March chitchat

[Prot]

It's very hard for me to say what class I belong to. We weren’t an elite family,but we were better off than most families. My father did well enough to get an entry in 'Who's who'. He took early retirement as the diplomatic equivalent of a 2 star general. Due to severe mental illness,undiagnosed autism, and a lack of much needed help and support , I never had a paid job. Politically I fit into the left of centre,socially liberal, middle class

Apart from a brief attempt at a history A level correspondence course , soon after my 1st inpatient stay, I've not pursued further education. Not doing so being due to bullying related trauma,severe social anxiety, moderately severe executive dysfunction, dysgraphia, and a very slow typing speed.

[agate]

I've been slow to reply and apologize. Too many things going wrong around here--two important lamps just failed, and since I see better with light and am in a dark apartment, I've been hustling around to try to fix them, and when that didn't seem at all easy, there was more hustling around to find replacements. The whole light-bulb picture has changed with time and I'm not sure what I'm doing but am hoping I got it right. One of the defective lamps had to be taken apart, bagged up, and put in the trash. I still have to do the other one.

Both of them probably just needed new switches. I used to replace switches all the time but no longer want to bother. Those two lamps were about 9 years old and one had been defective ever since being dropped many years ago.

The other one was a fluorescent lamp for my pathetic African violets. I'm giving up on them at least after 40 years. There were times when they did beautifully but in recent years I've been unlucky or negligent. Or maybe just discouraged by regular e-mail newsletters from the African Violet Society. Real African violet enthusiasts have special carts with several tiers, each tier with its special lighting, and on each level there might be 5 or 6 gorgeous violets, each one with its own name, for heaven's sake. Each cultivar gets a name, and growers know their way around all of the various types, looking at shape of leaf, growth pattern, and on and on. You can really get into African violets if you want but I just liked them because if you treat them right, they will bloom quite gorgeously year round.

And there was another session with the occupational therapist, who has suggested high-contrast tape to outline the bathtub for better visibility. I've been finding that and ordering it. She wishes this building had been built with only roll-in showers because sooner or later everyone here will need one. There apparently comes a time when a tub bath just isn't going to happen--if you're old enough--because it's too difficult and risky. Something I never though about when I was young and hopping in and out of bathtubs and showers with no problem.

And I've had back pain problems getting in my way for over a week now. These do happen from time to time but they always slow me down.

That's my story, long-winded as usual.

[Prot]

It's OK.. I just wish there was more of us taking part here. I'll readily admit that I'm far from a great one,when it comes to conversation. I never knew that about African violets. My wife was the one for having indoor plants. Like, I guess, more than a few people I did the childhood thing of trying to get fruit pips to grow.

How many lamps do you have? I have 2 stand alone lamps plus, of course, other lighting. Every night before going to bed,I switch the plug in night light on. It's to lessen the chance of falls, if I have to get up in the night. I have a shower,and a shower stool. I think all the flats are like that, in this block. Do you have a bath seat , with controls to raise and lower it? My wife used to use one of those.

Back pain can slow me down too. I have a limited amount of time to do things,, before pain kicks in. How do you ease your back pain? Is it a common thing with MS ?

[agate]

I don't know if back pain is a typical part of MS but as we all get older, back problems set in, and MS does affect the spinal cord.

How do I ease the pain? Frequent rest breaks make it easier.. I finally figured out that sleeping on my left side just now might not be the best idea since the pain is mainly in the lower left spine. Always lots of rest, especially sleep, plus 2 regular Tylenol at intervals. A good day is one when I need less Tylenol (acetominophen).

A bath seat with controls to raise and lower it was suggested by the occupational therapist recently. I wasn't aware that there were such chairs, but I backed away from the idea because anything involving controls intimidates me.

I have my problems adjusting to this new electronic age, obviously. A desktop computer, a captioning phone, and a smartphone are bad enough--and then there is the electric toothbrush, one of the simpler ones I could find, that beeps twice to show it needs its battery recharged, and does something else if it needs its brushhead replaced, and so on, and then there are its tiny lights (hard to see) that are either green or amber or flashing or steadily on, depending on what it's trying to tell me.

The TV and its attached DVD player mystify me every time there's a problem. Each has a multi-page instruction manual with lots of terms that could be a foreign language so far as I'm concerned.

I have a doorbell for the hearing-impaired, thanks to this building's management. It needs a battery change all too often, as does the building door-clicker that was also thanks to the management. The office staff has to replace those batteries. They're here only 4 days a week during business hours, if then.

I've gone on this rant before, I think, but if you add in the heat pump with its programmable thermostat that nobody explained, which I've been learning about for the past 16 years, I seem to spend a lot of time just tending to Things.

I'm reminded of a little story I read about in a cookbook years ago--a tombstone inscription written by a man for his deceased wife: SHE DIED OF THINGS.

I have neighbors who could have that tombstone inscription too. The thing about things is they do need maintenance. If you don't ever use them, they still need maintenance. They gather dust, and dust is very bad for many of them.

I have cans of compressed air on hand just to take care of dust in the electronics around here.

So, anyway, I'm hoping I won't get tempted to want one of those bath seats with controls. I'd go crazy if anything went wrong.. I'd want to fix it myself, I'd find out I couldn't, I'd have to make calls, send e-mails, and wait, and even then the fix might be faulty, and so it would go.

I think I'd settle for just sponge baths instead.

I do now have a shower chair, just recently acquired. The occupational therapist looked it over to make sure I'd put it together right and liked the look of it.

