As DH continues to decline, we are in the process of moving. Talk about complicating life! DH seems to like the new place a lot (as do I). But the deadline of having to have everything completed by the end of the month is escalating my stress level a lot. I think the day after we finally get moved in, I'm going to order some groceries to be delivered, and then I am going to turn off the phone and just sit down for a week. Okay, I know that's an impossible dream, but it keeps me going just to think about it!
After several days of bone-chilling cold, it has finally warmed up here. It's wonderful. Now we can actually believe that spring is coming. There are geese and ducks on the little pond behind our new place, so we are anticipating seeing some baby geese and baby ducks when the weather gets warmer. They are so cute when they're just little balls of fluff--sailing across the water. We have learned to admire from a distance, though, because goose parents are very protective.
p.s. Please don't miss the link I posted under February 2020. I really did think it might be helpful for someone besides me.
Order the groceries and dream of being able to veg out even if it doesn't work out. At most, try to relax before unpacking everything.
I agree - babies of almost anything are adorable to watch. Back in the early 80s we use to go fishing at our favorite lake (small) up in the hills from Winthrop, WA. Art and CJ were in one rubber raft with CJ reading a book. Amber and I were in the other raft both of us fishing. We liked to go in the late afternoon because the wildlife were out swimming around. There was on beaver that would come near the raft and slap its tail getting us wet. There were ducks and their babies swimming around coming out to get the bugs that would be flying just above the surface (along with the fish). Wasn't important how many fish we caught - it was relaxing and enjoyable - at least for me. Here in the RV park there are lots of quail. In the spring/early summer there are always lots of babies trailing behind mom and dad!
Jan K Thank you for the link to the video. Wouldn't it be wonderful to hear some politicians, movie stars, sports stars, or CEOs say the same thing and mean it?
Mary, I hope your birthday was a good one. Thank you for the lovely poem and your brother's response about the meadowlarks. They remind me of driving up the Central Valley of California, north of Sacramento, at dawn. At the same moment the moon and the sun were both visible, the moon suspended above the hills on our left and the sun above those on our right.
I am in the process of replacing my HVAC. Some of the proposal contradict each other on what I should get (mainly 2.5 ton vs 2.0 ton and comments on how change in refrigerant affects BTU/hour which makes little sense). Spent last night making measurements of the retake duct to see how much larger it should be for a 2.5 ton unit. The more I delve in this the less I understand.
Leannah likes her new wheelchair. If I bump into anything while pushing it she tells me to not scratch it up. Having the bar in back instead of 2 handles makes it so much easier to push one handed, which I need to do when going through security doors.
She seems better in some ways. She is eating properly, putting down the fork after each bite. She called for help when another resident entered her room instead of killing the resident. Still obsessed by various issues such as phone and going out. When using her new walker she will stop when tired, put down the seat and rest without any prompting. Amazing what we consider to be major accomplishments.
Back pain is an issue. I suspect she is off the pain patch now. This limits her walking, which still needs to be supervised. PT will end on the 12th.
Now to decide if I should replace the roof (over $7,000) or just repair it ($1,250). The roofer suggests that I have the roof inspected every year if I repair it. He says it isn't coming apart but I need to keep my eye on it.
If I have the ready cash, I take the major step. It gives a certain sense of security that I value, given that other things often seem to be crumbling around me.
Paul, I'm really sorry to hear about your problems but does make me feel like I'm not the only one who has to make that decision about every year! It's always something hang in there
Jan, you are braver than me. Hubby is 83 today and plans to live to 104. Told him if he does, he'd better start looking for a new wife real soon cause this one won't last that long.
Everyone trying to talk us into selling, but have no idea where we'd move, don't want to buy another place and DH nor I would do well in an apt. I keep hoping we can hang on here as long as necessary. Know we'll need a new roof next year if not before but gonna patch this one as long as I can. Good news is we had a powerful lightening storm last night, blew the power for a couple of hours, hit a house not too far and caught fire but we made it ok. Scared the heck out of the animals. Couple of times I asked DH if I should go up and see if our second story was still there. We just a couple of days ago had a spark arrester put on our pump and I think that made a difference. I'll go look at you video now thanks.
