General topics.

Thank you, Gershun and freqflyer... I really hope he gets acquainted with some of the residents I know there. This is all becoming so clear to me that I'm doing the right thing. He will also continue to get physical therapy which I am thankful. So, the next big step will be transporting him from Tn to Ok.

Its been three days since anyone posted on this thread. As creator of thread it is my responsibility to keep it moving. So this is me keeping it moving.....................................................still moving.....................still moving.....................ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ oops.......nodded off there.

Demented lives matter

MsMadge can you imagine the demonstration? Like herding cats. Would they remember why they were there...
And what would chants or theme song be? "you can Depends on me"?
please don't be offended but as long as commercials feature happy clean cognizant elders people are convinced it's fine.

"What do we want?" - No idea.
"When do we want it?" - When do we want what..?

I think it was Matt who did a cartoon of an Age Concern protest in Parliament Square with one protester saying to another "I came on this demo but I can't for the life of me remember why."

He did another of a doctors' march with all the placards covered in illegible slogans.

Went to the caregivers support group. One woman there said her husband had dementia and they are looking for a place for him. She said she tried the local NH. They were told that they are not taking male dementia patients. Can they do this? The NH is supported by tax payers. Isn't that discrimination?

Brandy, it could simply be that they just don't have any beds available for men in their dementia wing, and the waiting list is probably long.

Brandywine...I don't think that's OK.Maybe they have no openings for a man at a certain NH right now.I don't know but Good for you to go to the caregivers group.I go to a group but I get anxious about going in but once I'm there I'm always glad I went and Iv'e learned a lot from other caregivers so hopefully you will find help also.Take care.................

About the caregiver's support group. One man comes in packing heat. He carries a gun in a holster. It makes me feel uneasy. He is a caregiver of his wife who has AD. I complained to the management, a hospital but they said he was within his rights. Yikes I sure don't like this arrangement.

Maybe the nursing home has a certain quota they have to fill for male vrs. female patients and the male side is filled already. It could be something as simple as that. No comfort when you are desperate to get a loved one in but ..........if that is the case they should at the very least explain that to you.

Pretty sure the male/female patient acceptance is determined by room availability. If they don't have a male roommate for your male loved one, then they won't accept him. NH's usually don't allow male/female roommates unless they are married or in a long-term relationship of sorts and want to be placed together. Mom's NH had a specific room they kept available for married couples who came in together.

Well, that's good Susan cause here in Vancouver there have been a few heartbreaking stories of couples that had been married for years and were separated into two different nursing homes because of lack of availability. They showed them crying with each other. Simply devastating to watch.

I've got a tip I want to share with anyone who has to walk on icy sidewalks, add hex screws to the bottom of your shoes/boots.
When I first read about this on runner's forums I thought they were nuts, drive screws into the bottom of my shoes? I bought the recommended #8 1/2" sheet metal screws but left them tucked away unused. When I got new shoes this spring I figured I had nothing to lose by trying it out on my oldest pair, well guess what, it works! I might add a few more since I wasn't too sure about the best placement, but they really do add traction and I don't have to worry about them falling off like those over the shoe cleats they sell. Cheap too. If you want to see a demo go to youtube and search "screws in shoes".

cwillie - I could go into business outfitting elder's shoes with those screws. I'm sure my dad has about a billion of them in the garage. All neatly stored away in plastic trays and labeled, too, or in old mayo and peanut butter jars attached to the ceiling by their lids.

Susan, I got all of it except "attacked to the ceiling by their lids." He nailed or screwed or glued the lids to ceiling, then he can turn the jar in and out for storage and access? That's kind of ingenious, actually. Am I picturing this right?

Yes, Ali, that's exactly right. It's an old handyman's trick. He had a drop ceiling in the garage and attached baby food jars, mayo jars and old peanut butter jars to the ceiling by mounting wooden strips to the ceiling and then screwing the lids of the jars to the wood strips. Then you just put the jars in place. It's pretty cool.

It's scary that Congress proposed some radical changes for SS. Reducing the amount and pushing the retirement age back to 69 makes me realize that they really don't have a grasp on the needs of the country. Looks like we're going into an era of continued trickle up economics. Ryan will probably also soon try to push through his agenda on Medicare.

Have you guys noticed there is a spate of people coming in now, asking a question, but then never responding? It's like answering the questions is a waste of time now if the person leaves the building.

JessieB, I've seen that a lot on all the other forums, generally there is a question, one or two people reply, and that's it; any thread that continues for 20 or 30 posts is an extraordinary anomaly. AgingCare is so unique that it attracts users from around the world, as much as I've searched I have found nothing else like it.

