OT October Chit Chat

[SalpalSally]

If you get out a spoon the cars will get hungry...LOL

[Howie]

Well I've done good today. I haven't had any beer so far today. But it was an accident that worked out well. When I have my meal each day, I'll put a beer, sometimes two, on the tray I carry it all back here on.

Today, I simply forgot to put any beer on my tray, and I haven't had to walk to the kitchen yet. But I will now, wash the dishes I used, and grab a few beers. I have all chores honed down to a minimal amount of steps.

That's how I see this MS these days. Each day, I have X amount of energy. After using that amount, if I go beyond that limit, I will pay the next day, or several days.

But I've gotten good at spreading tasks out so I only go over my limit on purpose like I did the other day cleaning the garage. I KNEW I was going to pay, that I had gone over the limit, but it sure felt good to get it done.

So get busy, or relax, the choice is up to you!

[stillstANNding]

Very well said, Howie.

I am at Mom's w Peter doing everything I can to help her. She has lost ground since we were here in the end of July. She can't walk very far, get herself out of the usual height carseat, and uses a cane for balance. Sounds just like us but it's heart damage. Just not getting enough O2.

She won't even let me start a conversation about a wheelchair that we could put in the car to help her get around. Tomorrow I am sure the Cardiologist will try to put her on home O2. Good luck to him.

Hey, I pumped gas today! That trigger is hard to hold down for $21!!

ANN

[Virginia]

Howie, that is me all the time. A certain amount of steps spread out over the day and they are usually spent just piddling around in the house because much more and I pay.

Ann, I feel so bad that your Mom is not doing as well as she had been. I feel like I know her just from listening to you talk. Do you think she might would agree to go on the oxygen just at night? Would that help?

You just learned to pump your own gas - I can't believe it! I remember back in the 80s when I first did it I asked my husband how to do it. He always took my car when it was getting low on gas and filled it up. One time I told him I might need to know how someday and he said just put the nozzle in the tank and hold it down. Not long after was when he got sick and I remember the first time I pumped my own. If he did not fill mine I took it to a self service up until then.

Man came out today and got my pilot light on for my gas logs, so now I am ready when it turns cool this week-end. All he needed to do was clean out where some junk had gotten down the chimney during the hurricane. He reset the safety valve and put the pilot light on. Yeah!

[stillstANNding]

Virginia,

I think she will be resistant to any O2. I'll let you know.

I drove until about 15 years ago. I was having forceful myoclonic jerks and decided to stop. It used to be that there were attendants that pumped the gas. I learned because I can foresee that my mom will need me to drive locally for her in the next year.

BTW, it has been glorious weather here. Full sun and in the high 70's.

ANN

[agate]

ANN, I'm so sorry about your mom.

Might there be another way for her to have transportation without your having to drive?
I wonder if driving might be more of a "challenge" than you realize after 15 years of not driving....

Other things about driving besides the gas-pumping have surely changed in that time. Your mother wouldn't want you to be taking such a big risk on her behalf, I'm almost sure.

Just wondering without knowing very much about the situation. Please just ignore this advice from a non-driver!

[Howie]

Well I'm a driver, and I agree with you Agate. Ann, I know you want to be driving for your mom's sake, but it's not the way to show you want to help her. I'm sure transportation can somehow be arranged.

How would you feel if you had a wreak, and your mom, or the people in the other car were killed. That's not something to live the rest of your life with.

There has to be an alternative!

[SalpalSally]

Ann, my best wishes and prayers for your Mom!

[Virginia]

Today is Wednesday and I am about through with the housework that I am going to do this week. I started Sunday afternoon. My place is pretty small, but still it just seems to take a lot to keep it up. Some weeks I don't finish until Thursday. Then I start over on Sunday. Never ends, but I am glad I can still do it. I use to would have gotten up on a Saturday morning and been through with everything by one or two in the afternoon and then of course I would go shopping and maybe out for evening. The thought tires me out.

