Just need to talk to my friends (200)

Good morning all from Mom's kitchen. She and her crazy cat are still in bed which is nice. I need a massive mug of tea and some me-time to center my day.

Ron— I'm glad you're home. Has the shaking in your hands improved any?

Mom was discharged yesterday too. She was in since the 13th and completed her antibiotics there but came home with a 40-30-20-10 schedule of prednisone, nebulizer treatments and oxygen. They tweaked her meds, so I need to re-do her pill boxes in a bit. Her visiting nurse will be here around noon and I don't want to look as incompetent as I feel.

Mint— Good reminder on the pertussis. Thet do push the combined vaccine for people old enough to be grandparents and above. I got it as a booster the first time when my friend's kids started having babies. I insisted mom get it when she was traveling into the city to love on her great grandson in the NICU five days a week. DH got Tdap as his booster this month.

Lorita— you so deserve some fall weather. It must be difficult for this challenging summer to drag into the latter half of October.

David— Your wife sounds like your wife is just the right amount of protective with you. I can appreciate how missing out on your exercise would be frustrating. I agree with Judith, maybe some chair exercises would be an option. There are many on You Tube you could do at home. I have some Pilates, yoga and functional strength favorites I sometimes add to another workout.

I can appreciate the clumsiness factor with a boot. Mom had a walk shoe for some chopped bones in her foot a year or 2 back. While necessary for pain control and proper healing, I was terrified she was going to fall and break a hip. She was too and was very compliant around the walker for the duration.

Jerilynn— Your Brunswick Stew sounds like something my DH would like. When he used to travel to Louisville (his second least favorite plant location) on business, he always ordered it.

Beth— Thanks for the reminder. We have a plan in place, I take care of mom and DH (with DS as back-up) takes care of me. LOL, I've been texting him a running list of things I forgot to pack. This time I brought my hair styling tools and make up, but forgot my allergy eye drops, microwavable eye compress and prescription eye drops. Evidently I have my priorities a little skewed.

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So, mom is home. It was a bit of a dog'n'pony show to get through discharge as the nursing crew wasn't as ridiculously accommodating as previous teams have been. I did, however bust her out, by 1:15pm which may be a new record for timely discharge. We always seem to be stuck in rush hour.

The timing was critical as I'd managed to arrange a telehealth visit with her psychiatrist. Mom's psych is great and I thought a talk would do her some good so when it became clear she'd miss it otherwise, I was able to pull some strings to make it happen. We got home with 5 minutes to spare, but my laptop wouldn't allow access to the microphone and camera, so I had to pivot to my iPad which worked great. Plus, it's more like mom's phone so she's more comfortable with it.

During the appointment, I busied myself assembling a shower chair and troubleshooting her air concentrator. I watched a YouTube video to make sure had it set properly. I'd planned to do that earlier and be good to go when we hit the front door but at the last minute it occurred to me that with DS's car in the shop we were down to 1 car for 2 households. Gah. I picked a rental for a couple days. They gave me a minivan which takes some getting used to.

I got mom to take nap after we did the first breathing treatment and ran out to the store to forage for dinner. When I got back, the cat was out of hiding and hanging with her mom. The cat is weird. Because most of us who visit are either allergic or not fans, mom keeps the upstairs guest room off limits to the cat these days. Alas, this is that cat's favorite place in the house and until about a year ago she considered it her domain. The cleaner left the door open last time and the cat has reclaimed it as hers. When I brought my bag up last evening, the cat got weirdly territorial about the bed— sprawling on it and staring malevolently at me.

Between the dander and threat of feline vengeance, I capitulated and slept of the couch. For whatever reason, after I settled mom for the night and turned in, the cat decided to play with my head. She jumped up on the arm of the sofa and started lapping my face and hands. Saliva being where the allergens are, I swatted her away and finally ended up burrowing under the covers to get away from her. Undeterred, she climbed on the couch and slept me for at least the first half of the night. This must've been a terrific two-fer for her— punishing mom for being away and annoying me at the same time.

Visiting nurse today. I hope this one isn't a dud. She seemed great on the phone. I shared a concern about mom's medications which were tweaked during her stay. She has Mucinex 1200mg ER 2x daily ordered by her pulmo, the hospital held that and gave their 2-600mg guaifenesin 2x daily. Midweek, they were giving both and discharged her that way. She's said that was a lot, but maybe intentional and she would confirm with pulmo.

I'm out of my depth on so much of this gear. I'm making a list of questions for the nurse. Where can I get nasal cannulas? The ones on the concentrator and O2 tank are both at least 5 years old— they're harder and discolored. Is the nebulizer tubing supposed to get warm? How long should tanked O2 last? Do I need to carry a spare? How do I switch the thingie at the top of the tank to a new tank? Does the thingie have a name in case I have to ask someone else about it? Would she be a candidate for an Inogen instead or as well? And how do I get my paws on one?

I have pulmo follow up scheduled and am waiting to see if cardio and PCP also want to check in. I reached out to the cardio about the hospital holding her BP meds and not including them on her discharge. Her BNP is worse than it was in July— could it be worsening CHF or a function of high dose steroids or both? She's supposed to see him in a month anyway.

Enough blathering. HB

HB I would call her home care company to see how you can get a new cannula. Yes past time for new one.

What are you running the nebulizer off of? If it is a little compressor I never used them much but I never noticed the tubing being hot, not sure about warm. A question for home care company.

The thing on top is called a regulator. On some oxygen tanks you change the regulator to the new tank when original one runs out. Just before i retired we were getting tanks with a permanent regulator on if I remember right.

