General topics.

I don't understand why some threads open to newest first and others oldest first, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. Logically long threads like this one should open at the last comment by default, the original comments were years ago.😕

CM, they deleted ON MY MIND! I didn't realize this until you mentioned it. ohhh... Now I won't get updates from you or others. I really love to read these nice tidbits. Like Glad's kitty's shenanigans... When Veronica's hubby passed away, she just posted it ON MY MIND, and that alerted me to her current situation. Now, it's gone... =(

Snort fume seethe

In particular I can't find the 'on my mind' option. GUESS WHAT'S ON MY MIND, AC! JUST SEE IF YOU CAN GUESS!!!

Going outside to kick something all round the garden, haven't decided what yet.

I've been trying to go back to the old one for 20 Min. Thanks Book. I guess I will " officially " stop trying now. Boo Hoo. Dang Progress!

Yes we are and I don't like it! Waaaaaaaahhhhh..!

We are now officially on the updated website.

Think I'll escape reality this weekend and go see Mama Mia

Gurshun...I agree though in looking back I have to say that the staff at the rehab my honey was in overall really cared about the people they were taking care of. Yes there are always one or two staff members that don't fit in that category, but in looking back my honey got good care while he was there. I saw a different scenario when my Dad was in his first NH. It was supposed to be a luxury NH and the nursing care there was horrible. When we moved him to a NH close to us his care improved 100% (with me dropping in for a visit at all hours of the day and night).

I did too Gershun. I always wanted to help people. But in working in an office I saw the politics and BS and decided to go a different direction, though I did end up in an office after all for 27 years. Don't give up your dream. There are so many ways that you can make a difference in people's lives.

I agree dignity and respect are so important whether in death or in life. I have had a code that I have lived by as far back as I can remember. Treat people the way I would want to be treated. I have a poem that I wrote a long time ago called "The Forgotten" and it is about senior citizens. It was written from the heart though my honey said it was not very good...but I feel that seniors are the forgotten people where they should be treasured for their wisdom and knowledge. When seniors get to the stage that a lot of the wisdom and knowledge has been forgotten, they still should be treated with respect and dignity. I am not saying that because I am a senior myself but because it is so true. Sorry getting philosophical.

It's unfortunate that most care facilities are poorly staffed and the staff they do have are overworked, underpaid and don't have enough incentive to care about the dignity or lack thereof of their elderly residents. While I would love to believe that most people who take on the job of working as nurses/care aides are doing it out of some unselfish, charitable desire to help seniors in their declining years I have to believe realistically speaking that given the lack of pay and unfavorable conditions at most care facilities that is probably just a dream on my part.

I actually used to think that I would love to work in an environment where I could possibly make a difference in people's lives but with all the bureaucratic B S that is involved, sadly, making a difference is probably just a pipe dream. Having said that, I still think that should still be the goal. We can only pray that one day not only death with dignity but also living with dignity will be the norm for everybody when they get to that time in their lives.

They should just have communal bathrooms if that is a common practice. OMG how can you pretend that you respect your residents as individuals and then be so cavalier about their right to privacy? There is enough indignity in having to share a room with total strangers, they shouldn't have to put up with having their space invaded by all and sundry. Not to mention there was absolutely no thought that I, a visitor, should not need to see, hear or smell that.

Cwillie
Of course it's BS 😂

I on more than one occasion have had to stop staff including men from coming into
Mom's room while she's being changed
And I mean literally hold my hand up and stand in their way

I've also had staff bring other residents in to the loo 🚽 while I'm in the room
I asked why and the response was we can't take her to a man's room

When I pointed out they passed two other female rooms I got no response, and didn't appreciate what was left behind afterwards

I've been working on my kitchen faucet and it is not going well so I may be in a bit of a bad mood, BUT...
I went to the NH to pick up my allen key set (I keep it there to adjust the wheelchair but that is another story) and was sitting with mom in her room when a couple of staff breezed by in the hall, one filling the other in about getting everyone toileted. It seems several men in one room needed the facilities at once so they were taking them to other rooms - I understand that and am OK with it. The next part is what has me fuming - it seems they ALWAYS toilet Mrs so and so at the same time as mom's roommate, and in OUR ROOM. And then they walked in and proceeded to do so without an excuse me or by your leave. HELLO, we're sitting RIGHT HERE. They've obviously been working in an institution way too long if they think that is OK and they seemed oblivious to why I packed up and asked them to move so we could leave.
There's a lot of talk at the top about how this is the resident's home and about respect and dignity but if this is SOP it's clearly just BS.