I received a call about 10 pm on Sunday that Art had pooped and it was stuck at the elastic in his sweats. He refused to let me change him so I told him I would change him like a baby. So we put pads under him as he laid on the bed while he is playing dead, got his pants and soaked diaper off him. Thankfully he only had poop on the back of his calf. The diaper was falling apart so it didn't stick on it. But, I did find the front of his scrotum as not just red, but raw - probably from the wet diaper. It didn't hit me until I got home the reason he didn't want them to touch him or co-operate was because he was in pain from the urine on the raw skin. Went in yesterday to make sure the nurse would see it and keep an eye on it so it didn't happen again. All the stuff we put on Sunday night was mostly gone so she put more on him with orders to check him daily for this issue and to check him for being wet. Because he has been mostly toileting himself being wet was really not an issue. The diapers was more for #2 problems. It was getting near dinner time so after getting him up noticed the chair was a little weight. Took him in asking him if he needed to pee, which he did and noticed his pants were wet too (no surprise). Changed his soaking wet diaper then took him out to the table for dinner when I could finally leave. I did it myself because one girl was fixing dinner, the other was changing other residents.
One of these days I am going to just tell him I need to leave, then leave and see how he does.
PaulC, have you thought about checking out the split-mini H/A systems. You can google them online they are a little more expensive to install but savings make up for it quickly. I wanted to put one in here, primarily because you can have zones. No need to heat or cool areas you don't use. It was a rough time for me then and I let the contractor talk me into a two stage heat pump. It's ok but I wish I would have followed my own instincts. A friend online gave me a lot of information but I've forgotten the questions he told me to ask. But I do think it's worth looking into.
As for a roof, there was a new one put on here 8 yrs ago, before we bought it, pretty sure it wasn't top quality. We've lost a lot of shingles but the one leak is from a rotted board in the coupala. The company that has done our roofing for a long time has a preventive maintenance program. Not terribly expensive. They come out on a regular basis and check things out and let you know any problems. Think you get a discount if you need work done. Might be something you could ask about. Also our homeowners insurance guarantees their work for 5 yrs since they are a recommended company. We now have a problem with the eves. DH wouldn't let anyone fix it so now it's worse. Before another winter that will have to be taken care of.
When my arm heals enough to work with it, I'm going to see how much of the exterior maintenance I can do, then make a decision on what to hire done. DH still thinks he can and gets angry when I disagree but I'm learning to just do what has to be done and deal with him later.
I already have a 2 zone house, but with a system per zone. I replaced my heat pump 2 years ago, it heats/cools my 2nd floor. The furnace and AC I am replacing now do my basement and first floor. I am buying a 2 stage furnace but that is more for comfort than for gas savings.
I am still deciding on the roof. If I replace it I will get architectural shingles because they can stand up to hurricane winds much better than regular shingles. But geez, even a low quality roof should last much longer than 8 years without problems. Mine is 14 years old and I assume that its installation was average.
Charlotte, Whenever I read one of these posts about the condition in which you find Art, I get angry. What is wrong with these people? They're neglecting him and depending on you to fix the problems they created. Is there an ombudsman or other official who could help you?
Paul, I thought a roof was supposed to last for 30 years.
I guess I am giving them time. They have had a lot of staff turn over the last month. Until the last couple weeks he didn't need to worry about wet or dirty diaper. Today he had no diaper on and had evidently peed because his pants were dry but at some point he had because his right sock and slipper was soaked in pee. But, he has heeled which is good to see. Having no diaper on probably helped it heal!
I replaced the drawstring in one of his pants with elastic since he pulls them tight and ties them in numerous knots so it is hard to get them down. I brought home another pair to replace the drawstring, too.
When I arrived he was really upset. Guess he had just had an argument with one of the residents. This guy is very picky about who gets in his space. While we were in his room where he was drinking his root beer and eating the cookies I brought him, the guy brought a small tambourine in, put it on the dresser saying 'here, you say this is yours so you can have it'. Thankfully when he sees the dog he usually calms down. The root beer and cookies help!!
A roof can last 30 years but it depends on materials, how it was built, and the abuse it gets. The squirrels are not helping but the trimmed trees will stop future squirrel damage.
