. Then I got a call (on my new phone) at 6:45 this morning asking me to come in to help because they were shorthanded but then immediately got a call saying "never mind". They thought one nurse was not coming in (she'd had strep throat) but she appeared. Then I fell asleep again and overslept. Ugh.

No Stars In My Eyes · Feb 8, 2024

Had an interesting early morning.... My bladder woke me up, and in order to forestall any Momo accidents, got her to follow me downstairs, and put down her breakfast. Imagine my surprise to see Nannie already reclining in her chair, and deeply asleep. I reckon that SOMETIMES she can figure out the recliners remote control, though the other day she was trying to use it to turn on the TV. Anyway, since she was sooooo conked out I decided to let her be, and I went back to bed and slept for two more hours! It was a good decision, 'cause NOW I am awake. What finally woke Nannie up was ... oops! .... when my cellphone fell on the coffee table with a loud crash. So I got her breakfast tray and pills ready and brought them down to her. As soon as she was through, she went right back to sleep! What a GOOD Nannie! ?

Tweety, You are right, now that hubby isn't here to carry on the feud with his brother, they have really pitched in to help in so many ways. I am so thankful! SiL said they never assumed that hubby's gripe with his brother was upheld by me, and I was staying out of it, as it wasn't MY 'stuff'. Looking back, I can see how his hepatic encephalopathy (sp?) was progressing over time, and more profoundly affecting his actions and thoughts as time went by. I honestly thought he was developing dementia....which, in a way, I guess he was. He had increased his drinking, in both amounts and frequency, more than I suspected, until after he passed and I found upward of 35+ little empty vodka bottles that were more hidden than disposed of. So sad; he used to be such a nice guy until the extreme boozing took over his personality. At least none of us are suffering in that unfortunate mileau any more, most of all HE isn't suffering any longer. We all decided he had just given up and was drinking himself to death. An autopsy probably would have showed more and worse problems in his innards than we suspected, but I couldn't afford to have them do one.

Oh, so, anyway....SiL took Nannie to a nail parlor for a professional pedicure and the guy who did her toenails spent over an hour soaking Nannie's feet off and on and to be paring the fungal nails away a little at a time. SiL said he was so careful and attentive to detail. I didn't think nail parlors would 'do' fungal nails, which is why I took her to the podiatrist, though they never did nearly as good a job as her nail tech did. Though SiL had tried many times years ago to get her to go to a nail parlor, Nannie was very stubborn and kept refusing. But, she said this visit ....well, Nannie enjoyed it! She kept talking to the guy, who didn't understand much English at all, but some of his co-workers would translate to him what she said. SiL said they all had a really good time and laughed a LOT! SiL tipped him $15 which kind of blew him away, but SiL said if she'd had a $20 she would have used that to tip him, because he was so patient and thorough.

So, on the docket for today is, as you might have guessed....laundry! Yesterday I sorted out the piles of clothes in the old bedroom; I folded some for placing in the dresser drawers, hung other things in the closet, and started another donation collection. The thing that's going to take some time is going through all the papers, like receipts and old bills to file, and more stuff to shred. SiL said that next week she could give me a whole day to myself, and also that on another day we can sit down together and go through the pipe collection to search on-line to ascertain the worth of some of the 'good' brands. She said she could handle selling them, as she has sold things through the internet plenty of times before. A big relief to me, as we all know what a computer whiz I am NOT !

*Continued after some time has passed......

Since Momo's 'heat' seems to have ended, I took my down blanket (ivory colored) off the bed and treated every single little red spot with H2O2, and now it is in the washing machine with a few not-very-white towels and some Clorox. (And no, the clorox doesn't bleach away the ivory color; I've done this before and it came out fine.)

Then I took down from the top shelf of a kitchen cabinet .... 16 large, sturdy, matching pedestal glasses with their pitcher; wrapped them all in newspaper, and boxed them. No chips or cracks in any of them! Not sure if SiL would want them, but I sure don't. They are kind of a gold/orange color and have pyramid-shaped 'bumps' pattern all over them (machine pressed, not cut glass) I couldn't imagine having 16 people here, never mind making some kind of punch for them. I also found 9 coffee mugs with the logo of the trucking company Father-in-law worked for, and I don't care to keep them, either. I don't even know if that company is still in business. BUT, he also had been given a set of four nicer coffee mugs on which was etched, "The TWO-MILLION MILE CLUB".... he drove that many miles (over the years) with NO accidents at all. Those, I think we'll keep, for sentimental reasons. He was a good ol' feller, and a SAINT for putting up with Nannie all of those 58 years they were married.

I also pulled out an old land-line wall-phone, and some drink-holders you put cold bottled or canned drinks in. Two have logos for something and 2 have no logos. I'll see if the logo'd ones are old enough to be of any interest to someone who might collect that kind of thing, and toss the two plain ones out because they are well past their prime.

