May chitchat

[agate]

Happy May Day!

We are so lucky to have this space still here for us. I hope that others will pipe up with chitchat, comments, opinions, whatever is on your mind.

Around here the rhodies are starting to bloom. Anything happening where you live?

Found any interesting new foods to try?

I've become addicted to Goldfish crackers myself. Each one has only about 3 calories.

Next week I'll finally get to the eye doctor. Maybe this time I'll even get to see the eye doctor. The last time I went I waited for 40 minutes past my appointment time and then was told I'd need to be there for at least an hour and a half longer. I had to go home without ever seeing the doctor. I made up my mind to find another eye doctor but I haven't done that.

I hope everyone reading here is staying well and out of trouble.

[Virginia]

Agate what pretty flowers. I had a flowering shrub to pop out full of blooms. It was beautiful, but the blooms only lasted 3 days. Then I remembered it doing the same thing last year.

My brother came over today and ran my hose all around my yard. He put the timers on to water the plants. I forgot to ask him what time they come on and for how long. After that we went to the grocery store and pharmacy. So I got some things done and will be in until Monday, my hair day. I am glad to be home.

After the special treatment I got at the dentist's office Monday, I decided to give them a shout out on Nextdoor Neighbour site. I very seldom post on there unless I am inquiring about someone to do some kind of work. But I gave the name of the dentist and his staff as well as the name of the office.

I had over 40 likes, but so far only two comments. One person thanked me for posting that information and said she was looking for a new dentist. Then another lady said she had also been a patient there for many years. She stated that her six year old twin grandson got hit in the mouth with a baseball. It was on Saturday and the dentist before this one (which is this one's father-in-law) went into the office to see him. The dentist determined that the grandson needed to have the tooth removed but said he wanted an oral surgeon to do it. He made an appointment for Monday at 7:30AM. He asked the little boy if he wanted him to go with him and he said yes. This lady said when her daughter got her grandson to the oral surgeon's that Monday that the dentist was there and went in with him. She said her family had always received high quality care at that office.

I was glad I posted some positive information. I am not sure if they are taking any new patients, but good things said never hurt.

I hope Flatcap is alright. It has been such a long time since we heard from him. Maybe we will hear from Snuggles and some others this month.

[agate]

About the flowers: It's a bit late in the season for crocuses but I couldn't resist that photo.

That was a very conscientious and compassionate dentist, Virginia, and I'm glad you recommended him to others. I've often spoken up on a couple of Websites and to people in person about the vet who took care of my last cat, Phoebe, until she died. He and his staff were always so helpful--and often were clearly trying to spare my pocketbook, which I really appreciated. They were very understanding with that very skittish cat.

Yes, flatcap was with us for almost a year. Maybe we should be grateful that he was here for that long. It looks as if he may have left but who knows? He might come back one of these days.

[Snuggles2]

Hi all,

Quiet time here. I am enjoying the unusually warm week we have had here. I was walking daily with my hubby and I am down 15 pounds now. It has been hard watching what I eat and I have given in to temptations several times but get back on a healthy eating habit immediately afterwards.

Virginia, I know what you mean about cold feet. That was one of the first symptoms of MS I had along with a permanently numb left foot. It is not totally numb but it has a feeling like it is swollen. I wear socks to bed every night and if I wear open sandals in the summer my foot can feel cold. When I feel my foot it is not at all cold but the nerve problem I have caused by the MS interprets the signal as saying my foot is cold! When I first experienced the cold feeling I would sleep with my foot wrapped in an ac bandage. I think the gentle pressure helped the nerve not conduct the message that my foot was cold to my brain. I have since stopped that and just wear snug fitting socks.

Agate, I have no experience with ADD or ADHD in children. A few years ago I used to take my granddaughter to a local park on Fridays and talked with a women who watched her neighbor's son every Friday and would take him to the park. He was born to a woman who had been addicted to drugs and took drugs while pregnant and was adopted by a local family. The young boy was 3 years old and was quite 'active' while at the park. While he did seem hyperactive he was super intelligent. At 3 years old he was using vocabulary words that were way above his age level. The winter came and then the pandemic hit and we did not go to the park for some time so we haven't seen them since 2019. I often wonder how the young boy is and how he is doing in school now.