I contacted Joan via Facebook. She is still having health problems, was in the hospital the end of February on IV antibiotics. She is home said she would get to deleting the spam.
Was visiting Art today and looking through the pictures he has there. One is of his dad, sister and him taken summer of 2006. We were visiting his dad in the VA dementia unit. His sister was 56 - diagnosed in 2005 just one year before. Two years later Art was diagnosed. His dad died in 2010, his sister 2014 and Art is still going. I looked it thinking how this disease had hit all three in one family.
Through years of caregiving, I kept telling myself "we're not to the bad part yet". Well, I think that's no longer true. DH has been declining very quickly, and in addition, his normally kind personality is changing. Everything is now my fault. Everything. And there are more digs about how I'm the boss of everything and I own everything, and I tell him what to do...
As this new virus has developed, I have told DH bits of the news every day. I've shown him headlines on the internet that he could read at his own speed. Every single day I've updated him as things progressed. But a couple of days ago, after telling him why we couldn't do something (we're both at high risk of complications if we catch just about anything because of other health conditions) and going over everything again, DH was livid--about as angry as I've ever seen him. Why hadn't I told him these things? I needed to tell him things like this!
In addition to personality changes, he is mostly unable to follow even simple directions. If I point to a glass and ask him to put it on the table, he's likely to go to the drawer and get a spoon, instead. (And blame me for telling him to get a spoon.)
We are in the middle of moving to a new apartment. His idea of helping me is standing right behind me so I nearly trip over him every time I turn around. I could write a book about trying to pack and move during this decline. It's a nightmare.
Today I found a picture of DH's brother on the internet. I showed it to him and told him it was his brother, and said his name. He really didn't know who I was talking about, even with the name.
I had thought that as soon as we were moved, he would go to respite again. And I had thought that after this respite, he might not come home again. But with this new virus, a nursing home sounds very scary to me. (They have closed all the schools in the town three miles from us because of positive tests in the schools.)
Is it too early to head to the cottage on the lake? I could use a couple of days of just watching the sun shimmer across the water and hearing nothing but the breeze in the trees. Anyone else want to head to the lake early?
Found out late yesterday that Copper Ridge is being sold to a for profit nursing home chain. Not happy. ACTS realized it had no idea how to deal with a very unique neurological ALF/NH. When Leannah moved in 5.5 years ago it was full. Now the ALF is 1/3 empty.
The buyer is Accordius Health. So far looking up their facilities on Medicare.gov show them to be poorly run or average at best. I’ve requested a list of their facilities from Accordius Health so I can check on them more quickly, getting a list from their web side is too time consumeing (enter your zip code to get a map of facilities). Many of their facilities don’t have their names on it. The closest one to me paid an almost $500,000 fine fine in 2016 for poor quality care.
We are told that current staff at Copper Ridge will be retained and have a competitive benefits package. I think CR needs an owner willing to provide capital so it can grow.
Sorry to hear that Paul. Maybe the new owners won't come in and destroy what is good about the place. You will have to be even more diligent now until you find out how the new owners will change things.
Received a text from the facility - they have implemented a 'no visitor' policy because of Covid 19. Actually I think it is because of the stupid governor who ordered all nursing homes to screen all employees before their shift starts and all visitors or they are not allowed to enter. This even though there has been no confirmed or suspected cases in our area. Glad I visited yesterday.
Right now there is a lot of panic out there where this Covid 19 isn't hardly worse than any of the flues that go around. Most people by far (about 80%) have a mild experience with it and a decent percentage don't even know they had it. In fact, people under 40 probably shouldn't be worried about this at all. It's more dangerous to older people where as you get above 50 and 60 and 70 and 80, there's more risk that you can get a more severe reaction and still recover, or actually die from it.
Charlotte is right that if it's not community spreading right in your neighborhood, the odds of getting this are extremely low. The nursing homes house the vulnerable and generally older populations, and in a closed community like that spread is hard to contain. The nursing home has to be proactive in protecting them and possibly more to the point right now, can't be open to charges of negligence and be sued.
If you take a necessary medication try to make sure you stay above 14 days worth of supply. That applies to food as well. This is a lung thing. You have to inhale it to get it.
