General topics.

Way we live about 30 minutes from there, and we love it. The museums and Restautant's are great, and tons of great shops and culture to see, we go there once a month at least!

pamz,

Have a great time !!! Been there twice , it’s very interesting. We had the best tour guide. We asked him how he knew so many obscure facts . He said he had to take a history test to become a tour guide .

Well not about caregiving per say, except this would have been harder to do if my folks were still here. Since I retired many things have not gone as planned but I did think ahead to having something to look forward to each month for a few months. Our DD gets us a gift certificate to a BNB each Christmas, and we had $ left after our first trip to go again to our favorite place in Gettysburg. ( Amazingly they raised their prices 50% since we were there earlier, LOL) So I booked it for Halloween. It is supposed to be haunted. LOL We got our favorite room, and found a haunted objects museum we hope to go to, then to drive around the battlefields and such. We are going to be open minded ( at least my hub will try) and just have a fun time. DD will be watching our puppers who has never spent the night at her new house, so I will be packing her a bag ( a doggie bag?) If you have never been to Gettysburg it is a wonderful place to visit.

Thank you Bounce.

Yes Willie, not treating all sounds good until it's yourself or someone you love. Then it gets more complicated for sure.

Her surgery went as good as it could. They got all of the tumor from her colon but discovered lesions on her ovaries and bowel which they could not remove. So they've said they have bought her more time but.............the big BUT!

I don't think she understands a lot of what is going on and I pity the person who is going to have to deal with her when she comes to the realization of the colostomy bag and all that entails. A person in their right mind would have a problem with that, let alone a 87 yr. old woman with dementia. Her husband who she still lives with had a stroke two yrs. ago and needs help himself. She scares any health workers who come over away so as selfish as this may sound I'm glad this is not my problem.

I pray for them all and will support my hubs in this but as far as any hands on care I'm afraid I can't get involved, not even out of selfish reasons but because that family puts the D in Dysfunctional.

Oh man Gershun, 87 with dementia and now surgery and a colostomy - this is exactly the reason so many people on the forum hate modern medical intervention. But of course the decision to not treat is always so much easier when it's theoretical.

Sorry for not mentioning you Willie or Send in my message earlier.

Of course I feel for both of you and hope your dizziness subsides Willie and your foot gets better Send.

I've been feeling lately like I just can't wait for 2023 to end. It's been a rough year for me. I do come on here and read but haven't felt much like posting.

So hoping everyone on here can get to the other side of their health issues.

After the full moon tonight, we will all feel so much better, or not.

Gershun, Prayers for Dh's Mom. Hope the surgery can improve her chances and she has less pain. The waiting to find out is so stressful.

A neighbor just got taken by ambulance-so many elderly here.

My doctor did not offer a diagnosis, just referred me.
He did put up an x-ray taken in the past-must have missed that-I never saw it. It looked like arthritis. Maybe more than one diagnosis, but doc doesn't know.

Determined to get better! We are having a salad tonight.

Hang in there with dizziness-it comes and goes, does not always get worse, imo.

I am moving so slow that it might be impossible to get dizzy again at this speed. 🐌 🐢

Send, thx for asking.

My foot has taken a back seat to all the other issues I've been dealing with.

I got covid 6 weeks ago and am still not fully recovered. My DH also got covid and thought he had recovered but then relapsed. I'm worried we both might have long haul. I pray not.

DH's mom was recently diagnosed with colon cancer. She is 87 and not in the best of health apart from the cancer. The doctors were weighing the pros and cons of whether they should even operate but she is in the OR right now as I type this.

If she survives the surgery she will need to wear a colostomy bag from now on. With her dementia I truly don't know how that is going to work.

So, as for my foot. What foot?

I'm fine now Send, but I am also being cautious about making sudden movements and turning in bed.
If the doc doesn't think it's gout what other diagnosis are they suggesting?

Maybe not gout says doctor, who has referred me to a podiatrist.
Both feet are affected, and it comes and goes.

Cwillie,
Has the recent dizziness subsided? Or, did you come down with
something?

Gershun,
We have not heard about your foot/ankle for some time.

Everybody else, stay well, or get well quick. I feel an urgency that we all should be doing something more, something sooner to take better care of ourselves. Maybe it is just the open enrollment period for insurance choices. I feel stuck, in the middle of doctor's appointments that took forever to get, but my insurance has caused me distress.

I may need to stop trying to help others for awhile.

Asparagus was good.

But why do I feel better after eating ice cream?

Sometimes a walker works better than crutches, assuming you don't have pain in your arms or hands.

I'm not sure whether ice cream is something you should be eating either Send. Maybe you'd better hurry up and finish it so you won't have to face the temptation 😉

Send,

Ouch! I hope your pain goes away soon.