I woke up this morning and feel a cold coming on. I have a scratchy throat and a lot of phlegm in my throat. I am skipping my walk today and hope nothing further develops. My sister is in town and we are planning to meet up with her and her husband and my brother and his wife on Saturday. I hope I can attend.

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the day!

[agate]

Snuggles, it's so good to hear from you! I always wear socks to bed too. My feet and legs get too cold otherwise. In fact I gave up on nightgowns years ago and now wear only PJs. I prefer the kind with elasticized cuffs because my ankles stay warmer that way. My ankles and elbows tend to be cold before anything else for some odd reason.

I hope you can see your sister and brother and enjoy the visit!

The rhodies are starting to bloom in the back yard here. with a couple of them right outside my window. Every year they got pruned way back in the spring but this year that didn't happen and so they're enormous. I'm enjoying them, and there are a few dogwoods in full bloom out in the front of the building. Everyone around here is glad to see spring because the winter wasn't a piece of cake.

[Prot]

Just here to say I'm still around. Had home visit from the GP yesterday re the pain I've been experiencing. My daughter joined in via smartphone. Pain meds have been increased to 2 codeine x2 a day.

[agate]

Thanks for checking in, Tim. A home visit from a GP is hard to imagine here in the US but at least some insurance plans here are now offering home visits from a medical professional--a nurse or physician's assistant, I think. I hope the visit was helpful--you are probably in very severe pain if you're taking codeine. I hope it helps.

[Virginia]

Hi Snuggles, so nice to hear from you. Our weather has been nice also, although we have already had some days that were on the hot side. I am pretty much homebound at least 90 to 95 percent of the time so it doesn't bother me that much. I remember when we use to have a nice spring and fall, but now the heat just starts up and it seems there is no spring. We get a lot of pollen but not the really good temperature days like we use to get. When I do get out I enjoy seeing the flowers that are blooming.

I am not wearing the socks at night right now. I have the creepy crawly feeling in my feet all the time and numbness in my left foot and I was finding the socks sometime seem to make it worse. Now I am folding a blanket and putting it across my feet and lower legs. That has worked for several nights. It still takes them awhile to get warm, but so far they have warmed up.

Congratulations on losing the weight. You might feel like you are at a standstill but they say after awhile you begin to lose again. You are getting some good exercise in with the walking. Are you and hubby still keeping the grandkids? That for sure gives you a good workout.

I do hope you will be able to join the family tomorrow. It would be a shame for you to miss everyone getting together.

[Virginia]

Hi Tim, it is good to see you posting. I had wondered how you are doing and if there has been a change in your condition.

It is really good to know that your GP is going to your home. As Agate said it would be very hard here to get that done. We have something called Home Health Care that we can usually get. I had them for 90 days one time to help me exercise but it didn't involve a doctor, just physical therapy. Some people have them when they are too ill to get to the doctor's office. But still it doesn't involve a doctor.

I hope your GP will be able to help you with the pain and get you walking better. Let us know how the visit goes.

[Prot]

I would hesitate to call it 'severe pain', rather than an occurrence and level of pain that does restrict me to a noticeable degree. I think approaches to a situation like mine in the UK vs approaches in the USA are somewhat different. I don't feel informed enough to make a judgement as to which approach is best. I do wonder how much damage was done in the 7 week period between the falls and the x ray revealing I 'd fractured my left femur. In order to be compliant, and not be seen as uncooperative, I agreed to doing exercises that were very painful to do.

Although the pain is markedly less than the pain during that 7 week period- It is pain that shouldn't still be occurring nearly 30 months after a hip replacement, IMO. The physical health issues have piled up in the last few years- premature osteoporosis,atrial fibrillation, Barrett's oesophagus, lymphoedema, iron deficiency anaemia( not sure if that is still the case),vit D levels haven't been good. On top of that was told during a routine check that I have scoliosis. My youngest niece had to have an op because of her scoliosis. I got to the age of 65 before knowing I've had it from 'as least as far back as your teens'(consultant's words'). I'd classify it therefore as 'very mild'. I do wonder however how it might have impacted on my balance and gait, neither of which have been good. My daughter says I walk like I'm drunk.