How long the tank will last depends on the size of the tank and what liter flow their oxygen is at . There is a formula for figuring it out. You need to call the home care company and they should be able to tell you how long a full tank will last for her tank size. On the regulator there is usually a pressure gauge where you can read the psi. For a full tank it is 2200 psi. We would usually change tank out when it was down to around 200 psi. Again ask the home care company what they reccomend. The lower flow they are on longer tank will last, larger tank is longer it will last but as tank size increases weight increases. You would need to take another tank if you weren't sure how long you would be out and if your tank would last that long. Are the tanks just for outside of home? Do you use a concentrator at home?
The Inogen is a portable concentrator. I never did home care. So I don't know if the patient uses that at home also as well as when going out. Cant remember for sure if portable concentrators were available yet when I retired. Saw patients with them though when i was volunteering. Family was frequently needing to get them plugged in quickly. Not sure if back up battery life an issue or not. There are probably rules about how to qualify for one which again home care company should know the rules.

Write all your questions down, call the home care company and ask for someone to educate you on all if this. Some home care companies are much better than others. Hopefully they will have someone to answer your questions.

awake…

Lorita…how about moving your account to your Credit Unions? Tell them to mail the papers to have notorized closer to home or use docusign.

David I use a rollator too and love the deat to carry stuff. You can get an attachment for drinks too. My daughter used a knee roller and lover it.

I have my AC on today but set at 74.

Iris…update please

HB…from you too please

Well, your car's battery will appreciate the journey…lol

David…do consider a rented knee roller. my daugher loved the freedom it gave her.

Iris….thank you for the update….

Morning.

Still sunny, warm in the day and DRY here. No rain predicted.

My house cleaning continues. I keep getting interrupted. But, today is closet day. I am getting rid of anything that I haven't worn in 2 years or have outgrown (deep sigh, that is a new issue for me). Also, since I don't work anymore, I've decided that dresses will go. It's hard for me to part with some of those pretty clothes. But somebody can use them, so out they are going. Just yesterday I did an armoire, two dressers and the guest room closet, I have six bags to donate and more to go.

Now that we don't have inside dogs, I bought a Roomba. Waiting for DH to set it up and hoping it will help with daily chores. Being in the country and having outdoor animals, pastures to work, chickens and a 3 acre yard/flower beds surrounded by cotton/corn/soybeans means dirt and dust.

The new stove arrives tomorrow. Probate court is over. I have the paperwork I needed to proceed with Estate matters. I'm saving my office cleaning for last - when all that work is done and I can pack up all the paper into one file box and off the 3 tables I have been working from. I'm going to treat myself to a new desk and set up to make better use of the space.

Hoping everyone is feeling better today. HB's Mom, Ron, Iris, David.

Hot and dry here in SW MO too, dust everywhere. Waist high corn stalks, hay bales a thousand yards apart, burn bans because we have wind but no moisture. Temperatures are setting new records every few days, running 15 degrees F above "normal."

We went to the pharmacy just before sundown to pick up my prescriptions and got malts at the dairy store on the way home. Drank them in the car and watched the sun set, listened to the oldies station. Didn't feel much like October but it wasn't bad.

Thinking of all of you, especially Iris, HB and Ron. Sorry for what you all are going through.

Welcome to the porch, Carl. If you're so inclined, tell us about yourself. I came to this site when I was caregiver for my mom. She passed in 2017 and I stayed on the porch. I live in Iowa and love gardening and travel. I have 2 kids and 8 grandkids and a mini Schnauzer.

We are getting settled from the move but still busy. Salvation Army comes today to make our 4th (!) pick up, 3 from before the move and 1 after. We also had a load of junk taken to the landfill prior to moving. We have had workers come to install our internet, to landscape (removed rock and landscape fabric & replaced with cedar mulch), to mount a tv, hang a picture, work on outdoor lighting, work on slider latch that wasn't working well, hang mounts for ladder and garden tools in the garage, build shelving for the basement, attach bookcases to wall to prevent them falling on a child and probably a few other things I can't recall off the top of my head right now. Landscapers brought a load of dirt for the garden and I bought and spread compost and worm castings also for the garden. Lawn guy came and winterized the irrigation system. I think we are mainly "done" with hiring out. We'll see. We also got a new coffee table, king sized bed and 2 bedside tables, bookcases and barstools for the island. I cleaned up the basement - finally, most is on shelving units and it looks so much neater. I moved books into the bookcases and have some room to spare.

I'm meeting a friend from high school for lunch today. Looking forward to seeing her.

Have a nice day all. Beth

MINT. I am also glad that I don’t need surgery. Thank you fir you concern.

Something went well today.

Mom’s pulmonary specialist’s office got us fixed up. He’s ordered her a portable oxygen concentrator to replace the tank oxygen. The person who did our check-out not only gave me fresh new tubing for her in-home concentrator and tanks, she taught me how to exchange the regulator at home. I had brought a fresh tank from home, so she switched it on the spot. When I was getting the new tank out of the garage, I found a tag with the phone number and name of the agency which has since merged with other companies under a new name. When I called to ask about new tanks, they arranged delivery for tomorrow and expedited the delivery of the POC for Monday. So yay!

In other news, the pulmo “shamed me” for failing to give mom her daily inhaler. I’m on top of all her oral stuff but inhalers aren’t on my radar. He was trying to be gently funny, because we always laugh when there, but I just burst into tears. I’m not generally one to cry— I didn’t cry at either my sister’s or dad’s funerals— so my mom felt terrible. I guess it’s the stress and sheer exhaustion. I feel like a fool now.

I need to run to the store and pick up something for dinner. I should probably eat something. I haven’t been doing so great in that department.

HB

Lorita…hope I can remember all of that

Caro Lynne, I am glad No cast or no surgery just a boot to 6-8 weeks then physical therapy.

I went to the dr and he took me off Donepezil and put me on Gabapentin and it seems to be Working