They changed to one visitor a day per resident. Will have to have temp checked and answer 6 questions. Will take his can of root beer and cookies to him shortly.
Thought winter was over but this weekend a cold front comes down from north bringing possible snow and freezing temps. Not happy!
Leannah's facility is now on lock down. No visitors. They keep the houses separated so to keep residents and staff in a single house to avoid spreading.
I disagree with Wolf. This is going to be much worse than normal flu. Look at countries hit by it, how quickly it spreads. It appears to be deadlier than the flue. It is hard to say because testing by country varies. But look at how hospitals are overwhelmed in other countries. We need to spread out the rate of infection so hospitals don't have to handle more patients than they can. The period it can spread before showing symptoms has been established at 2-3 weeks, no it looks like it might be as long as 5 weeks. And people who are sick are going to work if they don't have sick leave, many food service jobs will fire you if miss 2 days of work a month. While some large employers have announced sick leave where they never offered it before the local managers are still not allow for sick leave in many cases. Spread of the flu goes down where sick leave is available.
You think it isn't in your local community. We don't know. In the US we are basically not testing people. We don't know, infected people can be close but if it takes so long for symptoms to show.
Read the experts in the medical field who deal with pandemics. They expect this to go one for a while. And we don't see it going away in Australia's warm weather.
In more mundane news I'm installing a new HVAC on Tuesday. It took me around 3 weeks to pick an installer. One highly rated company threw me off balance by recommending a 2.5 ton unit, the old AC is 2 ton. I won't bore you with details, lets say the more I read the less I knew. But their reasoning didn't make sense and no one else would agree with it. My ducts are designed for 2 ton unit. And then my first choice disappeared after I asked for copies of his business license and insurance bond. And then I had to make sure I was comparing apples to apples with the final two bids, took 2 days. But I am putting off other house repairs due to the change in the economy in the past week.
Well, New York is pretty much shutting down. And they are closing Ohio schools for at least three weeks starting Monday the 16th after the class day ends. So guess who gets to drive down to Ohio and watch the kids?
All our facilities, sports functions, colleges etc are shut down, with a lot of complaining, but two days ago we had our first confirmed case, a young woman who lived here but had been vacationing abroad. Then immediately they confirmed another case about 400 miles away, across the state. A woman who had returned from Italy. Just heard this morning the cases in our city may have risen to 6. As we are Midwest, we only had 5 tests allocated to our city and 1000 statewide. The governor has requested additional testing equipment. Our hospitals are not ready for a full scale outbreak. I tried to contact my regular doctor to cancel my last appt and their phones are shut down, you have to contact online. I did go ahead and cancel everything till the 23rd, when I'm scheduled to see the surgeon again.
I am not overly concerned, but DH is 83 with health concerns and I'm not quite that old :) but after just having major surgery I'm not in top form. I had stocked up well on everything prior to surgery, and we did make a quick trip to our little local market for milk etc. We are going to play it safe for a couple of weeks till we see how things play out. They are still trying to locate all the people the young woman may have been in contact after her return from Europe. I suspect those are the newest cases being tested yesterday.
My family in CA and Oregon are cancelling their vacation plans. Not sure if they will try and make it back here later in the year or not. Middle son and dil were planning on May and a young nephew who comes every summer, from CA, will probably not make it this year.
I did hear the summer heat and humidity should burn it out, but like Charlotte, we are being inundated with a new round of snow, ice, hail, tornados force winds - predicted for the entire next week - plus this is the beginning of our tornado season.
Oh, the young woman confirmed had been in Austria. So it seems to be spreading all over Europe. We have 11 colleges here, private and public, with many foreign students, so they started spring break early, extended it a week, and will go to online classes when they restart. Any student traveling out of the country or to level 2 states, like CA, etc, will not be allowed on campus till they have been back for two weeks and tested.
I can't imagine how difficult this virus alert must be for those of you who are still in the trenches. Oakridge, remember that you can freeze milk. Just make sure that you leave some room for expansion in the container. I usually have small amounts in my freezer in case I run out.
My county schools will close on Monday for a month.
