January Chitchat (oh, and it's 2020 now)

[Lazarus]

A really nice thing happened! I've mentioned that my 97-year-old neighbor and I share an Instacart order during the 4 or more weeks a year when the regular shopping service we use isn't functioning, and this most recent order went well except that one of her items, a cheesecake mix, was leaking its contents.

I noticed it only a couple of minutes after the Instacart delivery people (they were a couple) had left. I had quite a bit of cleanup to do but as soon as I could I contacted Instacart.

The next day (today) they notified me that they've issued a full refund, and I had two really nice e-mails from them.

I opened up the box because I wanted to know what had gone wrong. The neighbor of course hadn't wanted this item in the condition it arrived in, of course. I found inside a foil bag of cake mix that had burst open. It should have stayed tightly sealed but someone handling it must have been rough with it, or maybe the packaging was defective in the first place.

I'm very glad that an online operation like Instacart is taking the time to deal with these kinds of problems.

for Instacart!

I use Peapod and they are the same way. If I call they just take a bad item off my bill.
Amazon also restores my faith in business

[agate]

Agate, I am glad you got everything done with Instacart in a fairly easy way. I am sure your neighbor was happy about this.

By the way is a 97 year old going to bake a cake?

No, she isn't--though she does cook potatoes and other things routinely. The item wasn't what she had in mind. Neither she nor I understood that what we were looking at online was a mix. She usually orders a ready-made cheesecake such as you'd find in the bakery or deli section at a supermarket.

Ordering is fairly involved since we need to choose replacement items in case the store is out of something, and we must have been getting tired at that point and not looked at that cheesecake carefully enough.

[Sunshine]

In a funk here.
Seeing neuro Monday. Saw Urologist Friday for urine culture and went to Radiology for Sitz Mark test to monitor passage of food through the canals...follow up test for that Wednesday.
Expecting urine culture will come back “Compromised”, so hard for me to get a clean catch. If so, next step is to extract it by the nurse directly from the bladder Tues or Wed....would’ve done it in the first place, but that office closed early and I would’ve missed the Sitz Mark test.

Hoping no UTI...........

[Virginia]

Sunshine, aren’t you already on a preventative medicine for UTIs? You are definitely having a hard time getting a break.

[Sunshine]

Yes, I am on a preventive. Daily Nitrofurantoin...its not 100% guarantee of no infection.

Sure feels like a UTI...

I have Keflex in the house, but docs frown on self medicating. So, I will try to follow their protocol. The waiting is tough. I do have rides lined up for neuro Monday, for urologist on Tuesday if they want to siphon some urine directly from the bladder to avoid contamination from my jittery hands.

I have a ride on mid week to finish the Sitz Mark test and go to urologist if they want me to wait until Wednesday.....

[Lazarus]

Yes, I am on a preventive. Daily Nitrofurantoin...its not 100% guarantee of no infection.

Sure feels like a UTI...

I have Keflex in the house, but docs frown on self medicating. So, I will try to follow their protocol. The waiting is tough. I do have rides lined up for neuro Monday, for urologist on Tuesday if they want to siphon some urine directly from the bladder to avoid contamination from my jittery hands.

I have a ride on mid week to finish the Sitz Mark test and go to urologist if they want me to wait until Wednesday.....

Hoping for the best for you....bad times do fade and respites comes to save us erasing the memories of these bad times....almost erasing.

[nuthatch]

I'm back after 6 days in the hospital with pneumonia. After a great Christmas, first my DH came down with a sore throat followed by the worst congested cold I've ever seen him with. Of course I had to then catch it from him. Within two days he was starting to recover but by then I was coughing a continual unproductive cough 24 hours a day. Of course, it was New Years Eve. By midnight I just couldn't handle it anymore and was so bad that I knew I couldn't even manage being loaded into our van, so asked hubby to call an ambulance. The next thing I knew my bed was surrounded by paramedics and ambulance personnel who promptly hauled me off when I couldn't even answer their questions.

(Sing it!) 5 IV sticks, 4 days in the ICU, 3 new medications, 2 days in a regular room, 1 new inhaler, and a partridge in a pear tree! Came home with oxygen, orders for home health visits, a sleep study for sleep apnea, and an order for a CPAP machine.

