Failures and accomplishments today.

Captain, ask the MD how well those welding fumes will mix with your chemo. Maybe you should pass the torch and let someone else breathe in that cadmium for a few days. I recommend a daily flush with fermented hops to remove heavy metals from the kidneys.

Emjo's on her cruise, isn't she? Good thing too..! :) You're all talk, Cap'n x

im wiped out today. anemia must be catching up with me. just put in several days welding, cutting and drilling.
i was just kidding with emjo. of course gary would stomp me. he he

feel I accomplished something yesterday. Went to the Podiatrist and was the youngest there by 20 years. Most were in their 90 often accompanied by their loved ones. One very tall man was 92 and he had his wife with him. She was very well cared for smartly dressed but with a blank stare on her face so sad.Then there was Mary Rose who sat next to me. She could barely walk with her quad cane accompanied by frank. She said she used to baby sit him and he was always a jokester. She sent him out to the car to fetch her purse and he came back empty handed looking vaugue. She started to scold him and he gave a big smile and opened up his coat where he had hidden it! I pretty much got her life history while we sat there. her daughter is a nun and teaches kindergarten but will be comming home for Easter. She is trying to wait till school is out to have her second knee replacement. Mom would like her to retire because she is 66 but she loves those little ones too much. I know exactly where she lives and which of her friends have died but she is going to stick around a little longer to create trouble.

Emjo are you going to tell us where you went?

Not in a million years Capt. Gary would horse whip you.

I'm mentally planning a productive day, I'll let you know later how it worked out!!

emjo is a sweetie alison, i am a vile abomination. in my defense tho theres only one thing that matters to me. treating others like youd like to be treated. everybody wins. im gonna get in emjos pants but it aint a small task. shes too smart for BS.. patience, cappy, patience.. lol

Cap, you're such a good dude sometimes… lol… most of the time… I admire both you and emjo for the massive amounts of human integrity you both display. :-D

emjo is a doll. cutest haircut in the world, an intellectual giant at that.. she aint gonna give me none of that s**t but one can fantacize. lol.. love ya emjo..

Welcome back emjo!

accomplishments - one of the best holidays ever.Put some serious distance between me and the caregiving and dysf sib
taking in a couple of young men for a few months. One did some renos here a few years ago, A large and loveable labradoodle came with them. Gary is keeping them all in line...

failure - did not want to come home and had a bad attack of post vacations blues the first day back - adjusted now.

and have fun d**nt. elders are smarter by 45 years than we'll ever be. my aunt keeps me in stitches most of the time. shes the best investment of my time i could ever muster.,. she wants out of that dam icu so we can go cruising in those new trk seats.. she loves her grandkids and great g- kids but she feels safe and in control when shes with me. i sense and remedy her immediate needs.

Don't know if this is an accomplishment but i saw it on a survival site and it looked like a good code for caregivers to live by. All caps are my interpretations
1. Have someone to watch your back
DO NOT TRY TO DO IT ALONE
2 Be prepared to walk away
KNOW WHEN THINGS ARE OUT OF CONTROL
3 Focus on what matters first
PRIORITIZE. YOUR LOVED ONE COMES FIRST.
4 have a plan B
IN AN EMERGENCY KNOW WHAT TO DO
5 Capabilities trump gear
EDUCATE YOUSELF

well im building the commercial truck bed from h***. as sincere as gmc is they didnt forsee my kind of abuse. tghis s**t is steel, there aint no d**n sheet metal..

I know what you mean. We did take some of her food but not all of it. I said that anything that was open had to be thrown out. This rule worked fine until we got to the open jar of peanut butter which she really, really wanted to keep and not waste. We all griped and snarled a bit over that jar of peanut butter.

The other big problem were the blank envelopes. Mom's sister worked in a card and calendar factory and she probably has the world's largest collection of blank envelopes. I packed as many as a could then finally set a fairly small box aside that we couldn't fit in (I wasn't going to get another box and pack it just for those). Once every week or two, Mom doesn't remember the multitudes of envelopes we packed, but just that one little box we couldn't fit in and threw out.

Sibling wanted the "good" stuff, so I left behind any good collections and furniture, except for the things Mom wanted for herself. I got tired of arguing about it all and decided that having mom with me and knowing she's safe is what I should focus on.

Here's a surprise for me: Mom doesn't remember any of her collections. Looking at them, she not only didn't remember collecting them, but didn't remember any bit of them.

