Tuesday September 6 2022

[Joe NightingMale, MSN, RN]

Hi Tweety

NJ22 glad you're sleeping better after this procedure

Ado I use the case management association web site to track all of my CEUs

Stars that seems a good  way to celebrate

Dianah that is awfully hot, I would stay in too

Yesterday was nice and fairly quiet for me.  Got out in the morning for bird watching, ran into some other bird watchers, guess a bunch of us decided to go to the same place.  Came home and did the cooking.  Didn't do a whole lot else, except practice some knitting

Have been reading Simon Winchester's Atlantic, since I liked his book on Krakatoa. Have also been trying to get into poetry

Also trying to get more serious about mindfulness, as I see job stress rising again.  

Was cloudy in the 70s yesterday, will be the same today and tomorrow but might get some rain today.  Will have a few days of 80s after that but by next week should be down to the low to mid 70s.  Will be glad when Summer heat is gone

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Good morning!

I too need to get back into mindfulness meditation.  It's quite helpful in helping my stress and blood pressure.

Ado, I do hope stepson will be okay.

I took trazodone and klonopin after midnight because I wasn't sleeping and feel asleep good for until 7AM, way past the dogs breakfast time.  They didn't seem to notice.

Going to the new yoga studio and will time it to see if it's a studio I want to continue to go to because it's in a part of the county I have to go through a lot of traffic.  I have a five classes I've pre-paid for so I might just use them up and find another studio.  But I like the hot classes and the instructors.

Going to movies tonight with best friend.  We're seeing 3,000 Years of Longing which was his pick.

I hope everyone has a good day.

[dianah, ASN]

Joe, good to hear you liked Krakatoa, I thought it was an amazing book!  Will have to look up Atlantic, maybe download it to my Kindle.  Thanks for the tip.

Tweety, enjoy the movies!  I will be interested, too, to hear how you like the new yoga studio.

I am planning to visit some friends today.  They are both pretty much retired, and we do music with the husband (in fact, we have a program planned for Sept. 30).  I will bring my refurbished guitar to show him (he also plays), and we will give them copies of The Chosen, seasons 1 and 2.  Hope they like them as much as we do! 

It should be another triple-digit temperature day!  Next week we will be camping, hopefully, and the temperatures are forecast to be 70 and 71 degrees!!  I will have to pack our heavy Winter clothes!!  HOWEVER, there is a wildfire burning, started yesterday, is 450 acres.  It is not near the campground or Big Bear Lake, however the only route we have to get to the campground, is closed due to fighting the fire!  We will be closely monitoring the situation. 

Hope you all have a good day!

[Ado Annie, ASN, RN]

Joe, are there poets you especially like? I find that some poetry is magnificent but some is just too opaque for me. 

Tweety, 3000 Years of Longing sounds like an intriguing story, anyway. Let us know what you think.

dianah, I hope the fire doesn't keep you from getting into (and out of!) your campsite. Be safe!

We watched a few new-to-us episodes of Virgin River last night and I stayed up too late but it is still good to get back to the office today and keep plugging away. I fixed the Hello Fresh meal last night; it was  pork tacos. I gave Gma one and she immediately fed it to the dogs. OK, no more tacos for Gma, she got a PBJ. I'm considering a different meal plan provider that lets you pick up your groceries from WalMart. Hubs keeps arguing that we should just use the meal cards from all the Hello Fresh meals to make plans and buy the groceries. Note, however, that *he* does not make a plan and *he* does not buy the groceries. What I like is not having to put a lot of thought into what we're going to eat all the time and knowing I have what I need to prepare a meal.

Our utility bill  last month was a whopping $445. In this small town where the city runs everything and our power goes out every time there's a cloud in the sky (it seems). I'm sure that most of our expense is air conditioning and the worst of that should be done for the year. 

[No Stars In My Eyes]

Gouda Afternoon~

Ado, our combo electric/water bill here went up nearly $100 from what we paid last month, when it was about $285. EEK! I though maybe we'd forgotten to pay or got a payment in late, but noooo. It's for real.