My office told everyone to leave this morning. A staff's roommate has the symptoms. Of course there are no testing kits anywhere in DC so we cannot be sure if he has it. Office is supposed to get super cleaning and I'm in charge of the technology for working from home. I managed to leave the office by noon, we had the announcement before 9am
Since the corolla virus is going hog wild in Australia I would not count on warmer weather being our salvation. This might peak in May.
Today Gov Inslee (of Washington state) announced all K-12 public and private schools are to close for minimum 6 weeks. This is insane as majority of counties in the state have no confirmed nor suspected cases. Tried to go to the store before the snow hits tonight but parking was no where to be found. Got tired of waiting so left. Will make do with what I have.
Yes I said snow. Thought spring was here. My daffodils and crocus are in bloom - other bulbs coming up. My rose bushes has lots of new growth already. Have a cold front from up north swinging across the Pacific to pick up moisture. Winds started today with temps dropping from 48 at noon to 38 right now. Forecast is 1-3 inches with the freezing temps through Wednesday. Rain first then snow. My sinus's are not happy with this cold wind. Welcome to Friday the 13th! When I visited Art yesterday I figured it would be the last time until next week depending on how the roads are.
I rarely return food to stores but yesterday I saw 'marionberry pie' at Fred Meyer - made my mouth water. I have been 'dieting' the last month (with little weight loss if any) so have left the goodies alone. Even been writing down everything to keep track of what I eat and calories. Last night cut a piece of pie and it was horrible. It looked and tasted like the had taken marionberry juice, thickened it a lot then poured into the pie crust. It was worst than Hostess pies - at least they have berry chunks and seeds in them.
We have no idea how many cases of coronavirus are in our areas, since tests are not yet available. Maybe when the are, public health officials will have a better idea of which facilities should be closed. One thing is sure; if there is one case in a group, there will be more. For every person who has the virus, between 2 and 3.1 people will catch it. This differs from the flu, which has a transmissibility rate of .3 to 1.8. I'm so worried about those taking care of people with dementia.
Not quite off topic, but across the street :) My youngest sister, married a Mexican man, she died young, as I've mentioned before, so her grandchildren were little and I've always been a bit of stand-in gramma as well as aunt. Her oldest son married a beautiful mexican girl so the kids have primarily been brought up that way. The oldest grandson has always loved to come back here very year for a visit. So last night I got a text from him.......Where they live, a woman returned from WuHan at the beginning of the virus and it spread rapidly. He stated it's basically a ghost town now, and plane tickets were almost free; his parents were able to go to the Virgin Islands for about $300 round trip. He said, and I quote....you know us mexicans, we started partying and going everyplace cause no one else is there, LOL. He followed that hoping that this would be a good time to get out of Coronaville, which is what they are calling CA, and come back here while flights were cheap and school is closed.
Had to say no but laughed at his description of how they are handling the virus.
Darn!! I can't type too good with this bum hand so get things messed up and try to correct them and just wrote a post and as I was finishing it up, I must have hit something and lost all of it. Bet it was good too, LOL
Oh, I remember, I was thanking Mrytle* for the tip on freezing milk...... and went from there. I think living with dh is affecting my sanity!
I like his attitude. Panic and fear does nothing but make things worse.
Years ago when we were on food stamps for a few months I would buy milk and freeze it. It froze fine but for me who was brought up on fresh from the cow milk it did have an off taste to drink plain but great for cereal and cooking.
Today my niece got married, too far away to even think about going to the wedding. However, since a lot of the guests cancelled due to the virus, they live streamed the wedding. It was wonderful for me, because I got to "attend" the wedding after all. I wish more people would do this, for all the distant or elderly family members who really would like to be a part of an occasion like this.
The director of the CDC admitted in testimony to Congress on Wed that some deaths attributed to the flu turned out to be COVAD-19 on autopsy. Italy has shown that waiting until cases show up before taking action is too late. There are great fears that we don’t have enough respirators in the US for the number of cases expected, and rural hospitals might have just one. And these are areas with a higher percentage of the population being over age 60. This means many more people needing respirators than there are respirators. This means medical staff deciding who gets respirators and who doesn’t.
COVAD-19 passes very easily from person to person contact. The good news is that social isolation helps slow the spread. Italy waited to long, we don’t want to end up take their extreme measures due to their delay in taking actions.