We have a similar problem. We are cleaning out mom's house while she is in ALF. There are many items that have sentimental value that are going in storage. But all the food and ancient canned goods went in the trash. All the clothes that don't fit went to Salvation Army. Siblings said they didn't want anything, but went all to pieces when furniture went out the door. They split a gut when they saw the 10yd dumpster filled up. Too Bad, neither one wants to take over this project, so OUT it goes. We can't do it with mom, because she tells an hour long story over every dish and sweater.

pamstegman: for me, the memory loss is the hardest thing to get used to, even though it's minor. Sometimes, I mistake her memory loss for simple complaining. It's slow for me to understand and, as I understand better and remind her, more, things are working out better.

Mom and I made a detailed list of what she wanted from her house and I didn't realize she didn't remember making that list and being present to take all the things she was going to be taking. It was such a big process that I didn't realize she could forget it. It wasn't that long ago, either. Even with mild memory loss, she just doesn't remember a single thing about any of it, but is totally open to my now gentler reminders that it DID happen.

Geo, my MIL complained about leaving her house, until I reminded her that when she was 60, she hauled all her stuff to FLA every December, then back in April, then hauled it to Canada in June and back in October and repeated that cycle for ten years. It's not like she stayed in one place for long.

My mother has mild memory loss, to start with. My mother complained that she "feels like a hobo" travelling around with all her things in bags and travelling all over the place. She complained that she doesn't have her things with her. She has been staying in a spare room and we're not finished with her permanent room so this is true -- her things are in bags and she's living in a temporary mode.

Today's failure is that I thought she was complaining that we're not working fast-enough on the room nor doing enough for her. I lost my temper and kind of told her off. I felt unappreciated. However, she didn't even understand why I was upset. She looked even smaller than usual. She didn't say anything. She seemed bewildered, confused and hurt. I felt like such a big creep.

This leads to today's accomplishment, which is that I realized that she doesn't realize that we do have her things here in the house but still packed away. I realized that I have to remind her every day until we get her room done and her things unpacked where she can see them that she didn't leave her things behind. Also, I have to be more forceful about getting her to put things out on the desk she has in her spare room so that she can see them so that she's not carrying bags around. She's agreed to let me help her with that, today.

I'm not perfect and not guaranteeing I won't yet again lose my temper but now understand her a little better and now figured out a couple more things I need to do to make her feel welcome in my home.

Norestforweary, Azuki beans are small nutty uniformly red-brown colored legumes. They often used in Japanese deserts (Azuki sometimes spells Adzuki). Some red beans are also claimed Azuki/Adzuki beans, but I found there are some differences. The other day, I bought made in China Aduzki beans. They were inexpensive, and the package also showed in Japanese. Japanese Azuki beans maintain red-brown color even after soaking them, but other ones faded their color away. My home remedy book says one of the effects of Japanese Azuki beans is to help reduce edema when cooked with only a little salt. Many people like to eat them sweet, but I do not add any sugar because my husband is diabetic and has kidney problem. Rather, I add like home made apple preserve which contains no sugar. I do not know the real effect, but at least it’s good for my soul just thinking my husband and I are eating healthy food.

today doesnt look very promising yet. im waiting on a reply from a customer to get a pretty neat limestone porch project fired up. may end up working on my new steel truck bed. ive destroyed the factory bed in the small truck in only 6 months. it wont take my kind of stone- hurlery..

Appricot we only have a numbered days here and this is one day you will both remember for a long time

What is Azuki?

Made improvised songs to sing with my husband as he started saying “I can’t sing”, and made chocolate pancake with home made Azuki with marmalade and apple preserve for supper. It’s good to see his smile. I did not do anything I planned. Oh well, one of these days.

lol. doc sez i can stay with edna when she gets a little worse and he'll slap kenmar living center into submission from the top down in alphabetical order.
history shows that he'll do it too..

he he he. with ednas dementia we can go see the same stone job everyday and its always a new visual treat.

took edna to lunch, doc, follow up with pharm, took her to see a 200 year old cabin that ive fired up with stone. bought a cord and moved her phone base over next to her recliner so she can hear it ringing. reported back to cuz sharon as i should and let me brag just one time and rather blatantly. cuz sharon who viewed me as an irritant 6 weeks ago complimented me today as being a kickass m - f where elder care is concerned. lol. compete b**ch. thats the way that works..

either way, its working stegman. lol

Cap'n your either the alpha dog or he sees you as a rabid raccoon.