Don't have to worry or fret about what to do for supper! When SiL brought Nannie back home, she also brought over some leftover crock-pot stew, and green beans and cauliflower, plus a raw cauliflower salad with tiny tomatoes and I don't know what all else is in it, besides some dressing. So that's a relief, for sure.

Nannie is still heavily asleep, so in an hour or two I will have to wake her up to eat. Right now I am snacking on pre-packaged little, thin crackers and some red-pepper (not spicy hot) hummus. Pretty soon it will be time to fold some more laundry and put more in the dryer. After that I still have one more load to wash (MY clothes) before I call it a day.

Tomorrow, late afternoon, Nannie has an appt w/ her PCP to get re-writes for all her meds. SiL is going to go, too, ( because 'just-in-case' she ever has to know more about Nannie's healthcare), and afterwards we are all going out to a casual restaurant to eat supper. That's another supper I don't have to worry about! GADS! That's twice in one weeks time! w00t!. Makes me think of a song in The Sound of Music, the line that goes: "Somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must've done something good..." I had gotten so used to having to take on almost everything about Nannie (and this house) that it still ? blows my mind how BiL and SiL are helping me with SO much time, effort and ideas. // She just called and asked me what day I want to have off next week. First I have to call the vet and make an appt., and SiL said she wants to be able to give me time off that doesn't involve doing errands. I won't know what to do with myself! I need to go by the Senior Center to see what-all they might have going on. I haven't done any socializing in I-don't-know-how-long.

All for now!

Tweety, BSN, RN · Feb 8, 2024

G'day!

Stars, I'm so happy you aren't alone. I'm sure it gives your BIL some satisfaction to be back in his mother's life helping her and taking care what you and her need without any grudges being held against you.

Ado, phones seem to be a vital accessory. Glad you got yours up and running.

Joe, it's always nice to have some trips and things to look forward to.

I did a little meal prep so I have some healthy lunches upcoming but to my annoyance fell asleep for three hours this afternoon. I'm annoyed because I didn't want to sleep that long and am afraid it will mess my sleeping tonight, and I didn't get much done around here. Guess I'm still not recovered from jet lag and that 36 hour ordeal getting home from India.

I'm starting to keep a record of my BP's for my physical in a couple of weeks. Today's reading 143/94 which isn't good.

I just got a text saying I can do an eight week contract in the jail for about the same amount of money I make now. I guess with 30 years in the same hospital I am paid well. I just don't seem to see much of it due to taxes and other deductions and I feel like with inflation things are tight. (I say after all that Amazon spending I did yesterday. LOL)

Heading to the gym in a few.

nursej22, MSN, RN · Feb 8, 2024

Good afternoon. I had a nice meeting yesterday with more Master Gardeners and I will be helping to revive their newsletter and website. I am so bad with names though and they referenced so many people that I have no clue as to who they are, LOL. And there are like 5 Alisons, and 6 Daves, and whatnot.

I bought myself pizza last night, because dh's tummy was upset. He saw his PCP today and she thinks it related to his increased Ozempic dose. But she did give him an RX for amoxicillin in case it is diverticulitis. I picked up eldest ds's dog and brought her to my house for the day. He is going to stop by after work and pick her up for a weekend trip to Canada. Our house is closer to his work than his and he will avoid rush hour traffic. The interstate is only 2 lanes and it seems like it get shuts down nightly due to MVAs.

I had aspirations of working on taxes today, but dh is home and chatting away and ds's dog (a German wire-haired retriever) is afraid of my dogs and wants to sit in my lap. We are going to have to pay, so I'm not really in a hurry, I just don't want to leave it to the last minute. I did get 2 boxes of donations dropped off this morning. Gosh, that feels good.

Editorial Team / Admin · Feb 9, 2024

Hello all!

No Stars, it is so good to read that BiL and SiL are helping out as much as they are, giving you much-needed breaks from Nannie duties. Yah, laundry is ON-going!

Ado, GOOD you have a phone again! They are a necessity these days... Disneyland embraces the technology, requiring ppl to show their passes on their phones, do mobile ordering of food items, etc. Kinda too much, IMHO, but that's the way it goes.

Tweety, hope that nap doesn't impact tonight's sleep (but you must have needed it).

We just returned from a nice lunch with both ds's and dil, had some nice Thai food and a good chat. Youngest ds and dil are in town for a wedding this weekend.

There are lots of clouds out that look like they could produce rain (and we might get some tonight), but no rain yet today. It is 50 degrees out (cold for us). One of the mountain highways is closed d/t snow, and chains are required on all mountain roads. The snow looks so beautiful on the mountains!!

We have no other plans tonight or tomorrow, --- or for the weekend! It is supposed to clear up on Saturday for about a week, before more rain begins.

Have a good evening!