Re: milk. Back when dh was lactose intolerant I found shelf stable lactose free milk in the coffee aisle. It comes in regular milk too. I’ve been in the habit of having some of that in my cupboard for quite some time just in case not convenient to go to the store. It keeps well for a long time and tastes the same. They even have low fat.
In retrospect my nephew is probably correct. If everyone is staying home it would be easy to avoid crowds:) I like to buy raw milk from a local farmer, its so good. I wait till the cream rises and skim it off. They lost a cow last year and the ones they had left couldn't meet the demand so you had to order in advance. I use so little I started buying in the store again. Was getting ready to restart when this virus hit so figured the little I drink i'd just stay with store-bought. I've seen the lactose free, but not out of the fridge stuff. I used to buy powdered milk - can't even remember why - but it would sit in the cabinet so long i'd end up throwing it out. This is all good info though, as we continue to age we'll be using more tips like this. I do keep canned milk -- for making caramel candy. I could use it for other things. Times like this we can get inventive, lol.
Like Wolf, Tp and bottled water wouldn't even make my list - but one of my kids in ca called this am and was telling me he had to pay $10 for a 4pk of cheap tp. I finally thought maybe I'd check and we have 14 rolls - I buy in bulk at Sams. So think we're ok. But i'm sure I'm not the only one who can remember outhouses. Catalogues, newspaper etc
We continue to get new cases but not like the rest of the world, they are really tying into the idea of spreading it out - even if it lasts longer - as our hospitals are not equipped to handle mass cases. However, after closing all the schools, there were bunches of college students partying and drinking Corona beer. Our elementary schools are open to keep the kids from being left at home or whatever. My little rant, our schools, in addition to everything else, are babysitters. If the schools close there is no one to take care of the kids - and most get free meals which they wouldn't have if they were home.
JanK, I so understand what you're going through. It is so terribly frustrating. I could not imagine having to move at this time. Thats partly why I keep refusing to sell our property. We don't have anyplace to go, neither of us would do well in an apt. not ready for AL and not sure I would survive the move :) As everyone here knows, the caregiver is the one who bears the burden of this disease. As I mentioned earlier, my pre-surgery testing came back with some problems. Bad enough to do retesting - but not so much that I'm overly worried. i suspect most will turn out to be caused by stress. I had to cancel my appt to retest but I'll eventually have it done, then we'll decide how to deal with it. Whatever, there isn't much I can do to change things.
On the plus side dh is very content right now. He isn't interested in the virus or news, just westerns and since I'm not going anyplace he likes for me to be close. The weather is terrible, winter back in full force so can't even work outside. Have picked some daffodils to bring in and going to pick more today before the rain ruins them. Our creek is running high and wild but that's good. We do have a tree down on one branch of the creek that is blocking water from that direction but will have to wait for dry weather to try and clear it out. There is a lot of flooding to contend with but nothing that is a problem for us.
I'm in a talky mood I guess :) JanK, my heart reaches out to you - this disease just keeps on coming and changing. About the time you think you've got it under control - that's when something new hits you. It's impossible for someone who hasn't lived this life to understand how draining it is on you. If you met my dh right now, you'd think what a nice man. Looks normal, the few times he's around people he can sound normal - nothing he says is the truth - but it sounds good. Now, while that's a good thing - it disguises the fact that he is a total moron. I don't mean that in a derogatory manner, but we go through the same things you describe. Our poor dogs have barely eaten lately, even when I give him directions he cannot get the food right and while the little ones are easier, my German Shepherd will only eat when he's extremely hungry as the food is a strange mix. He eats outside and dh will put cold food out in the cold weather and when I go out to check some of it has already frozen. Today I decided I would take that task back, just have to be careful. They need to eat, and they are beginning to be wary of him. Not sure if it's his "unstable" behavior or what. He can change so fast.
Charlotte, Paulc, here they are allowing people to come to the windows and talk on cell phones to their ones in nursing homes. The only exception is those on hospice, they set up "specific" areas for family to visit. doubt if that would work for either of you, in fact might be harder for Art.
My grandfather died in the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918. I've lived through Hong Kong flu, Swine flu, Dengue Fever etc -- but I was a lot younger then :) Well dh is up and trying to feed the dogs, which I did hours ago so better go get that settled. Hope everyone is safe and can find a few minutes to sit, close your eyes, breathe, and meditate.