As for lamps, up to now I've had 3 here but one was strictly for the violets. The other two were for the bedroom and living room. A couple of years ago I added a couple of small "task lamps," one for the living room while I try to sew or crochet, and one for over the kitchen sink while I wash dishes. On the subject of things, these apartments don't have automatic dishwashers and I don't mind at all though many people seem to want one. It would be one more thing to have something go wrong with it.

I'm keen on adding lighting for safety reasons. Also I find light has a cheering effect. I have 3 night lights that plug into outlets. Do you use night lights?

There are night lights that turn on automatically with a built-in sensor. I don't use that kind as they would be on all during the day here because this apartment faces north and is fairly dark.

[Prot]

This may sound strange. I had quite severe lower back pain, until I had the falls -and fractured my femur. Nowadays it's mainly lower stomach,hip,and pelvic, pain that I get. I can take up to 6 codeine a day to ward off the pain.

I am not great when it comes to technology. I have a 'senior phone', because I struggle to get the swiping right with a smart phone. As for assembling things. Unless it's very simple, with ultra basic instructions, that's something my daughter /granddaughters do for me.

I have 2 night lights that I switch on when I'm going to bed.

[agate]

Ah, the art of phone swiping! I can't seem to get it right. I always use a stylus instead of my hands. I have a "senior" phone too but it's a smartphone, known as a Jitterbug phone except that now it seems to be called Lively more often. I haven't given the number out to anyone except my son and use it only when I'm out somewhere and might need to contact transportation. Or if I can't get online with the desktop, I turn to the smartphone.

The recent PT sessions at home resulted in some new exercises, and there are videos about how to do them that are accessible on the phone. I've used those but they are also available in the desktop version--larger images, better visibility.

Cellphones are really for people who are mobile, aren't they? Since I'm almost always at home, I don't find them especially useful. I just can't imagine wanting to be in contact with anyone to the point where I'd take my phone with me everywhere just in case someone tried to contact me. People can wait until I'm more available. I do have a voice-mail arrangement on my landline phone where they can leave a message.

I have used the alarm on the phone to wake me up in the morning. Nice to be able to choose the sounds that wake you up.

[Prot]

I'd not heard of a Jitterbug/Lively phone before.I mainly use mine to get codes for verification purposes.

Are the new exercises easy for you to do? I get frustrated with exercise videos, because very often things are done at a much faster pace than I can cope with.

I rarely go out,and if I do one or more family members are with me. There are no friends.

[agate]

No exercise is easy for me to do because I'm probably a couch potato at heart. But for the past 20 years or so I've been making a point of keeping up with the exercises no matter what. The importance of exercise was stressed in diabetes class, and everything about MS that I've read emphasizes it too--muscles can deteriorate with disuse, etc.

Some exercises involve coordination with breathing, and I find it hard to get that right. The idea seems to be to do the effort part of an exercise as you exhale, but to exhale slowly and by blowing out the breath as if blowing out a candle.

You can really get into this exercise thing and know exactly which muscles you're targeting but I'm just not that knowledgeable except when it comes to a vew like the hip flexor, hamstring, soleus, and piriformmis. Those are the only ones I have the vaguest idea about. People talk about abs and pecs and so forth but I tend to lose interest.

[agate]

And a happy St. Patrick's Day to anyone who observes it!

I'm not an observer myself (wrong kind of Irish- ancestors were-some Scots who went to Ireland for a while but were Protestants) but in some parts of the US St. Paddy's Day is big. In Chicago some mayor years ago decided to start a custom of dyeing the Chicago River green for the occasion--and there's always a huge parade.

[Prot]

I'm not very good when it comes to such coordinating. I know even less than you about which muscles are being targeted. I think my Irish ancestors are like yours.


Last couple of days have been better pain wise . It waxes and wanes.

[agate]

I'm not very good when it comes to such coordinating. I know even less than you about which muscles are being targeted. I think my Irish ancestors are like yours.


Last couple of days have been better pain wise . It waxes and wanes.

True of my pain too--back pain that comes and goes, sometimes in sudden stabbing sensations but other times just a dull ache that is always there. Today there have been painfree times. I like those.

About the Irish ancestors: My mother did a lot of digging into genealogy and found that both her people and my father's people originated from the same county in Ireland (county Antrim), and that seemed like something that might not happen too often but maybe all of the renegade Scots who were settling in Ireland tended to settle in just one county.

[Prot]

You describe it well. Today has been a good day.
I have maternal ancestors from Ballynure, Antrim.

[agate]

Pain was better today! Not great but definitely an improvement. Maybe I'm just learning what to avoid doing but I was actually able to do some things without bringing on pain. I even ran the vacuum cleaner around in a very slipshod way.

I've found that with a lot of back pain you just have to wait and wait, sometimes months, but it does gradually get better. The catch there is that it can always comes back later on.

[Prot]

Same here. Mild pain at worst.Have spent most of the day doing family history research. I'm cautiously optimistic that I've made a breakthrough . Weather is warmer,so not wearing thermal vest and sweater.Sleep is a bit better.

Energy and food prices are due to rise steeply as a result of the adult,global,equivalent of giving a 3 year old a box of matches to play with.

[agate]

Interesting that you mention the child with a match just now, right after I'd checked my nephew's family tree to find out if it is really true, as he claimed, that he has a Canadian ancestor that would supposedly entitle him to dual citizenship (this country and the one just north of us).

Since he is the child of my half-brother, and my half-brother's father wasn't my father, I wouldn't be able to pull this off but he definitely would, and he's proceeding to apply. His grandfather and great-grandfather were born in Canada. Very kind of Canada to extend this opportunity to such people.

Getting back to the pain topic, I keep noticing how helpful sleep is. It's getting to the point where I aim at getting sufficient sleep even if a lot of tasks have to be put off until some other time.