I miss Nuthatch (Joan) and her sense of humor.

[agate]

I miss nuthatch (Joan), too.

Maybe the new grandchild is so entertaining that she's keeping busy.

Yesterday I met my new doctor and liked her very much. I had great lab results (HbA1C at 5.2, BP 120/80, heart and lungs OK), and that was good to know, partly because I can still get by with doing the lab and doctor visit only twice a year instead of 4 times a year.

Another mammogram is in the offing. She'd like me to be on Fosamax for the osteopenia. I have doubts about taking any new drug at this point but am thinking about it.

Some years ago I had a pneumonia vaccine shot that wiped me out for quite a while, about a week. I thought I would never need another one but she'd like me to have a newer and supposedly better vaccine called Prevnar. Has anybody had any experience with it?

The new doctor is in the same building as my former doctor, who I thought had moved out of the area. The new doctor tells me that actually she's still in the area but has joined a "concierge" practice because she felt frustrated at not being able to spend more time with each patient.

--When I go to this medical center building, I always need to use the bathroom, but yesterday when I went to it, in a hurry, the door wouldn't open because it was coded or whatever it's called when there is a keypad and you enter numbers to get the door open. I had no idea this was going to happen and didn't know the code.

I went scurrying around the building to find an employee who gave me the 4-digit code. Now I need to remember it. I've written it down but will probably forget where I put that piece of paper.

I was told that the building management locked the bathrooms to prevent people from outside from coming in just to use the bathroom.

It's in an area with rising property values, really a rather nice area. I can't imagine that homeless people would be such a problem but maybe I don't know anything. It's about 20 minutes away from where I live.

That's the latest episode in my story, which could be called "Search for Today" if it was a soap opera. I keep wondering where each day went.

[Howie]

I have a little spiral notebook I use to keep important things written down so I won't lose them or throw them away. The first part is important phone numbers with the number and who it is on the page by itself. Also passwords to forum sites.

But I keep that notebook opened to the first blank page, and that's where I write my grocery list as I think of what I need, then when I'm ready to go to the store, I tear it out, and stick it in my billfold.

That works well, unless I forget to get my billfold and leave it sitting on my desk, list inside, like I did earlier today. But I always pat my back pocket on the way to the car. So I unlocked the door, came back in, and got it off my desk, THEN went to the store.

[agate]

Guess each of us has a system that works most of the time though not always.

I have an aluminum card case where all my important cards are stored--credit and debit cards, medical insurance, photo ID, and I have a couple of little slips of paper with some important numbers stored in there too.

If I forget where that slip of paper is, the first place I think of is always that card case. It's getting almost too stuffed now to close but with a little effort it can still be shut.

With Medicare, Medicaid, and United Health all having cards, and the dental insurance having its own card, that makes for quite a few cards just for medical situations.

Many people have far more complicated health insurance arrangements. Mine is one of the simpler ones.

[Howie]

I have a metal case where I have every receipt and instructions for every part on Pinky. Then in the living room is a coffee table with a drawer, with the instructions for everything in the house. Coffee maker, all the electronics, TVs, etc.

My dad did that, he kept any paperwork for anything in the house, so I copied how he did things. "A place for everything, and everything in it's place". It really comes in handy these days helping to keep track of where something is.

The only thing I have trouble keeping track of is Sam.

[Virginia]

Howie, Sam is a lost cause - you will never get the better of her, so just face it.

Agate, I will get ready to answer that same pneumonia question next week. I am going to meet my new PCP and I feel sure that she will ask it. So I too would like any info anyone has on it.

[agate]

Virginia, the instructions for Fosamax warn you not to lie down for 30 minutes after taking it. I always thought that had something to do with some weird effect on the esophagus but this doctor says it's only because some people have trouble swallowing the pill and if you lie down soon after taking it, you might choke on it. She says that's true of many large pills.