OK, I take it all back! He has been up about half hour and is already driving me crazy. Plugs things into the wrong charger, won't listen, already angry at me. Turned the tv on so I think I'll go find something to do where I can't see him. After one of these little fits, I just don't want to look at him. No, have to get him some breakfast first - my stomach is already rolling so I'll skip eating right now. :(((
I've heard of some people talking to family in nursing homes via the window. I'm not going to drive 90 minutes for that. Copper Ridge is busy trying to set up regular phone schedules and will use Skype for video calls. Meanwhile I've had to work all weekend to prepare for having the office semi-shutdown for the next 4 weeks.
I hope everyone stays safe.
I got a big shopping done on Saturday. I plugged in my extra freezer Friday night. That was a good move since Trader Joe's has lots of frozen foods but the canned foods are wiped out. I need to prepare every week in case I cannot go shopping the next weekend.
I was listening to CNBC this morning where they had Q & A from callers. One topic was the isolation people are now experiencing. As the doctor answering it I did a sarcastic chuckle - welcome to our world of isolation. Talk to caregivers of all types and they will tell you of the isolation we live with day after day.
I tried going to a different store after I returned the bad pie but the only parking was way at the far end of the parking lot. I don't mind walking a distance, in fact I often park near the end of the rows but they are rows for that store, not the stores at the far end of the complex. I was going to go last night when I knew they would be less busy but didn't. Nothing I need at the moment.
As for seeing Art, I have not gone yet. When this artic cold front came in Friday my sinus' went crazy. I wake up in the morning with a horrible sinus headache feeling crappy. The sudden cold and wind makes it hard to feel warm. In fact, other than getting up to let the dog out I went to bed at 10 last night and didn't get up until 1 today - it was so cozy warm in bed.
Didn't make it today to see him either. I kind of felt crappy but think most of it was from depression. It has been bad all winter and this new isolation where I can't even go wander the stores to be around people, I think is getting to me. I went back on my antidepressant yesterday. I had some left from last year. If they help I will contact the doctor about refilling it. They cause my eyes to be dry and scratchy but the other ones I tried had worse side effects.
I did make it to the store for a few things but the shelves were bare - fresh veggies, canned goods, dry foods, cereals, frozen foods especially pizza! Was surprised the fresh veggies were mostly gone. Thankfully there was not a run on my Diet Mt Dew!!!
Forgot my store was even out of bags for your groceries. You either had to put them back in the cart to take to your car of use one of the empty boxes they had there.
I talked with a cashier on Saturday about the crowds. She said the store was crowded at all times for the past 2 weeks but has been much busier since Wed when closings were announced. She suspect most people come to do their normal shopping, see everyone else buying huge amounts of food and then follow suite. Saturday morning most canned goods were gone, as were many snack foods, but everything else was in ample supply. I bought 2 weeks worth of food. No bottled water for me.
Charlotte, You're right about caregivers' experiencing isolation. We are old hands at this. Can those of us who are still on this page make it a point to post about anything and everything? I'm going to do that later today.
I knew it was coming. I was getting ready to leave to go visit Art =haven't been there since the 12th. Received the news they are on total 'no visitors'.
Charlotte, since many residents of care places have no visitors anyway, you might talk with your place and see if they can classify you as a volunteer. The way you have been the only one to properly care for some of Art’s needs might make that a viable option.
I also agree with what you said on the other thread - Evaluating the risk of fatality is kind of different in the case of Alzheimer’s.
Just before this hit I went to my doctor because my blood pressure suddenly high, I’ve been dizzy and tired. She started me on medication, slowly, cause I’m sensitive and allergic to many meds. It’s weird, but I seem to be inordinately sensitive to cold. I have to remember to turn on the heat. Now it’s rainy and the comfy temp is different every day. If I turn it up too high then I’m sweating. Very frustrating. Yesterday BP jumped up again and I’m dizzy again. Called doctor office. This is really neat! The office called back and got me on the phone with her for a telephone visit. Apparently they can bill that. I was afraid it would take a long time to figure that out, but they’ve got it in place now.