Oh my, I'm overwhelmed. Not a good way to start a new year, but good to read that most here are starting 2020 out right!!

[Sunshine]

Oh Nuthatch— how truly awful for you...
Do you think you had the flu that morphed into pneumonia, not an uncommon course...regardless, it must be nice to be home....So sorry you have been up against this....

[Sunshine]

Good visit with neuro. He has increased ativan. LEts see how that does.

Today, urologist squeezed me in an i foun a ride with a good friend. They insisted I see the doc, not just come in and get cath specimen. Unsure why....oh well. Let’s see how this unfolds.

Tomorrow is the rest of the Sitz Mark test.

[stillstANNding]

Nuthatch, oh my! I’m glad you are home. “Pretty very scary” as my nephew says. I hope you continue to improve. Good call.

Sunshine, I am hoping you can get help today and maybe some direction to better manage weekend problems. You should not have to suffer. Best to you.

ANN

[Lazarus]

I'm back after 6 days in the hospital with pneumonia. After a great Christmas, first my DH came down with a sore throat followed by the worst congested cold I've ever seen him with. Of course I had to then catch it from him. Within two days he was starting to recover but by then I was coughing a continual unproductive cough 24 hours a day. Of course, it was New Years Eve. By midnight I just couldn't handle it anymore and was so bad that I knew I couldn't even manage being loaded into our van, so asked hubby to call an ambulance. The next thing I knew my bed was surrounded by paramedics and ambulance personnel who promptly hauled me off when I couldn't even answer their questions.

(Sing it!) 5 IV sticks, 4 days in the ICU, 3 new medications, 2 days in a regular room, 1 new inhaler, and a partridge in a pear tree! Came home with oxygen, orders for home health visits, a sleep study for sleep apnea, and an order for a CPAP machine.

Oh my, I'm overwhelmed. Not a good way to start a new year, but good to read that most here are starting 2020 out right!!

Oh gosh! You have had a time of it. It is amazing what we go through and again recover from...I hope your recovery is swift and stable.

I am sitting by a window and have been watching a dove who is just standing underneath a bird feeder eating the seeds that have fallen onto the ground when the little birds shake the feeder. I just noticed she left for a moment but, yup, she's back. This is the best vision to lower my blood pressure and fill me with the wonder of life. And there is a nuthatch! The nuthatch is apparently happy going up and down the tree in a straight line. I'll watch her for a while.

[agate]

By all means watch that nuthatch, Linda. And maybe the nuthatch here on this board needs more careful watching. She hasn't got the knack of the New Year if she's starting it by landing in the hospital.

Joan, what a shame that you began 2020 with a case of pneumonia and a hospital stay! And now you might have sleep apnea? My son has been using a CPAP machine for about 30 years and recently got a newer one. He says there have been many improvements in the design and so maybe you won't find it hard to get used to if you have to have it.

3 days in the ICU--no fun at all. Glad you're home now. Has the home health aide been there yet?

[stillstANNding]

Howie, where are you? I miss you. How did the shopping trip go this month?

ANN

[agate]

I spoke with Howie by phone yesterday. He's taking a break--been having some car trouble.

I probably didn't get this right but he has a fairly new battery that hasn't been working right, and he thinks it may be because the alternator isn't working right.

[jendie]

Ok, so I finally logged in here on the 7th of January. I've missed everyone in here.

My life is relatively boring, though Karma does a great job of keeping me on my toes. She'll be 3 and a half on the 19th. Whatever possessed me to adopt a hound/cross? Probably her sweet face and knowing she had been through some difficult times. She needed a good forever home. She gives me a good reason to get out of bed in the morning.

The weather report is predicting snow for early next week... we'll wait and see if it actually pans out. Living in this temperate climate sometimes means hit or miss. I know what DS3 is hoping for. I'd be more than happy putting him to work shoveling the sidewalk.

I'm waiting to hear back from the MS specialists office about my next Rituxan infusion. I thought it was every 6 months, but I got a call last week from someone who said a yearly thing. I started in 2015, is there something knew that I'm missing? Hopefully I'll be getting a call back tomorrow.

I've been okay lately, but recently I've had some big loss of balance moments, twice in one day I nearly fell. Scary times.