Joe, off the top of my head, I like the poet Mark Strand. For more emotional stuff, Edna St. Vincent Millay. 

Tweety, I've never heard of 3,000 Years of Longing; will have to look it up here on the ol' lap-top! Hope you enjoy it!

dianah, UGH! Still triple digits? And a fire? Hope they get the fire put out and your route to the campgrounds is free and clear for your trip.

Welp, here's 'the latest': Hubby was complaining this morning that he is having a hard time cutting down on the vodka; he wakes up and has to throw up first, and then he has to take a few slugs to get the nausea and the shakes to go away for a while. I asked him when was his Dr's appt (he was supposed to see him q1/mo. but did not write it on the calendar) and he didn't know. So, I called the doc's office and found out he had an appt TODAY at 1:30 PM, and it was 2:05 PM when I called. RATZ!  Earliest next available appt is next Tuesday at 1:20 PM with a doc I hadn't heard of. Hubby had initially said he only wanted to see our regular PCP, but when I told him that PCP's next available appt isn't until Oct. 10th, he said he'd see anybody.

He said "I'm going to have to go to a rehab, because I can't do this myself, on my own." He, of course, said he hated to leave me to take care of Nannie by myself, but I told him (again) it will be NO PROBLEM. She and I get along fine, and she sleeps so much that she is easier to deal with. I don't care about being her only CG for a few weeks, I just DON'T want hubby to go through withdrawal HERE AT HOME! My tolerance level for the boozing problems are low; let someone else deal with his moods and drying out.

I think I told you that Nannie's portable heater went on the blink last evening. So, another problem from last night:  my ceiling fan started acting weird, could only turn it onto high, it wouldn't slow down on medium, and the next chain-pull shut it off instead of being on low. I just turned it off and went to sleep, as it was too late to deal with it. This morning I decided to see what it would do, and after I flicked the wall switch to 'ON', I went to pull on the chain and the whole chain came completely out of its hole! I'll have to find someone to either fix it or put up a new ceiling fan. Hubby used to be able to do things like replacing the ceiling fan, but I don't even want him to TRY, the way he is now!

Now I wonder if hubby's Medicare and Medicare Supplement will pay for the rehab? Doesn't matter, really, as it HAS to be done.

Anyway, that's all for now...

[No Stars In My Eyes]

Forgot to mention that some time during the night, hubby went down to the kitchen and while rummaging around through the cabinet he knocked  over a box of dry spaghetti noodles AND Cheerios. At least he cleaned up 97% of it, and the other 3% was still out in various spots, which is how I discovered the cabinet explosion this AM. Ain't we got fun?!

So he just called me from his office (the Ford under the carport) and said he really wanted to get some Chinese buffet before he went into rehab, so he was thinking he'd go get some now (3:30 PM). He wanted to know if I wanted to go with him or did I want to fix Nannie and I some supper? Being as how it'd be easier just to heat something up for us, I told him to go along and get his Chinese, and if he remembers, to bring home an order of egg-drop soup. I think it's funny he is acting like he'll be going into rehab, like, tomorrow, and has to have that "last meal", though I didn't say so. 

Oh, and a new Nannie prejudice is revealed --- She keeps commenting on a couple of TV ads featuring Asian folks, like "There's something 'wrong' with her (or his) eyes!" I was getting as disgusted as I was (am) over her trying to decide what Nationality/color a person was.

Come to find out, before she and FiL were married (or even KNEW each other!) he was in Japan with the Army, and he had some photos of him and a buddy with a couple of Japanese women... Apparently Nannie's grudges predate her even knowing him, but she won't let go of ANY of them which is why she is making comments about any Oriental features these days. EGADS! I would hate to live in HER head!

[dianah, ASN]

No Stars, fingers CROSSED that your dh will go into rehab SOON!!  Hope you can get that fan chain and Nannie's space heater fixed.   I assume you got Chinese food for supper?