I received my new credit card. I called the 1-800 number on the sticker attached to the back of the credit card to activate it.  The 1-800 machine instructed me to punch in the last 4 digits of the card number. I pressed the 4 numbers.

And the machine responded: "You have pressed the last 4 numbers of the 1-800 number. Please press the last 4 numbers of your credit card."

I stared at the 1-800 number on the sticker. I just cracked up laughing. 1st...how stupid of me to punch in the numbers of the 1-800....2nd - I'm not the only one who did it in order for the recording to respond back with that message!

I drove to lunch - two others who aren't in their 30s either asked to drive back with me to the office

Boy, Friday the 13th - 3 residents fell at hoca tonight within minutes of each other - one no one was paying any attention to and she was pushing a chair around, the second seems to be in a stupor when he's not agitated and the third was pushed by another resident

I took the Viking outside and we sat quietly in the garden

Everybody better stay off ladders and stairs and too high shelves,etc.It's Friday,,the 13th with a new Full moon coming.I'd rather stay home and play with my cats anyway,anyday.

Madge they must have parking up top for handicapped and deliveries. I certainly would call to ask.

After the recent storm we had, I got up on a chair to take down the shutters. It would have been easy if not for the security camera's wiring on the way. So, oldest sis was on the ground beside me as I slid the shutters one-by-one out of the track. But, I had to tip-toe to push the wiring out of the way for the shutters to slide out. At first, no problem. Then, I got slightly dizzy. Then dizzier. Finally, I grabbed the shutter because while looking up to navigate the wire, my whole body started tilting backward. Ha! That never happened to me before. So, that's called 'top shelf vertigo.'

I tried using my dad's cane to get things off the top shelves. Problem was that when the object fell, I was too slow getting out of the way. It tends to hit me. I stopped using his cane. I stopped putting things on the top shelves, too.

Ms. Madge, I hope you find a good parking, too. Bring a cane just in case you have to park far. You can always use the cane to lean on while struggling on that long walk back to the car, afterwards. It won't be so bad if you can decorate the cane. You know, they do have decorative tapes (I think?) Just glue it on the main frame. If I used a cane, I would love to have it in the color of purple. =)

I used mom's cane to reach things on the top shelf

I feel old - farewell lunch for a coworker tomorrow planned by a 30 year old - location is a fair distance and involves about 5 flights of stairs to traverse a hill - even if it wasn't for the heat, my knees and sciatica aren't up for it -
I will have to drive and hope there's reasonably priced parking -

Gershun, were you looking up at the top shelves? If yes, that is called "top shelf vertigo".

I would get whenever I was grocery shopping with my Mom. Good grief, all the items she liked were either on the top shelf which I can barely reach, or on the bottom shelf where squatting down to get the grocery item made it tough to stand back up without falling backwards onto one's tush :P

I quickly started to use on-line grocery service... whew, what a relief :)

I got vertigo the other day. For some reason using the shopping cart at the grocery store triggered it.

bookluvr, when it come to stairs, I cannot stop half way up and turn around to go down the stairs, or vise versa. I have to complete all the stairs, then start over to go up or down. Otherwise it can throw me off balance.

And stairs that are U shape, where there is a landing half way up is not user friendly for me, that also can throw me off balance.

P.S. I just showered and was dumping my laundry in the basket in my bedroom. The plastic/rod clothe hanger closet just happened to fall while I was doing this. I didn't have time to dodge it. It slammed against my hurting right forearm so hard. It was throbbing really bad. Couldn't even move the arm at all. While watching the YouTube videos on Elbow Tennis injury exercises, I was using the ice pack on my whole arm. As soon as the pain went down a lot, I did a few of those YouTube exercises. It worked! The pain level was bad but after a while, it tapered off... Until I decided to turn the arm left.... Too tired to try out the rest. I'm hitting the sack. Night all. (or Morning in your end). Take care.