[agate]

It sounds as if they dropped the ball badly by failing to catch that fractured femur. With luck no lasting harm was done but it's good that you're trying to reduce the pain. I believe many fractures even when treated will cause continuing pain for years. A couple of times when I've had fractures that were treated, I was told to expect arthritis in those joints, and that has been the way it's been going.

The iron deficiency anemia can be checked with a simple hemoglobin test, I'm pretty sure. At least every time I've had it, that has been the test. And sometimes you can get a good idea of how you're doing if you're feeling less tired and if you pull down your lower eyelid and take a good look at it. If it's pale, you might still be anemic. If it looks fairly pink, you might not be, but that test will tell the story.

Scoliosis is very common, and I wouldn't be too concerned about it. It always has shown up on my Xrays and nobody has ever mentioned it as a concern. There are some severe forms of it that turn up in young people and require treatment and that might be your niece's situation. We older folks may develop scoliosis because we've been carrying heavier stuff around on one side rather than the other, and gradually our spines developed a curvature. You can see it on the Xrays.

One's kids can say unkind things. Usually it's just that they haven't thought much before blurting something out.

[Prot]

The delay in catching the fractured femur was due to a couple of things- (a) The paramedics and GP insisting the pain was psychological ( b) the difficulty getting suitable transport when the physios realised the pain might be real . I had to be slid down the stairs on a special piece of equipment. Talking about arthritis a GP looked at my hands,as my hands were painful and my wrists quite swollen. After doing so he said 'Rheumatoid arthritis'. I wasn't upset about what my daughter said. She's been a great support since I've moved here, as have my granddaughters.. Without their support I'd struggle to maintain a reasonable level of independent living. The 'walking like your drunk' comment was an accurate description of how I do walk. I tend to sway a lot from side to side.

[agate]

Nice relationship with the daughter--good that you and she can joke around.

You mentioned stairs. I've found that stairs are fairly bad news--and out of the question with a rollator or wheelchair or walker. If I lived in a place with stairs, I'd think seriously about moving to a place without stairs but that's a drastic thing to consider.

As we get older, stairs become more and more of a problem, as I've realized from living in an apartment building where everyone is a senior. When there's a power outage and the elevator isn't working, people on the upper floors are quite stranded unless someone can navigate the stairs to get to them, and a lot of people here aren't up to that. We have problems seeing the stairs, problems finding things to hang onto, problems putting our feet in exactly the right place, balance problems.

Elevators aren't perfect either, and in a power outage they're not there. You might say that the elevator business has its ups and downs too.

[Prot]

My daughter who herself is a branch manager of a national home care company was totally on the ball re the lack of suitability of the accommodation I was then in . She bid for places that I could move to .Due to the mobility issues a 1st floor flat even with a lift was deemed unacceptable by those allocating properties.

Eventually I got a ground floor flat in a block of flats for the over 55s. It's small. An open space kitchen and lounge area etc, a bathroom with sit in shower, and a bedroom. Small, but a good enough size for me. The back door leads on to a long strip of grass . There's an area before you get onto the grass that my daughter got a chair for. I'm hoping the weather will improve soon.

That was good about the elevator business.

[Virginia]

Tim, so glad you have a place to live that is all on one floor. I have a townhouse that has 6 steps to get off my front porch, 9 steps to get out the back to empty the trash. I also have a second floor inside. There are 15 steps to go up. Needless to say, I seldom go upstairs. I occasionally pull myself up by the banister to do a little cleaning. I am self sufficient on the first floor. I had no idea I had MS when I bought this place 31 years ago. It would be hard to move now, plus I would have to sale my current townhouse.

If I was to try and go through moving and selling and all it entails, I would now want a smaller place. It sounds great that you have a backyard. It will be really nice for you to be able to sit outside when the weather is good. Sounds like your daughter did real good. Glad she was in a position to help.

Sorry rheumatoid arthritis has been added to the list of things you have to deal with. Is there anything that can be done to help with that? Sometimes it seems that when one thing goes wrong with us other things begin to pop up. It is just a shame that the fractured femur was not found earlier.