Had a nice visit with friends, though I forgot to bring my guitar!  Well, as they said, that means I have to come back for another visit, soon!  ? 

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Stars, I wish you and your husband well.  I hope he gets to rehab soon.  Don't know why you have to wait for your MD appointment.  Maybe you can call detox yourself and enquire how to get in.  When I went to rehab my Employee Assistance person got me in without an MD, but that was many years ago.

I have my electric bill set up to pay the same amount every month because the Summer months tend to be high and the fall/Winter months lower.  Right now it's 96% and surprised it hasn't gone up lately but I'm sure it will.

I'm still burning from the car insurance increase.

The movie was pretty good.  Nice special effects and a good story.  I'd give it 3.5 of 5 stars.  The message of getting what you wish for and having it turn out disastrous was interesting.

 

 

[No Stars In My Eyes]

I looked up on line and found out that Medicare WILL cover inpatient rehab if the doctor deems it medically necessary, and I promise you, it IS medically necessary! So we will start with a doctor's order. I will go to his appt w/ him.

 He will have to go into a facility that is Medicare approved. I will be checking into his Medicare Supplement to see what they might cover. There are various "levels" of detox treatments, some out-patient, some inpatient AND outpatient, some inpatient. If he goes in for 60 days it will be covered, but if it is 90 days, after day 60 EACH DAY will cost an additional $399./day.  [PER DAY!! GADS!]

I am anxious for him to be GONE to rehab! To tell you the truth, It has me half excited that it can be as early as a week from today, and half-nauseated with the fear it won't come about or work. He SAYS he hates the way he has let himself go and that he has let "this monkey" onto his back; says once he is rid of it he'll never go back (which remains to be seen). I also hope there will be counselors who will reach him in his gut; I honestly don't know if he has reached the bottom yet.

I just want it to start! 

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Stars, if it's a medical necessity the docs in admissions at the detox can deem it medically necessary, I would think.  There are such things.  But anyway, I don't want to interfere, as I don't know much, and wish you all the best.  Glad to hear that Medicare covers it. 

[nursej22, MSN, RN]

Hi. Just got home from work. Very nice, OCD nurse is approaching freak out status. Our supervisor and another nurse starting packing OCD's office last week, and not to done to her satisfaction. And They didn't label the boxes. She spent most of the day complaining, and was repacking and labeling as I left at 5 pm. She'll probably be there until midnight. We've known for months about the move, found out last week that 9/9 is move day, and she hasn't packed anything. She has a full bookcase, a two and 4 drawer file cabinet, a two drawer horizontal cabinet, two desks, and the space under the desks are magazine holders full of copies of printed references. Plus she has boxes of toys, 2 nurse bags for home visits, and a bunch of lab draw supplies. but my day was good. I'm nearly packed, and will move on to packing up charts tomorrow. Nice day weather-wise, sunny and mild. Dh called as I was leaving work, so I guess he's talking to me again. I was driving, so I didn't talk long. 

I started re-reading a book called Water, that I started and never finished. It's about a little girl growing up in 1930s India. 

I going to quit and come back, I want to see what No Stars just wrote. 

[nursej22, MSN, RN]

Hurray, for Mr. NoStars going to treatment! He is certainly going to need inpatient, and is going to need close monitoring for DTs. And from what his family sounds like, ( not including NoStars)  a lot of counseling. There are of course no guarantees, but the Librium home treatment plan had little chance of success , in my opinion. 

Chinese food sounds good. I think I am making a Hello Fresh chicken meal with couscous and carrots. 

Dianah, those wildfires sound scary! We've not had nearly as many as in past years. I hope you are not having to endure the rolling black outs. 

Our electric has gone up a little, but our water bill is ridiculous. It gets as high as $200 a month in the Summer for water, sewer and storm run-off. And we don't even try to keep the lawn green. We have discussed many times installing solar panels. Maybe next year.