FF, yes!!! That's how it is with me - the stripes, the polka dots, the dark, etc... Not one time have a doctor ever told me that I have vertigo. That's how I fell. I was standing on the top stairs. I turned around completely to go back into the house. The next thing I knew, I was lying on the cement in a superman position with my arms stretched forward.

I didn't know about the polka dot. That explains the situation I was in when I did the hearing test inside a vertical tube. The walls were padded with large metal heads stapled to keep the padding in place. I remembered sitting in it and the 'polka dot' metal surrounding me was making me dizzy. I stared at the floor to avoid the dizziness.... Yes about the darkness and must have lights.

Thanks for going into more detail with your experiences and tips.

It's midnight and a bad headache is trying to come out. I'm going to take Excedrin and go sleep now.

bookluvr, I can sympathize with you as I also have bouts of vertigo. If I move about my house and make a right turn too quickly, I will start to feel the vertigo starting. A nurse told me decades ago to close one eye when that happens.... sure enough it does help if you do that quick enough.

Stripe wallpaper can set me off, same with poka dots, and small checkboard patterns. And a very dark room is terrible, I can't tell which is up or down, I know that sounds weird, but I bet you can relate to that. Thus, I have night lights all around the house, along with plug-in emergency lights in case the power goes off. Yes, closing my eyes while standing makes me also lose my balance.

I usually can sense when vertigo will happen so I always keep a good supply of a prescription pills called Meclizine. This is the same medicine that is in Dramamine Non-drowsy [used for car sickness, sea sickness] and that is sold over the counter. It is worth a try.

Follow-up visit with doc. I. Don't. Like. Him. He just stands there (bad enough he's tall and I'm under 5 feet) while I'm sitting and talks to me. But he doesn't Listen. If he would just address my concern instead of brushing it off (my forearm's been hurting just as bad as the elbow.) He talked soooooo fast, I had trouble catching up. I heard dislocation somewhere in there. When I asked if I had dislocated my elbow, he had an irritated look and asked me where did I get the idea that it was dislocated? Didn't he just tell me that it was not dislocated? When I brought up the forearm pain being really bad and how I had hurt it (again yesterday), he interrupted me and said, "You don't need to give me the details." sigh... To me, I wanted to tell him: JUST ADDRESS THE D*RN ARM AND NOT JUST THE D*MN ELBOW!!!

He says that I need PT but it's expensive because my insurance only covers 80%. So, he's going to have the nurse print out some elbow exercises that I can do at home. He will see me in a week to see my progress with the exercises... I've never had this happened to me before... Xrays don't show fractures... PT is very expensive - let's do it at home on your own without on-hand demo...

Oh, he asked, "Why is it mentioned here about dizziness/vertigo?"
Me, "Because of the dizziness/vertigo, I FELL. I'm always dizzy."
Him, "Well, which is it? Dizziness or vertigo?"
Me sharply, "I Don't Know!"
He just stares at me.
Me, "All I know is that I lose my balance. When I shower, I cannot close my eyes or my whole body starts swinging badly."
Him, "Vertigo.. We don't need to address this now. Let's address your current problem."
Grrrrrr.... I only went to him because he was the only available doctor for a last minute slot. I will not be seeing him for any of my other health issues - and that includes my vertigo problem.

So, tonight, my homework is to google You-tube on 'hands-on' ways to exercise my elbow - and not some photocopied version.

With my dad, it was not pee on the floor. It was poop on the bedding, clothes. But mind you, he's not stupid to touch his poop. That's Dirt!!

Gershun, you could step in worse. Wail!

I feel like a baby in a high chair who's had her chocolate pudding taken away before she's finished with it. Twice, yet! Tennis is only a game. Soccer is only a game. 😭

ROfl, Gershun

hahaha I remember my first puddle. thx dad

Nice!