Thank you all!
By later tonight, I am sure that I can get to my ice cream. I took a new med, called Indomethacin (New to me) for pain. It may hurt the stomach.

It was first over-exerting, then the next day I ate shrimp. No more shrimp. Gout flare-up. Unaware, that huge piece of Ahi Tuna after that was the wrong food for gout!

Now I believe my doctor's diagnosis. At first I did not because the redness, swelling, and acute pain started in the metatarsal area of the foot, or settled in another toe other than the big toe. A few times my inner elbow swelled and hurt. There is no pain like it! I guess I need to start taking the Allopurinol to decrease uric acid.

I second that Send. I hope your gout clears up and you can get to your ice cream. :)

Send: I hope that your gout eases up. That's very painful.

There is some Haagen Daz in my freezer right now.
But I cannot get to the kitchen yet, as the acute flare-up of gout in my rt. foot is very painful still.
Crutches are not working as well this time. I must be left-footed, having difficulty with the pain in the right foot. The problem is, weight goes on the rt. foot, and I cannot learn to do it correctly, so far. I have tried holding the rt. foot up, even that has not been accomplished! Feeling dumb.

Aw, no one should mess with my Haagen Daz ice cream.

Determining the size and price of your product is in no way illegal. Collusion is illegal, but that's not what is going on. Price "gouging" is a matter of opinion but is mostly about supply/demand. Customer service has been definitely become worse in some areas, but I have still found some very good CS, like at the Apple Store. At the prices they charge, they *better* have top-notch CS.

I have noticed that almost everything is 33% smaller post pandemic and often twice as expensive.

Corporations have had record breaking profits since 2020, I thought this behavior was illegal? Not to mention the total lack of customer service and it is an ugly situation for certain.

Anywho, what can be done, buy it or not.

I know that it’s expensive but Haagen Dazs will always be my favorite! I rarely buy ice cream so if I am going to eat it then I am splurging!

I told my family not to buy a huge cake yesterday for my birthday. A big cake goes to waste. They bought my favorite cake (Chantilly Cake) but in the smallest size which serves four people.

One piece of cake for my husband, both daughters and myself. Well, a sliver for my oldest daughter because of her diabetes. My youngest daughter took the rest of her share!

Speaking of ice cream - we pay sales tax on some "snack sized" food items and for iced cream the cut off is 500g, brands like Ben & Jerry's or Haagen Dazs have now dropped below that so to add insult to injury we now have to pay tax too. This is also true for baked items now packaged in containers with less than 6 - buyer beware!

cw,

I think shrinkflation makes all of us frustrated and angry.

It does seem like so many products have become smaller in size and gone up in price.

I can’t imagine how this is affecting larger families. I suppose they are eating a bit less than they did before. Or they aren’t indulging in as many treats.

Yup cwillie, you're right. And even ice cream in the 1/2 gallon is now downsized. When I wrote Umpqua, my favorite that just putting it in a smaller container was not going to trick me they said that this is a NATIONAL restriction and they were the last to downsize. What I don't get is when is a 1/2 gallon not 1/2 gallon. I shall have to look at next container and see how many ounces it says are there. They responded that they all have to have the same size and that there is a national "shortage" of icecream. Who knew????? And who is buying it? Figuratively or literally.

Yes it's been going on for a very long time Geaton but IMO it's starting to get ridiculous. People are noticing that older recipes that call for a can or box of something no longer work because the volume is off (to be honest I've always hated this in recipes). And single serving or family sized items ... aren't. I ranted somewhere about my favourite Greek yogurt shrinking from 900g to 600g - that's a significant amount. But then they came out with a 1kg size that is sold as a loss leader at some stores (for less than the 600g container in my local store), so as long as I can travel to shop I'm happy 🤣

Reducing the size/volume of goods unannounced is called a silent price increase. This is not something new - companies have been doing this all along but is more rampant now due to the economy and more savvy shoppers are noticing it. The only thing to do is to vote with your wallet and buy different brands.

Llama ,
Next time you go to buy the 96 count bag it will be 84, and the price will be more .

cw: 96 count of feminine pads caused my sciatic nerve injury. Wish it wasn't that many and that was a stupid move on my part. Recently I purchased family size cereals for the local food pantry, which were 24 oz.

Okay, can we talk about shrinkflation? There are too many products doing this to count but I've personally noticed canned goods (Campbell's chunky soup anyone?), breakfast cereals (I can hardly remember when the "family size" stopped being big enough to feed a family, back in the early 90's maybe?), hot dogs and similar packaged deli items, breads and rolls, definitely the store made baked goods.
But I got to wondering about the products we need as caregivers: incontinence pads, pullups and briefs for example. Have you noticed a decrease in the number in the package? The quality?