Some of the answers go on, but the OP isn't part of the discussion. I thought maybe the found the site, but didn't bookmark it, so didn't come back to see any of the responses. Either that or they didn't like the answers they got. We'll never know.

Susan, my Dad use to do the same things with jars and lids. He even used old plastic medicine containers and a metal band-aid container.

He would take old coffee cans and spray paint them silver to store the large metal stuff he was keeping. Hmmmm, since I don't drink coffee, does coffee still come in cans??? Anyway, I am sure my late Dad would find some use for those empty k-cups.

Jessie, I have noticed a lot of "title only" questions [nothing in the body to give us more information] but the title has a lot of misspellings.... it almost seems like the same person comes on with a new screen name each time. The mods will find that question and correct the spelling later on.

Oh well, some questions are pretty interesting :)

FF, premium coffee still comes in metal cans. I have to admit I recently had a really hard time throwing away that can, I'm sure there must be a way to up cycle it somehow.

I think a lot of times the OP doesn't get the answer they are looking for or they do get the answer from the first couple of replies, or maybe they were venting and now have cold feet, so they just move on. I'd rather that than all the people who come back to berate those who bothered to answer. Or all of those threads that run on and on long after the OP has come back to tell us all they have solved the problem.

FF - ugh, don't get me going on the medicine bottles! LOL

When I moved in here to care for Mom, Dad was already out of the home and in a NH and/or hospital - he never came home after that. I started the cleanout process because Dad was a bit of a hoarder in the fact that he kept everything that he thought had a use, or could possibly be used for something in the future. I cleaned out grocery bags full of old cottage cheese containers and lids (all clean, washed, etc - but decades old and never re-used), bags of old prescription bottles with the labels removed (Dad was a stickler for protecting his privacy), even bags of bags - grocery bags full of neatly flattened and folded plastic grocery bags to be used for the kitty litter, bathroom trash can,etc - but there were HUNDREDS of those. More than they could ever use in their lifetimes.

Just recently, I started working on clearing out the garage (and will resume once I can physically do so, probably in the spring). I found boxes of old rags (chewed and pooed on by mice), which is to be expected in a garage. But I also found paper grocery bags all neatly rolled down at the top, lined up on a set of shelves. ??? I opened one after another and they were all the same thing - sawdust and scraps of wood deemed to small to be useable. (That was saying a lot, because Dad thought ALL wood had value and could be used for something - proven by the stacks of it still in the garage.) Now, Dad hadn't been in that garage for almost 15 years before he died - and he's been gone almost 4 years now - so we're looking at nearly 20-year-old sawdust in paper bags. (Sitting here shaking my head....) But what am I going to do, being my father's daughter? Save it and use it for firestarter next summer when we can have bonfires in the yard again. LOL

I can see Dad eyeing up my k-cups and saying, "you know....I could use that for...."

Shots. Jello shots. lol.

f the person you care for has to spend most of their time in bed, be sure to help them change position often. Health care providers recommend changing position at least every 4 hours. Foam wedges, wedge pillows, rolls and leg supports can be useful in providing comfortable position changes. A medical "trapeze" over the bed can help the person shift position by themselves if they are strong enough. If they are so weak they can't turn over, have a health care provider show you how to use a sheet to help roll the person in bed from side to side.

Well, Gershun said General Topics, ws could talk about anything. I wanted to help the person whose Mom couldn't turn on left side and needed a way, had parkinsons, but could not find the question after researching an answer.
Smhh.

I love this whole group on AC. Sappy, I know, but you all transition so well from jokes about jello shots (er... I dunno... seriously, k cups probably WOULD make good containers for jello shots!) to giving good practical advice about elder care.

I finally met today with Gerontology head at NEIU to discuss their programs. I think... I'm heading that direction. There's such a wealth of info on this site, plus once I emotionally remove myself from my personal unfortunate dysfunctional caregiving situation... I do want to help others navigate the aging process, and I've learned much about it... although the depth of info on this site amazes me at times.

Ramble. I get my Christmas shopping done. Time to send out the cards. :)

"got" ...not "get"... got it done, despite the mini storm that hit Chicago tonight. :)

Teens are playing games, or what? Driving to pick up hubs, a young man deliberately stepped out in front of my car, faced me, then ran back. Honking, stepping on the brakes, turning into the corner just out of traffic, honking behind me. I was really shook up, yelled at them to STOP IT! JUST STOP THAT!, pointing my finger like an old school marm. Furious, wait till I get my hands on him, I want to say. He and friends (5) wers obviously headed for the movies to night.

I have heard of the " Knock out game", where a group knocks a stranger unconscious. If this is a new game, there has gotta be a law!
Anyone heard of this?